We left Oaxaca for our next stop San Cristabel bright and early because this is a huge day. Our first stop was El Tule, the mother tree. It is a giant cypress of such huge girth about thirty people are needed to encircle the base. It is the largest tree in Mexico of course and about 2000 years old! There is a game to see if you can see animal shapes in the tree. We were all very imaginative except Amy who said the branch root near the ground was just a log and not a crocodile shape. She has a very dry sense of humour and it was funny when we were all seeing lions and elephants and camels. Sandro is our young Swiss guy and not so given to flights of fancy and he just saw snakes! We all laughed and suggested he was missing his wife.
The town takes responsibility for the tree and as the town was growing in population it became evident that water use was impacting the tree. It was starting to die so they have made provision for its health a priority.
Next stop the Mezcal distillery. Peter found this very interesting because he dabbles in spirit making as a hobby. Christian our host spoke excellent English so it was very informative and understandable. This is an artesan distillery producing mezcal the traditional way. Hard work! They chop the leaves off the agave plants, dig up the roots, the piña, chop that into four pieces. It is all thrown into a cone shaped pit that has a wood fire burning. The fire is covered in volcanic stones , then the piña, then dirt and left to cook for a week before grinding into a mash. They use a horse and traditional stone grinding machine. Next it is fermented for a week or until the alcohol level reaches the desired percentage.
We tasted 12 mezcal styles and I was glad of my cooked breakfast! For every tasting there was a bawdy toast which added to the hilarity. Christian described his favourite which is infused with marijuana. It doesn’t have the hallucinogenic part and I really thought it was smooth. Supposed to be relaxing! He said their secret garden is not legal but no one cares!
Next stop lunch and weavers.
I was the volunteer to eat a cochineal plant , squash some on my hand to show the colour then add some lemon to change the colour to orange and then with ash to purple! The work was beautiful and vibrant. I restrained myself to a pair of red earrings. My hand was still purple though fainter for a day despite washing.
Our last stop were the ruins of Mitla. These were a central cross road for trade as well as ceremonial buildings. They were built with beautiful decorative reliefs. Some original colouring and drawings were also on the walls.
From here it was a five hour drive to our overnight stop at Salina Cruz on the coast (pacific). It is refinery town. It was very hot in the bus and very bumpy. The aircon was not very good at the back and due to the windy roads Anne and Shona felt car sick. Strangely I didn’t, but I tried to doze. It was an extremely long drive with only bathroom stops. So many small dusty hamlets and every town is preceded by road humps to slow the cars. Usually about 5 in a row. Maybe we should do that in Australia?
Lots of checkpoints ,for what I have no idea, but all manned by guardia civil.
Our first task on arrival was a swim! we were all overheated as it was 34 C .
fleetfootkath 