Small Town Charm

Yesterday two of the artists that I live with and I went on a rural excursion.  We paid Jesús, our fantastic taxi driver, to take us to three small towns.  After a long adventure through very windy mountain roads we arrived at the hot springs pictured below.  This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

View from the top of the mountain

Now THAT is an infinity pool! 

The water was luke warm at 10AM 

I loved this color palate and pattern.

Next, we decided to travel to Mitla to check out some ancient ruins.  On the way there we slowed down to check out a very pretty horse and the man standing next to him asked if we wanted to know how he made his Mezcal.  Duh, of course we do!

Crunching on sweet, smoky agave and sipping Mezcal from a gourd.  This is totally my kind of mid-afternoon activity.

The mezcal workshop

I found this lady out back and told her that I loved her colorful kitchen.  She was very sweet.

 Our next stop was Mitla, where we visited ancient ruins.  There is evidence of human settlement as far back as 0-200 A.D.  After the fall of Monte Albán, it became the most powerful nucleus of the Zapotec culture, flourishing from 950-1521 A.D.  Beside walking the grounds we even went underground into the funeral tombs.  We had to crawl through stone tunnels on our hands and knees and it was very humid but worth it.

North wall

Look at those intricate patterns!  Amazing!

Lastly, Jesús took us to Tule, where there is a famous massive tree.  I was hungry at this point so I wasn't really caring all that much about a tree but some chorizo quesadillas fixed me right up.

Alright, I admit...that it a Big. Ass. Tree.  Wikipedia says that this tree has the stoutest truck of any tree in the world, measuring 119 feet in circumference, making it slightly larger than the Giant Sequoia.  The best scientific estimate says that it is between 1400 and 1600 years old and local Zapotec legend states that it was planted by Pechocha, the Aztec god of wind.