The last latino adventure

We arrived at Oaxaca bus station at about 11am. The posh coffee and cake went down well, but not well enough to ease the blow that my camera purchase had been rejected, due to the same reason as that quoted on most websites – shipping to a different address to that on Paypal. 

Rather than dwell on it, we decided that we’d just have to find a retailer once we’d landed in the States and headed up into the hills as planned. This region is growing in tourism through its promotion of eco-friendly tourism and a chance to see how the indigenous villagers of Oaxaca live. There are 8 little villages in total and hundreds of little paths and cycle routes between them, taking you through hillsides, valleys, canyons and pine forests.

The area is outstandingly beautiful and we treated ourselves to a shared cabana in the woods as it was way cheaper than a private. As luck would have it though, we had the entire cabana to ourselves for the whole 3 nights we were there. We were so lucky. It was bliss. It was like an apartment, with chairs and sofas and our own private bathroom. Being at about 3000 msl it was also cold but we made use of the fireplace, collecting wood to add to that which we bought from the friendly people that ran the place and spent our evenings listening to music in front of the fire.

We couldn't believe our luck. A fire and a shared cabana all to ourselves.

I think I could have actually got lost within these fields of flowers

Even though they gave us wood, you still have to collect some. That's half the fun.

Each morning, we would have breakfast on the little picnic table outside the cabana. Tim would make coffee using the now perfected approach of using an old top of mine as a filter to ensure no bits from the accidentally bought filter coffee didn’t get into the cup, whilst I made friends with lizards, before we then headed out to explore the surrounding countryside. The mornings were always sunny and fresh and our view was either forest or fields of flowers. 

Morning coffee

Morning conversations with the friendly lizards

Notice home made filter out of old top on the left. I thought it looked like a shepherd mug.

On the first day, we explored the area on bikes and the second on foot. Unfortunately, we encountered the same two problems on both days. The first being, there were absolutely no maps for the area but hundreds of tracks. Some would start off wide and appear like a bike trail but within no time would start to narrow and descend steeply down into what appeared to be a ravine, requiring the need to backtrack, back up the really steep hill with the bike. Or they would continue in an expected manner for the majority of the journey and then just end, meaning that at some point in the last 3 hours a wrong turn must have been taken, which again meant walking back the entire way we had come. 

Secondly, and ironically it stormed really badly on both afternoons! They were so bad, that we got hailed on 2 days in a row. In hindsight it was quite funny, but it wasn’t on the last afternoon when we were waiting for over an hour, in the back of a freezing cold van, wet through, waiting for a lift from town back up to the cabanas. 

If you had to get lost however, this was a great place to do it. The area was stunning with long reaching views over stunning countryside, hundreds of lizards everywhere, together with hummingbirds and butterflies, that beautiful mountain freshness and an overwhelming smell of pine. 

Stunning pre-storm mountain scenary around Oaxaca, Mexico

More mother-uckers

Animal friends on route

More animal friends including these cows that have humps like camels

The locals we met were all really friendly too – those that worked at the cabanas, the local shop owners including the woman who made really bad tortillas but really good balls of salty cheese and who found us funny because we were a bit like bumbly tourists not being sure exactly what we wanted to buy (which is actually because there is very little on display in the tiny weeny shop front and we now realise you have to ask for what you want and she will fetch it from one of the more private areas of her house – strange system), through to the emotional alcoholic elderly gentleman that escorted us to the start of our second day hike and told us how he now likes to take mushrooms and meditate on top of the nearby mountain, which he pointed out to us and then laughed as he recounted how he once had to be hospitalised because he was up there dancing and fell off! 

A great place, with great people and in amazingly tranquil surroundings. All they need is a few more maps and it would be a gem of a place to explore and spend more time in. As it turns out the storms weren’t a common occurrence either – looks like they popped up just for us. Perhaps a little taster of what is to come. As for us it’s time to head to the US…

So, for good measure, here's a storm from last year and link to our website where we'll be updating the blog when the stormies arrive. See you all soon folks!

click here for our 2014 storm chasing blog updates and photos