Exploring the City of Puebla

Seems to us that Puebla isn't on the radar of many people who visit Mexico, or many expats who make Mexico their home. After this short visit, we can't figure out why not. It has near perfect weather, it's a very clean and modern city, and from what we saw it doesn't even have any traffic problems. I even drove downtown!

Oaxaca City to Puebla

We were up early yesterday morning to try and get out of Oaxaca City before there was too much traffic, but we still didn't actually hit the road until about 8:10am. It was no problem though and we were soon on a beautiful four lane toll highway heading towards Puebla.

Petrified waterfalls!

What a totally fantastic day we had yesterday! First, we went and visited the widest tree in the world. You can read about that in last night's post here...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2013/03/the-widest-tree-in-world.html

But then, our day got even better as we visited Hierve el Agua (The Water Boils). This amazing attraction is where spring water with an extremely high mineral content has taken thousands of years to make natural rock formations that look like waterfalls!

The widest tree in the world!

Not the tallest...not the oldest...but the widest tree in the world is the Tule Tree in the town of Santa Maria del Tule, only 10 kms east of Oaxaca City.

What a tree!

Walking tour of Oaxaca, and more protests!

Ruth planned out a nice walking tour for us yesterday and we ended up doing almost 8 kms (5 miles). The route took us on the north side of town which is a little newer and seems a little more well to do than the central area or the south side of Oaxaca.

Monte Alban Ruins and Oaxaca Protests

Yesterday we took the little blue car for a drive. The Monte Alban ruins are only about 10 kms (6 miles) from the center of Oaxaca City, but they're not that easy to get to using alternate transportation. There are city buses that go in the direction of the ruins, but it still leaves you with an hour walk to get there, or you can pay 100 pesos ($8.30) each for a shuttle bus ride, or you can pay even more to go with one of the many tour companies catering to the tourists. It was easier and cheaper to take the little blue car!

Overlooking Oaxaca City and surrounded by gold!

It's been a few days since we've had a decent hike, although we were due for a bit of a rest after our Guatemala trip. However, our host Susana here at the apartment offered to go with us up the Cerro del Fortin mountain that sits in the center of Oaxaca City, so we eagerly accepted her offer.

First impressions

We've only been in Oaxaca City for two days, but so far we're on the fence. Seems to me that everybody raves about Oaxaca City, so we were trying not to get our hopes up. Looking at the map, we saw a river running near the central part of town and figured there must be some kind of walking path along the river.

Eating fried grasshoppers

A cold front passed through yesterday and it was mostly overcast as well. The high only went up to 17C (63F), but it's supposed to be nicer today and then getting back over 27C (80F) by Monday. So far today, the sun is shining. Yesterday was supposed to be a day of rest, but we still managed to get out exploring and it turns out we were gone for over four hours!

Roadblock!

Yesterday was a LONG day. It was going to be a long day anyhow, and then we had a detour that added another hour and a half of driving. Not fun, but we have safely arrived in Oaxaca City. Here's how it all went down...

Sidetracked by a cave and a waterfall

We had been planning on visiting a giant sinkhole where thousands of green parrots live. But we got sidetracked by a fantastic cave and underground river system, so the sinkhole will have to wait for another visit.

February Expenses

Considering everything we did to keep busy in February, including driving all the way the Guatemala (!), we did pretty well in the expenses department. But you're not surprised by that anymore, are you?

Surprise visitors!

We woke up yesterday morning and checked our computers to find that Dave and Bonnie who we had met in Acapulco, are also currently staying in San Cristobal! There was a message asking if we wanted to get together, and we did!

We are back in Mexico!

Now that we've finished telling you about our six day hike, and the blog is now back to our regular morning updates, we can tell you a little bit of our recent activities and current plans. The biggest news is of course that we are back in Mexico!

Todos Santos and heading home!

Our last post left us at the side of the road waiting for a bus to take us to Todos Santos for the night. Our hiking was finished and we were going to explore the town before heading back to Xela early the following morning.