Adventures in Mexico: The Great Adventure: Days 3 & 4

In case you missed it, I just added a post about days 1 and 2. So read that before reading this one :) I already wrote about day 3 a few posts ago while I was still traveling, but it was so amazing I have to talk about it again. Parts of day 3 are copied from the older post, but I went through and added more details.

Day 3

We woke up early, ate breakfast, and headed out to catch a bus to Mitla and then Hierve el Agua. The bus ride to Mitla was just over an hour, then we got in a collective taxi for the hour ride through a winding dirt rode up to Hierve el Agua.

First we hiked around and to the base of the waterfall, which was absolutely gorgeous. We hiked around for a little over an hour, taking pictures of the waterfall from different vantage points. The trail was full of staircases made for people twice my height, so it was a little exhausting (and my legs were so sore the next morning!). To cool down we went swimming in the pools at the top. Jumping in was one of the most relaxing moments of my life, I did NOT want to leave. The pool looks out over the edge of the waterfall from the top, and has a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside. The water was a little murky and made me a tad bit nervous, but it must have a super high mineral content or something because afterwards my skin was ridiculously soft. Some people claim the water has healing powers.

We swam for a little over an hour, then dried off in the sun. We bought some tamales for the drive back into Mitla, which were delicious. One was with black beans and the other was some sort of plant of grass. It wasn't bad, but not as good as the black bean one.

We were still hungry after, so we walked around until we found a nice looking restaurant, where I had my first tlayuda. SO GOOD.

It was starting to get late, so we headed back to Oaxaca. The bus ride back had more stops and took twice as long. We realized we had no idea where we should get off (buses here aren't as easy as in the States. Especially in smaller towns. No published routes, and no real sense to the route). We randomly got off in somewhere that looked sort of familiar, and realized we were on a street that intersected with the street our hostel was on a few blocks down. It could not have been more perfect.

After that we just relaxed in the hostel, drinking some mezcal and eating bread in the lobby, trying to figure out what to do the next day. We talked about going to the beach, Puerto Escondido, but found out that it was a six hour drive. Not exactly doable for a day trip.

That night, we met a cool guy who has been traveling throughout South America and Mexico for almost a year now. He was middle aged and had retired from his job, but was so bored he couldn't handle it. So he works part time from his laptop for his company and spends the rest of his time traveling around. He has been to Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, and I think more but I can't remember. He was really inspiring to talk to.

Day 4

We got a slow start on day 4, taking a really long time to eat breakfast and come up with a plan for the day. We decided to head out of town again to San Agustin de Etla, a tiny town up in the hills of Oaxaca with a pretty museum. It took us forever to find the stop for the collective taxi up there, but it was well worth the search. The museum had a random display of Japanese art, which was a little weird, but the rest was pretty cool. The museum was a lot smaller than we expected and we finished in under an hour, so we headed back into Oaxaca.

We ate lunch (more tlayudas!), then headed to Monte Alban, ancient ruins on the outskirts of the city. We took a bus up, but no one told us the bus stops 2 km away and you have to wait for another one.The road is too narrow and windy to safely walk, so we had to wait. We waited, and waited, at this sketchy bus stop. Finally it came, and charged a ridiculous amount for the ride that lasted under a minute. But since we have school ID's for a national school, we got into the ruins for free.

I bought Tasia a postcard like she requested, but somehow it fell out of my bag (running theme in this trip, wait for day 5). There was just over an hour left until the site closed, and we basically had the place to ourselves. We climbed up a really tall staircase that led to a pyramid and looked out over the site, and decided we were perfectly happy just sitting there. We ate yummy oranges and relaxed. It was an incredible view.

After Monte Alban we headed back to the hostel to relax and enjoy our last night in the city. We went up to the rooftop terrace of our hostel to finish off our mezcal and chat with fellow travelers. We met Thor, the god of thunder, from Iceland, an Australian guy, and a girl from London. It was lots of fun. They all ended up going out that night, but Lisa and I had an early flight so we headed back to our room early.