Sunday, May 25

Today was a fun filled day and filled with culture.  Rocky and I signed up to go on an excursion with Solexico to visit 5 popular destinations.  I took a lot of pictures and I think I’m going to let this be more of a look and learn blog post than me typing a lot:

We met up with 3 other students from our Spanish school at 9:50am and were picked up by a van at 10am.  There were 10 of us in total, including 5 of us from Solexico, a med student from North Carolina, a couple from Japan, and couple from Germany.  They all were very nice.

Our first stop: Arbol del Tulle- a ginormous tree with one of the widest girths.

 

A little church located next to the tree.

The grounds surrounding the tree are very pretty too.
Especially with the mountains in the background.

This Plant is called "Old Balls"

#LetMeTakeASelfie

Second destination: Textile Factory- by factory I mean a small shop where this man spends months making one rug at a time with natural materials.

 

Brushing out the sheep's wool.

Failed attempts at spinning the wool....

All of these colors are made with plants or insects... this white bug that lives
on the cactus makes a large variety of the colors.

This is how you weave a pattern into a rug.

The third and my favorite location: Hierve el Agua- which translates to boiling water.  It’s made up of a few natural pools located in the mountains and the water bubbles out of the rocks making an impression of boiling water…. The water is cold though, not hot.  I tried spicy Cheetos here at the concession stand…. Very interesting.

The view as we walk down to the springs.

Throw what you know!

The pools of water are formed at the edge of the mountain.

On the right, it looks like a waterfall, but it's actually just a collection
of sediment that has built up over many years.

This is our Solexico group: Me, Cogi, Jackson, Rocky, and Andrea

I can't believe how blue the sky is and how the mountains seem to continue on forever!

Rocky trying a spiced pineapple drink.

There are very few swimming pools in Oaxaca, the people come here for some fun instead.

We took a quick stop to grab a bite to eat at a Oaxaqueño Buffet before driving 30 minutes to our next stop.

Destination #4: Mitla- an archeological site.

Some of the ruins at Mitla

The inside of one of the tombs....

A beautiful Catholic church poking up from behind the wall.

Part of our tour group chilling on the stone wall.

Last, but not least, #5: Mezcal Distillery- mescal is the alcoholic drink of choice here in Oaxaca.  It’s very similar to Tequila.

This is a pile of the plants used to make Mezcal.

Many flavors of Mezcal lined up for a tasting.

The cook the plants down in this giant pit made of earth and rock.

We arrived back at Solexico around 6:30pm and walked about home.  At around 7pm, I heard the doorbell ring and peeped my head out the window… it was Paco, asking to see if I wanted to go to the movies.  Mrs. Irma answered the door and lied for me saying that I wasn’t home from the excursion yet.  I didn’t even ask her too, she’s amazing.  After she closed the door, she looked up to my window and giggled at me.  I am sooooo lucky to be living with this woman!

I headed to bed pretty early and skyped Gabriel some more.  He’s going to come visit Rocky and Me on June 9^th and stay in Oaxaca for a few weeks.

No entiendo.  Qué es un “Panty Dropper”?  Urban Dictionary for the win,

Maria Katerina