Mountain View

Today we had booked a tour encompassing a few of the sights in this area. We don't usually do 'tours' as they are restrictive but one benefit is meeting other visitors (we are never tourists!)

We saw quite a few places including the largest tree in the world. From a distance it looked just a very big tree but closer to - it really was enormous. It's more than two thousand years old with a girth of 14 metres which is BIG!! We also visited a distillery for Mezcal using algarves as source (types of cacti) with a tasting (not to my taste) of the alcoholic results followed by a woollen weaving mill with carpets and clothes of amazing colours; these were interesting but really both geared toward the tourists buying stuff.

We loved Mitla - means 'place of the dead' - an ancient ceremonial burial site for wealthy Mixtec people conquered by the Aztecs in the 15th century. It is beautifully decorated with mosaics all made from stone by artisans with few tools and quite incredible.

Our final stop was at a site in the mountains of fossilised waterfalls. At the end of the day the sun was casting too many shadows but there were some very interesting water pools, one of which had an interesting dead tree beside it and chosen as my blip.

We had a longish drive back with a driver consistently over the speed limit who them dumped us all in the centre of town to find our own way back to hotels - apparently that is normal, but I will have 'words' tomorrow with the lady in the hotel who we booked with!

This is Mexico!!