Our day started relatively early as we met at 8 to take a bus to Mitla. We walked through the city for a while and being 8:30 at the station turned into getting the bus at 9:30. We made the first hour of the way in a normal public “2nd class” bus to Mitla. There, we changed into a car with a deck that would take us to Hierve el Agua. The road was very curvy and mountainous and full of holes and we could feel every one of them in our bones as the whole deck and the wooden benches shaked and bumped like crazy. We enjoyed the 1-hour-long ride very much and talked and even sang a bit.
Hierve el Agua is a natural site which is unique in the world and only has one little sister in Turkey. Springs with a very high content of minerals bubble out of some rock in the middle of the mountain and have formed little channels, pools and enormous waterfalls over the years. In the pools, that are completely green but apparently very healthy, you can take a bath while enjoying the view over the mountains surrounding you. The water didn’t feel very clean but was refreshing semi-cool and nice. We stayed there for a while, visited the different pools and springs and then walked on a steep path towards another waterfall that is dry now. It was very hot again but totally worth it.
We took the same way back, although this time our van had cushioned benches in the back, which was nice. Also we met a very nice Mexican girl that recommended lots of sights, activities and bars to us for our next days in Oaxaca. We left the van in Mitla again, which is a very small village in the middle of nowhere with lots of Mezcalerias (places where Mezcal – a special type of tequila – is made), donkeys and horses on the streets and moto-taxis. We had a quick lunch at a place that had probably never been visited by any tourist with one dish and a bathroom with no door nor water connection. Afterwards, we went to a Mezcaleria close-by and found an old man who could explain how the elaboration process of the tequila works. Tequila is made of agave leaves of plants that should be at least 7 years old. They are collected, half-shredded and then ground by a horse that moves a big stone in circles over the plants. The sirup resulting from the process is fermented, cooked in an adobe oven and distilled several times until the alcohol content is down to 50%. To close the oven and caulk the pieces of the apparatus, they use the same corn meal as for the tortillas. We tried some freshly made mezcal directly from the distillery and some older mezcal with worm and without worm. They all had the typical strong, smokey tequila mezcal taste which I personally don’t like very much. There was also a fun little parrot that knew how to say “hola”.
We went to the bus station of the village and waited for the bus back to Oaxaca, which was supposed to be there in 10 minutes. 10 turned into 20 and 20 into 35 because apparently they had to fix a piece of the road first. It eventually came and we got a place. I talked to a North-Mexican girl for the whole hour until we got back to Oaxaca and walked to the hostel.
I tried to do some laundry in the city but failed because I had (again!) forgotten about the day of the week and returned to the hostel thinking I would stay in tonight and cook a decent meal. When everyone was ready and I had finally decided, all the shops were closed so I went out with the rest of the group. First we bought the bus tickets to San Cristóbal for Monday, then we had dinner on a street stand and fried bananas with evaporated milk on another stand on the square for dessert.
After this, we went to a very fancy bar for a drink and then to the nightclub that Merari (the Mexican girl from the van) had recommended. “Txalaparta” (yes, a Mexican nightclub with a Basque name!) had a very cool design, a terrace, lots of people, okay music and mediocre Cuba libre but it turns out that I don’t suddenly am a night-club fan just because I’m in Mexico so I went home with Irune and Jon at 1 am while the others kept dancing.
I officially appologize for this mediocre entry, probably full of mistakes, but it’s 2am and I am not up for proof-reading or a better writing style.
