Oaxaca

I love how many of the people I've met on my trip have insisted on calling the place Ox Haca, despite me constantly dropping in the fact that it is actually pronounced Wa Ha Ka. That's sounds terribly bigheaded and I'm not particularly good at pronunciations anyway, or spelling for that matter so I'll move on.

I arrived in on the night bus from Mexico City. It's about 300 km and takes just over 6 hours to complete the journey. My bus left from the southern bus terminal in Mexico City at 11.40 pm which got me into Ox Haca at 5.40am! For some reason it didn't dawn on me before that 5.40am is quite early to be arriving into a not to big town (200,000 odd). The bus terminal was a hive of activity but one step to the left or right and it was pitch black with very few taxis. I decided I could walk to the hostel that I had singled out using my guide book. Bad move. I walked for about 10 minutes in probably the wrong direction (still not sure) and then decided to try and hail a cab. Sure enough one came along in about 5 minutes and took me directly to the hostel. The hostel was not there anymore. Well it was, but it was the shell of a building. It looked like it had closed down quite some time ago. I suppose that's what you get for using a guide book which was researched in 2005. I decided that walking around aimlessly in the dead of night was probably a bad idea and I knew I was near to the zocalo (main square of town) so I proceeded to set up base camp and drift to sleep, bag firmly clutched to chest.

When I woke I didn't quite know what time it was but the sun was certainly up. I got a few odd looks from people who thought I'd been there all night but apart from that no harm done. I found a hostel a few blocks away and was then told I couldn't check in until 1.30pm. Great!! As for what I actually did in Ox Haca apart from shuffle along the colorful streets from one site to the next... was, well not a huge amount. It's seems in most of these colonial style towns most of the fun is just walking the streets and people watching to your hearts content.

I visited Monte Alban a few days into my stay and although not as big as Teotihuacan (just outside of Mexico City) it's still an impressive site. What amazed me the most about this place is that it's 6000 ft above sea level and 1,300 ft above the valley floor. It seems like it was built on top of a hill simply to prove that it could be done. The ground is noticeably flat as well, which is remarkable as it's about the size of 4 football pitches. The overriding feeling I got looking around is the absolute painstaking work taken to construct something of this size. People would have spent their whole lives over it.

Greater Ox Haca is also home to "the worlds widest tree" which in my book is up for debate. Firstly who is going around measuring trees? I'm sure there is someone, but have they measured enough to give an accurate picture? It's a great tourist trap and honesty is an impressive tree, but I think calling it the worlds widest is cheating a bit. I've seen Baobab's and Redwood trees that you can drive you car through. Add that to the fact that the guide couldn't actually tell me what kind of tree it was, and the fact that it looks suspiciously like three or four trees that have grown together. Can that happen?

Anyway, in conclusion Ox Haca is a fun place to visit for a couple of days... just make sure you make the journey in the day.

Next stop San Cristobal. Well, I'm here already, but that is the next blog update.