Saturday saw us clambering into a colectivo taxi (a taxi that's a bit like a bus cos it goes a certain route and people can flag it down, so long as they fit in the car!) to Mitla, and from there, a camioneta (truck) up into the mountains to arrive at the stunning and only recently touristified (totally a word) Hierve el Agua. The views, as with everywhere I've been in Mexico it seems, were incredible even on the journey. Up in the mountains looking down at the dry land and towns below we were quite taken aback by the beauty of it all. Joining us in the camioneta (we had to wait until it filled up) were 2 lovely guys, one Italian (not sure sometimes whether he was speaking Spanish with an Italian accent or just hoping for the best with actual Italian...) and one Mexican dude. On the 50 minute journey up the mountain we had really nice chats and the Mexican guy (check this) even said at first he thought I could be Mexican cos I had a Mexican accent! GET IN. Anyway so the whole deal with Hierve el Agua (literally 'The water boils') is that it's natural springs which make really cool formations on the mountainside. There are pools of it where you can bathe/swim but it also trickles down the mountain reaaaaallly slowly and forms a special rock formation that looks like a waterfall. It was amazing. Felt unbelievably cool swimming in the little pool looking at all the mountains all around. The water, despite its name, however, was not hot but very cold. Luckily for us it was a day hot enough to warrant suncream so it was actually quite refreshing.
The following day we headed to the famous ruins at Monte Alban. We tagged along with a tour at the beginning but then he kept asking us who we'd come with (we didn't know) and was doing the tour both in English and Spanish meaning he'd say part of a sentence in one language and then in the other which was really annoying, but mainly cos he was getting suspicious of us, we decided to head off on our ones for the rest of the site. The ruins in themselves were cool but nothing compared to those at Teotihuacán. However, it's the site as a whole, and its location that make Monte Alban worth visiting. A lot of the buildings are still in tact and closer together than others I've seen so it's easier to imagine people living there, plus, it makes it look cool in the photos. But what I loved most about it was the views from the site. The civilisation was built on a hilltop so you have great views from the top. Hannah and I also managed to make friends with a bunch of really cool Chilean women (and one from Mexico City) who were travelling together. They were at a guess in their 50s or 60s and were really friendly. We met them when we were waiting for the colectivo to take us to the site and one of the women (Mariela) started doing a bit of a fashion show with a new dress she'd just bought from the market. We then got chatting and the rest is history! We even swapped emails and they took photos of us, saying if we ever wanted to go to Chile, they'd put us up :)
Apart from that, we had more chocolate, more tlayudas, some free chiles rellenos (paid for by a strange man who, in exchange, wanted us to watch him play "cricket ball" in Mexico City in June) and generally a lovely time. Obama's daughter has excellent choice in holiday destination. I really do love Oaxaca.
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