My last days in Costa Rica // Hasta luego!

Hi friends!

Welcome back to my blog, and it’s also a welcome back for me, as I have made it home safely. As I was busy settling back in and participating in my last seminar from my organization Kulturweit, I didn’t have much time to write on my blog. But I’m back now, and there are still a few posts to come and thoughts I want to share.. after that, I will not continue to write on here, as this was just a personal blog dedicated to my time in Costa Rica. I will not delete it, so I can always go back and read through my adventures, and hopefully it will help and inspire some other people out there as well…

So let’s rewind…

After my adventurous weekend in San José and the rafting trip with my family, my last two days of work were ahead of me. Monday and Tuesday were spent as usual – teaching, laughing, drinking coffee at our favorite café and cooking dinner together with Charlotte. Our 11th grade students had organized a get-together for Tuesday night (aren’t they amazing!?), we ordered some pizza and sang karaoke all night long. Wednesday was Mother’s day in Costa Rica and Charlotte spent it with one of the teachers who had basically adopted her as a daugther, while me and Wiebke (new intern) decided to spent a few days at the beach. Spontanously we drove to San José and got into the bus towards Manuel Antonio. We got out at Playa Esterillos Oeste, a large beach in front of a small village. With only our small backpacks, we checked into the only hostel there – The Spot. The owner Roger showed us around his place, that he has built up all by himself. Our dorm and the other rooms were inside old ship containers, in the lounge was a pool table and lots of hammocks to relax in, and the garden was covered in flowers. We immeditately changed our clothes and went to check out the beach – there were barely any people, and Mother nature had formed a few pond-like spots where you can swim like you would in your bathtub at home. The beach there is lovely at low tide but when the high tide comes it gets extremely wild – the old pier is broken down already, and the palm trees are growing aslant. We spent 2 1/2 half days just soaking up the sun, walking up and down the beach and cooking some delicious food. It was the perfect way for me to enjoy Costa Rica’s Pacific coast one last time, and Wiebke finally had her first beach experience here. Around noon on friday we took the bus back to San Jose, which didn’t work that well, but we managed to get home somehow.. On Saturday Lina, Charlotte and I had our last practice with our youth group, and we spent it as usual, practicing aerial silks. Afterwards we went out to eat pizza with our friends, and as a goodbye gift, they had printed out photos and everyone started writing lovely messages on the back, while we were hanging out one last time. We had an amazing last night with them, and I am extremly grateful to have met them and to have been able to practice aerial silks since there are not many options in Munich (but I will try to find something). On Sunday Wiebke, Charlotte, Isaac, his friend Luis and I made a road trip to the windmills in Santa Ana. It’s a popular spot to picnic and enjoy the view – so that’s what we did! Afterwards we spontanously visited the Costa Rican Starbucks coffee plantation, which is a very modern and fancy type of place, but it was cool to check it out! All in all, I had a great last day with my friends and yet again saw and experienced something new! The last days I spent packing, buying souvenirs for friends, cleaning the appartment and saying goodbye to my students and friends one last time. Then the final day came – Wednesday, August 22. My family drove up and we ate lunch together with Charlotte at our favorite Soda, then we drove to the airport. I got onto the plane with mixed feelings, of course I was sad to leave.. more or less I had built up a life here, and I felt suprisingly at home, for only 6 months of living here.. but I was ready to go back home. My time here was precious and I wouldn’t change anything about it, but it’s always good to come home, and I feel the need to stay a little longer this time, before I am off to new adventures again. Goodbyes are bittersweet, but doors have to close, so others can be opened, right?

Next stop: HOME

 

//Olivia

Bienvenidos a Costa Rica! // Family Travel Edition // Tortuguero

Hola amigos! Guess what?! My family made it to Costa Rica!

So here’s what’s up – my mom loves to travel and wouldn’t miss a chance to travel somewhere new and since she has never been to Latinamerica she just couldn’t resist and booked a flight. Last year when I went back to Michigan to visit my former host family and friends, she wanted to tag along for a while but sadly it didn’t work out at the time.. so my mom, my sister and suprisingly my brother (who has just finished his apprenticeship yay!) flew out to Panama City on Saturday (7/28/18). After two days in Panama they flew to Costa Rica…

After my Tuesday morning class I cleaned up my appartement and waited for my family to arrive. It felt weird knowing they would visit me here, me being like a tour guide as if I knew all about Costa Rica.. I guess I really have gotten to know this country pretty well but there is still so much more to learn and experience here. Around 2pm they arrived with their rental car at my place and got everything organized and settled. I was very happy to finally see them again but it also felt so weird – in “my” appartment, on the other side of the world, where I myself have just spent a little over 5 months… we ate some food at a local Meditarranean restaurant, and my family got to know Charlotte after she came back from work. In the evening we all ate dinner together at our favorite Soda (Typical Costa Rican restaurant) which is right next to our house. The next day we cooked some pancakes for breakfast and then visited my workplace – LIDEPO (Liceo de Poás). My students have been so excited to meet my family and when we got there everyone introduced themselves in german and we handed out some german candy that my siblings had brought. We also got to know Wiebke, a german university student from Hannover who is doing an internship for a month at the school. Later that day we all went out for dinner at a local Soda (Wiebke, Charlotte, Lina – she came from Heredia, Marco & Isaac – the german teachers, and my family) and just talked for a while. The next morning my family and I drove out to Mi Cafecito –  a local coffee plantation and production site north of Poás (close to San Miguel). We had a great tour and learned a lot about the origin and production of coffee, and it was awesome to see a local, fairtrade workplace after living in the mountains for so long and seeing huge coffee plantations everyday. Afterwards we drove further towards Guápiles and stayed there for a night. On Friday morning we kept driving towards Tortuguero – we left our rental car at the secured parking lot and took a boat towards the little town of Tortuguero, which was about an hour long drive through the connecting rivers. We arrived at our home for the next two nights – Tortuguero Natural Hotel . Later that night we went on a tour to see the turtles – we we’re a group of 6 people and waited patiently for the turtle watchman to bring us to the beach. Disoriented we walked through the darkness, closely following our guide. A turtle was spotted and group after group we were able to see it laying eggs with the infrared flashlight focused on the turtles lower body. It was so intresting and amazing to see an animal laying eggs! We stayed a little longer and were also able to see the turtle camouflage the eggs by putting more and more sand on top of them. I learned so much about the green sea turtle – for example they return to the same beach they are born at to lay their own eggs and out of over 100 eggs only about 2 baby turtles survive as they walk towards the water (all the others get eaten by predators). I learned so much more and if you want to know more just do a little google research – or visit a hatching site or National Park! It is definitely worth it! If you are an animal and nature lover, Tortuguero is  a must-see in Costa Rica. After an adventurous night, we didn’t stop exploring and spent 2 hours on the river on a Kanu with a local guide. We saw some amazing wildlife like Caimen (small alligators), different types of monkeys and birds and some smaller turtles. We had a lovely morning out in nature and spent the rest of the day chilling in our hotel’s hammocks, laying at the beach and exploring the trails of the National Park. On Sunday morning it was already time to leave again, and we took the boat back to the parking lot after we ate breakfast. From there we drove back to Guápiles, where I took a bus to San José and from there I went back to my place in Poás while my family continued driving towards Puerto Viejo on the Carribean coast.

We had a great family reunion and I’m so excited and happy that my family is here to explore this beautiful and unique country that I was able to call home for almost 6 months now! They are staying a total of 3 weeks and I will meet up with them again next weekend for some more adventures. For now I am enjoying my last 2 weeks of volunteering at the school…

Hasta pronto!

//Olivia

Dominical y Uvita // Weekend Travel Edition

Hola!

Do I ever stay home?! Well.. barely. The reason why I travel so much is simply because I want to use my time wisely and get to know as much as I can of Costa Rica before I leave. Which sadly is very very soon… I have also mentioned before that the little town that I live in doesn’t really have too much to offer, so there really is no point in staying in and watching Netflix at home all day. I can do that when I am in Germany! I should take advantage of my time here, shouldn’t I? That being said, Charlotte and I have decided to make a short trip out to the Pacific coast. Wednesday was a holiday (Annexión de Guanacaste)  and we took Thursday off, and since we have a new schedule (it changed a few months ago) we also have Fridays off!  So we had 4 days in total for our mini vacation. On Tuesday night we slept in a hostel in San José, so we would be able to catch an early bus the next morning. On Wednesday it took us only about 4 hours to get from San José to Dominical. We stayed at the Cool Vibes Hostel, which is the most popular one, and there aren’t many others around because it’s a very small beach town. The rest of the day we just chilled, walked around a little, checked out the beach and cooked some food. I had a late night yoga session before going to bed. The next day we made plans to go surfing in the afternoon, so in the morning we just went out for breakfast and chilled by the pool at the hostel and talked to some other travelers. A few hours before our surf lesson we got a call from our instructor that the waves are too high right now and that a storm was coming.. so sadly our class got canceled and we rescheduled for the next morning. So Thursday ended up being another chill day. On Friday morning we had our surf lesson, and it was Charlotte’s first time trying it. I was super stoked to get back in the water because I’ve been enjoying surfing so much and just never want to stop learning it! We were a group of 4, two brothers from the USA joined us, and we had two instructors – Oscar and Sarah. They explained everything super well, we practiced for about 20min at the beach how to stand up on the board etc. Then we got into the water and started catching waves. It was so much fun and it was my best surf lesson so far, because the explanations were very precise and they always told us what we could do better. I was so happy that I was able to catch so many waves! Charlotte also really enjoyed it even though she had a harder time but that is totally normal, because it was only her first time and I think she did really well for that. The class lasted 2 hours and we had a little snack break with some cookies and watermelon, in total it cost 50$ – which I think is a good price because they were really good instructors! Once we got back to the hostel we just chilled for a while and then cooked some lunch before we headed to Uvita. It took about an hour by bus to get there (it’s just a bit down south) and then we walked a few minutes to our new place called Flutterby House, which is located close to the Ballena National Park. It is a super cool hostel with treehouses, a yoga terrace and a very open and light atmosphere. They focus on sustainability and recycle, compost and try to minimize their waste, and they also have a restaurant that offers many vegetarian and vegan options, with their aim to use as much organic and local grown food as possible. Definitely a very cool place I can recommend and they also have private rooms. On Saturday morning we were up on our feet at 5:30 am. We wanted to check out the popular Nauyaca Falls that are located close to Dominical (we wanted to do that while staying there but our plans changed due to the surf lessons), so we took the 6am bus towards the entrance, and started hiking once we arrived. The trail was about 5km long, with lots of up and downs, we walked through small streams, dense jungle and had some amazing views of the valley and surrounding mountains. After about 1 1/2 hours we made it to the falls and we were completely blown away! I haven’t seen that many waterfalls in my life so far, so I was definitely impressed. There were two different waterfalls, one more high up that was incredibly beautiful and a lower one which was more like a cascade. We took a dip in the lower one and it was cold but so refreshing after the hike. It was only us and another couple from the Netherlands, so we had the whole place to ourselves really. It was so beautiful and relaxing to swim, and sit by the waterfalls…we were both in awe of Mother Nature’s beauty. After about 45min more and more people kept coming and after an hour and a half we decided to hike back. We had only eaten a few nuts for breakfast so we were starving. As we left, the horse riding tours made their way up and I just gotta say – PLEASE do not support these tours here!! They’re awful. When we arrived at 7am, the horses were already sattled up and had to wait for 3 hours knotted to a pole.. also the hike is definitely manageable and if you do have health problems you can be transported by car to the waterfalls! Back at the hostel we ordered some food at the restaurant and just chilled out. It ended up raining the rest of the day so we just spent our time socializing and reading. On Sunday we made ourselves some breakfast and then headed out to Marino Ballena National Park. We had to pay 6$ to get in, then we walked for about an hour along Playa Colonia, which is a very beautiful beach. The park is named after the humpback whales that migrate to the region from about August to September and December through April. It is also famous for its whale tail that appears only at low tide, which is a 1km long “beach” of rocks. We were super impressed by the symmetry of the tail as we walked along it! Mother Nature really never disappoints. Then Charlotte and I parted our ways because I went to get another surf lesson, and she didn’t want to so she went back to the hostel. I had a private lesson with Oscar and it was sooo good! I was able to actually ride some real waves not just whitewash waves! He also challenged me with a smaller board and it was definitely more difficult but I think I did a pretty good job. After the lesson I met up with Charlotte at Flutterby house and we got ready to take our bus back home. The bus was supposed to leave at 3pm but ended up leaving at 4pm, and we got stuck in traffic pretty badly. At 10pm we arrived in San José and from there we had to take an uber to Alajuela, otherwise we would’ve missed the last bus to Poás which is at 11pm every night. We got home super late and immediately fell asleep…

We had an amazing short trip to the Pacific coast and I am so happy that I was able to go surfing again and explore more of Costa Rica’s stunning nature. Yet again we met some great people (a lot of teachers from Germany!) and we enjoyed ourselves so much. Now we’re back at work, and we only have 3 weeks left! 3 WEEKS!!!! I can’t even believe it and I have such mixed feelings about leaving and going back home.. time has passed by so fast! Right now I am actually waiting for my family to arrive! They are traveling through CR for 3 weeks and I will join them on the weekends when I don’t have to work. I am super excited to see them again after such a long time but it also marks the end of my time here which makes me feel very nostalgic… I am definitely going to make the best of my last few weeks here.

//Olivia

El Paredón – My personal Paradise // Guatemala // Part IV

We decided to do the entire route to our destination El Paredón by taking multiple Chickenbuses. From Santiago (Lago Atitlàn) our first stop was a small town called Cocales. Every Chickenbus has a bus driver and a ‘helper’ – a man who collects the money, which they do while the bus is driving and that can be very shaky and adventurous on the roads of Guatemala. The helper also gets out at every stop and yells out loud where the bus is going, during the ride he also stands in the frame of the open door, so he can easily jump out and help people get in and out. So we had asked the helper if they were going to Siquinala as well, and he confirmed so we didn’t have to switch buses in Cocales (one less Chickenbus – yes!). From Siquinala we switched to a different bus towards Sipacate. When we got to the small town we took a Tuk Tuk towards the lancha  (boat). From the small dock we drove along the river – Rio Acomé, which is parallel to the beach and flows into the ocean. Then we had to walk another 15min to get to our accommodation Soul Food Kitchen. We got a lovely welcome from the hosts and settled in at our new home for the next few days. As it was late afternoon already we didn’t do much, just checked out the beach and chilled by the pool for a while. In the evening we ate dinner at the restaurant that is part of the hotel (it’s not a hostel because they don’t have dorms, it’s more like a bed and breakfast feeling but without breakfast haha). The food was so delicious and finally something else for once – Thai and Indian curries and different types of asian noodle dishes! (Imagine my happy face right now). It was a successful Sunday! On Monday we decided to just chill out (we don’t do much more than that haha), we slept in (actually just me) and we went to a local place called Yolis, they cook out of their home kitchen and have a few tables on their patio. We ordered some pancakes and smoothies and we got huge portions for only 35 Quetzales each (4€ !!). We spent the day reading books we had borrowed from the bookshelf and enjoyed the tranquility of the beautiful oasis. We were the only guests staying there for the entire 5 days, and we loved it. We had organized some surf lessons for late afternoon and were super excited to get back in the water! It was so much fun and we had super friendly teachers, Jairon and Anderson who are our age and are local surfers. In the evening we ate at Soul Food Kitchen again, which we ended up doing every night because it was just so good! Tuesday and Wednesday were spent the same way. We got up, went to Yolis (one time we went somewhere else) for breakfast. Then just chilled by the pool, reading our books, taking a dip, reading some more, taking our surf lessons, eating dinner and then going to chill by the bonfire with the local surfers (Christian, Efren, Jairon, Anderson, Jorge etc.) – the guys were all super nice and chill and we had a great time talking and playing “Chinese whispers”  (I had to google the english translation and had no idea that you guys call this game by this name! In german it’s ‘Flüsterpost’). The best part was the sky. We could see endless stars and even the milky way as we waited patiently for shooting stars. I appreciate the little things the most… and coming from a big city with many lights I unfortunately can’t see many stars there, but the universe gifts me with its beauty in many places around the world. And all I wished for, when I saw a shooting star, was that I want tomorrow to be a good day. And it was.

Overall we had an amazing time in El Paredòn. To be honest it was more than amazing, it was one of the best places I have seen and experienced in all of my travels. Just a small surfer village only accessible by watertaxi (there is a road but it takes way longer and is not the fun way to do this haha), NO WIFI – which made everything so special and even more enjoyable. The whole vibe of the place was just tranquilo (calm, serene). No stress, no drama – literally good vibes only.  The beach was beautfiul; black sand, huts made out of palm trees and barely any people  (maybe the most was 20 people). There are only a few restaurants and hotels/hostels around, a few shops to buy snacks and then just fields and the houses of  the locals. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, always vibranting with good energies. We were fortunate enough to be alone at our accommodation, so we got to know the owner a little bit. Gary is a middle aged man (maybe between 45-50 something) and has traveled all around the world. Originally from South Africa, he has opened up 14 restaurants in different countries. He stays somwhere for a few years, builts up a restaurant, works on it until he wants to move on and sells it to locals. He had opened up his last restaurant in Honduras where he had lived for 6 years. After Honduras he originally wanted to go to Nicaragua but he had some problems on the border so he decided to stay in Guatemala. About 2 years ago he started his project in El Paredòn, with his restaurant Soul Food Kitchen.  He actually didn’t plan on adding rooms, a pool and a hang out area but he changed his mind and did. A young couple, Caroline from the USA and her boyfriend Dani from Guatemala City, have been working with Gary for the last 6 months with Caroline being the manager. They are currently building a bar area and a small appartment for Gary. The couple is probably going to take over the place once he decides to move on. The 3 were super nice and interesting people, and we felt very comfortable and welcomed by them. I enjoyed my time here so so much, and I might have left a little piece of my heart there. I can’t even describe what it is – but if you have ever felt a strong, vibrant and unique connection to a place then you can probably understand. To me the people that I meet influence my perception and feeling of a place extremely, and in this case they have made it very special. This is the oasis I’ve been dreaming about and I have found it. Dreams do come true, and your own, personal paradise really does exist! You just gotta believe in it and one day you will find it. Trust me.  With that being said, we had to leave my favorite place on Thursday morning. I was actually pretty bumped, I could’ve easily spent a few years there. But life goes on, and I will return for sure. We took a shuttle to Antigua and spent our last day strolling around, eating some good food and Lina also did some souvenir shopping while I was sleeping in the hostel dorm (I stayed up very late so I was super tired). We went to bed early and woke up around 3am to go to the airport. Our uber driver picked us up and once we were at the airport we checked in and waited for our flight. We have really enjoyed our time here in Guatemala, and once again I am so grateful for all the amazing opportunities in my life. I can definitely recommend you guys all the places we have traveled here – Guatemala is a beautiful country, it has so much history and culture that is still alive today and the nature is unbelievably stunning (there are over 37 vulcanos!), the people are genuine and compassionate. I already see myself in the future – traveling a few months through Mexico and then going down to Guatemala, Belice, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica. Hopefully with a surfboard in my arms. On Friday morning we arrived in Costa Rica and our ways parted, I went back home to Poás and Lina went back to Heredia…

Gracias Guatemala por tu amabilidad!

//Olivia

Puerto Escondido – Becoming a Yogi & Surfer ? // Part II

And the adventure continues…  we drove 10 hours by bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, the touristy Surfparadise of Mexico. We were super tired but we managed to get to our hostel at Zicatela beach and the first thing we did was simply relax. We had an exhausting tour day and bus ride behind us and we were looking for a timeout by the ocean. In the late afternoon we dragged our butts to the beach, and luckily it was not too hot so we were able to do some yoga as well. The next day we started off with a power breakfast at a vegetarian/vegan cafe called Elephant, and afterwards we organized ourselves some surf lessons. We met up with our teachers David and Rene in front of the surf shop, and we got a quick introduction and practice on how to stand up on the board. Afterwards we kind of expected to hop in a car and drive to the next beach, where the waves were better for beginners…well that did happen, it just took a few minutes to organize a cab that had racks on it for the boards haha. As we arrived at the beach Carrizalillo, we were stunned by the view. It is a beautiful bay located north from Zicatela beach where we were staying, the water was shimmery and had that perfect sky color. The waves were crashing on the cliffs, and we could already see some surfers try their best in the water. A few rocky stairs later, we got in the water to start our surf lesson. Our teachers were extremly friendly and helpful, constantly motivating us to keep going. When a wave was coming they told us to paddle and then they pushed the board so we would catch the right moment to stand up. We had such an amazing time that we booked another lesson for the next day. And we even got a discount! The next two days were spent with more surfing, good food and lots of sun. On our last day we got introduced to Silas, the surf legend of Puerto Escondido! He was this super sweet old guy, who looked 10 years younger because of his daily surfing. David and him told us many stories about the town and their experiences as surfers. We had some pizza together at a local place (It was so good!) and then we went down to the same beach again at night, and watched the stars and just talked. Silas told us about his connection with the water and nature and you could really tell that these guys have such a different approach to life and the environment, because their whole lives they went to the ocean to surf, to swim or simply to enjoy the water. Every single day. And for a moment I imagined my life being like theirs. How beautiful it must be to grow up in a town by the ocean, to be able to surf everyday and be with mother nature constantly. My dreamy thoughts were interrupted by the guys, because they decided to go night surfing. They even wanted us to try it but we weren’t in the mood and neither did we have our swimsuits on, so we watched them from the beach. And what we witnessed was one of the most amazing things, I think I’ve ever seen. They were able to surf in pure darkness with only a gimpse of a light, and they even did  handstands while surfing!! I was like what the..!??? HOW?? We were so impressed and at the same I just felt pure happiness. Only these guys could surf in their home  waters at night, knowing where the rocks are and which parts to avoid. Their comfort in their own home and surroundings was splashing over to me. This night was definitely one to remember. We wanted to stay in Puerto forever…

Unfortunately the same night ended up pretty rough, after hanging out with some other people, and I kind of screwed up. It’s very personally so I do not want to share but I just want to say that I felt many emotions, and I still do. It kind of threw me back in time, and for the last 2 weeks now I’ve had a very very emotional and hard time with myself. I didn’t let that ruin my ongoing trip, I can actually say that the rest of our time in Mexico has helped me to overcome and be okay again. I am okay now, and I’ve definitely learned another life lesson, if not a couple honestly.. But didn’t I ask for that in my last post? Lol, life can be interesting sometimes.

Anyways.. Lina and I decided to fly from Puerto Escondido to Mexico City, for a couple reasons. First of all Lina got sick, she was struggling with a bad cold from the first flight and the night bus, and she generally has not the strongest immune system, and we also wanted to stay longer by the beach than we thought, so if we would’ve driven back with the bus it would’ve taken another 2 days (with a stop in Oaxaca again) to get to Mexico City. So we arrived in the big city on friday around 11am and we went straight to our hostel to catch up on the sleep we had missed out on. In the late afternoon we strolled around a park and we went to a vegan Taco Truck for dinner. They had the best vegan tacos I have ever tasted, I swear!! The place is called “Por Siempre Vegana Taqueria”. And if you know how much I love vegan food than I’m sure you can imagine my facial expression while eating these pieces of heaven! Also it was very weird to be in a big city again, actually even weirder because I think it was the biggest city I’ve ever been in so far, the city has about 9 million habitants or even more with all the non-registered people. Riding the metro was fun too after almost 3 months haha. Well so far Lina and I had a great time in Mexico with so much going on, but also with many good talks. We were dreaming often about the future, we talked about opening up a vegan cafe in Oaxaca, becoming professional surfers and yogis and how we would spent our time living in Mexico. We love this country so much, there is no doubt that we’ll come back soon.

Next stop: Puebla!

//Olivia

Vamos a México! // Oaxaca mi corazón // Part I

Hi friends, I know it’s been a while since I have posted but I’m back now with lots of great stories from Mexico. So let’s just get  going!

Before I went abroad to start my volunteer program, my organization Kulturweit  organized a 10 day preparation seminar, and they told us that after 2 months into our time we would have another short seminar. Our seminar was scheduled for the 22nd – 26th of  May. Lina and I decided to fly to Mexico a week prior because we wanted to take advantage of the fact, that Kulturweit is paying for the flights (honestly who wouldn’t?). So we flew from San Jose, Costa Rica to Oaxaca, Mexico on May 11th. We only had the first two nights booked in Oaxaca de Juárez, the capital of the state Oaxaca. Without lots of planning we started our first days of travel. We explored the small capital by foot, just wandering really. The town has a beautiful colonial architecture, lots of cute little cafes and shops, and lots of street art as well. We immediately fell in love  with Oaxaca and made plans of opening our own cafe there one day. So who knows what the future might look like..

For sunday we spontanously booked a 1 day tour for 20€. First we went to Santa Maria del Tule, where we got a look at the thickest tree of the world: “El arbol del Tule”. The diameter of the stem is 14,05 meters and the tree is 2000+ years old. Well that was definitely a fun stop haha. Next stop was a traditional Zapotec weaving site, where the owner explained the process of weaving and the creation of the colors with natural resources like tumeric, trees, lemon etc. We also got some time to shop, and Lina bought a pillowcase, sadly I didn’t buy anything and now I regret it. Next we went to “Hierve el agua” which translates to “the waiter boils”. It is a set of natural rock formations that resemble cascades of water, so it kind of looks like a waterfall. The site also has natural pools and two artificial pools where people can swim, but they look really natural as well so I didn’t even notice that they were built by humans. To me this place was the highlight of the tour. I was standing at the edge of the cliff with my feet in the water looking into a  huge valley surrounded by gigantic mountains that seemed endless. I think it might have been one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. After exploring Hierve el agua, the next stop was Mitla. Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca and most important of the Zapotec culture. It was built as a gateway between the world of the living and the world of the dead, and the architecture is mostly Zapotec and Mixtec. The site represents the Mesoamerican belief that death was the most consequential part of life after birth. The Spanish arrived in 1520 and built a monastery next to it and unfortunately also destructed parts of Mitla and used the site for their own benefits. It was a very interesting place to me. We finally had lunch close by (we were starving!!) and afterwards we went to the last stop of the day – Mezcal tasting. Mezcal is distilled alcohol made from the heart of an agave plant, also called piña, and is a traditional mexican beverage. We got a short tour around the site and tested different types of Mezcal. And trust me it’s so strong. It is also mainly produced in the state of Oaxaca. So I asked myself: What is the difference between Mezcal and Tequila?

Here’s what I’ve found out:

  1. Tequila and mezcal are produced in different states of Mexico (though there is overlap).
  2. Tequila can only be made, by law, with one variety of agave:  the Blue Agave.  Mezcal can be made with upwards of 30 varieties of agave, though most are made with the Agave Espadin.
  3. The production process for mezcal is different from tequila which leads to a distinctly different flavor profile for mezcal.

That was the end of the tour and let me remind you that this was only 20 per person!! We truly enjoyed our two days in Oaxaca de Juárez and we literally fell in love with Mexico the first day we’ve been there. We even got to witness a wedding celebration outside of a church. And not without reason is the old town of Oaxaca de Juárez part of the UNESCO world heritage since 1987. Sadly we didnt’t have time to visit the famous Monte Abán site, but we are already sure that we’re coming back sooner or later, eventually to open up our cafe..? If you want to know more about the scientific, cultural and historical background of the sites and more, check out the links I have provided down below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierve_el_Agua

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitla

http://mezcalphd.com/2012/08/tequila-vs-mezcal/

https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/latin-america-and-caribbean/mesoamerican-indigenous-peoples/zapotec

 

Thank you for reading. Hasta luego!

//Olivia