Five hours on a very comfortable bus brought us to Oaxaca. I was particularly keen to see the handicrafts and wasn’t disappointed.

Yesterday we did a group tour and visited a number of unique places.

Our first stop was the ancient Tule Tree, over 2000 years old. It was impressive.

After that we drove quite a while to Hiervelagua, the petrified waterfalls, high up in the hills. Still very hot, so we opted not to hike with the others, who all agreed it was quite a strenuous walk. We headed for the pools instead which were wonderful to laze in for over an hour.

We were sorry to leave this cool oasis, but drove to Mitla, a small archaeological site of the Zapotec’s Indigenous culture. Again very hot, so we did a quick walk around and sat in the shade waiting for the others. (It was 38 degrees in the shade!)

Our next stop was a family weaving business. The man explained all the steps in the process of spinning, dyeing and weaving. For me it was fascinating! (I’ve posted more pics on my craft odyssey in Instagram).

After that we headed to our last stop, a mezcal factory to see the process and taste some mezcal. Tequila is just one variety there are lots of different agave plants they use to give different results. We tasted a few, but it really didn’t appeal to us. However the traditional process of making it was very interesting.