Arbol del Tule and Mitla

Our next day in Oaxaca (April 2nd), we visited the famous Arbol del Tule (which is supposed to be the largest tree in the world), and the ruins of Mitla.

Elena and Grammie are ready to go.

We began by going to breakfast at a restaurant near the Arbol del Tule.

They don't have a special breakfast food here.  They're more likely to eat cereal or sweet bread in the evening than the morning.  Mealtimes are different here, too.  Breakfast is around 10am, then the main meal is eaten between 2pm and 5pm, and their evening meal is eaten around 9pm.

I tried a Tlayuda - it was delicious!

You can see the Tule tree on the right side of this picture.  It dwarfs the church next to it.  It is supposed to be the largest tree in the world.  We're not sure if this is by volume or trunk circumference or what.  It's a pretty big tree, though.

Here's a close-up of the trunk.  It looks like several trees might have fused together, but I guess they've done DNA tests to determine that this really is one individual tree.

Greg, Karl, and his Mom

We look pretty small when you try to get the whole tree in the picture!

After visiting the Arbol del Tule, we headed to Mitla to see more ruins.

Chiara didn't want to wear her hat anymore, so Joseph put it on!

 

Mitla was still a functioning city when the Spaniards arrived in 1520 AD, and it had been inhabited since around 750 AD.  It's know for all the elaborate designs on the walls of the buildings, as seen in this picture. 

Listening to a guide.

We could walk through buildings.

And go down into a couple of tombs.

Chiara liked going down these stairs.

Inside one of the tombs.

Eating ice cream afterwards.

After Mitla, we headed back to Puebla.  It was a long day.

Monte Albán

On our second day in Oaxaca we headed to Monte Albán.  These pre-Columbian ruins are located on a flattened ridge in a mountain range just outside of the city of Oaxaca.  The city was inhabited from about 500 BC to around 750 AD.  It was pretty impressive.

Inside the little museum at Monte Albán

A ball court

A veiw of the surrounding landscape

Stephen next to some carvings of "the dancers" . . .

There were a lot of these carvings found in one area of Monte Albán.  They were originally thought to be dancers, and the lined the walls of one of the buildings.

Later, archaeologists decided that they were carvings of captured enemies who had been castrated!

Funny story with this picture - we asked one of the security guards at the site to take it - an older fellow - and he held the camera upside down!  We don't think he'd ever taken a picture before.

Shade!  It was really hot!

We enjoyed swimming in the pool when we got back to our hotel.

Grammie and Grampie Visit

Karl's parents and brother Greg came for a visit at the end of March.

Chiara went right over to Uncle Greg and sat on his lap, even though she hadn't seen him for months.  The kids always love Greg!

They arrived during our spring break, so the day after they arrived, all ten of us piled into our van, and we headed for Oaxaca. 

We stopped about 20 minutes after leaving to visit the smallest volcano in the world, which is located here in Puebla.  This is what it looks like from the outside.

Looking down into the volcano.

Heading down the narrow staircase.

There is a small cave like space at the bottom and some pools of water.

Joseph heading up.

Chiara loved the stairs and had to climb them all by herself.

After several hours on the road, our car died!  It didn't seem like it had over-heated, so we didn't know what was wrong.  Karl was pretty worried.

We headed for that tiny tree so that we could wait in the shade, while Karl went for help.  He hadn't walked very far when a passing driver told him to go back because someone would come.  Sure enough, along came the "Angeles Verde."  They are like a road patrol who help stranded motorists.  They got the car to start, and even drove it a little ways to see what the problem was.  I guess the transmission wouldn't shift down when the car got too hot.  We were headed uphill, so the car couldn't keep going in the gear we were in.  (We had tried starting the car before the Green Angels arrived, but it needed to cool down before starting).

 

We had trouble finding the hotel that we had booked online, so it was evening when we finally arrived (this picture was taken the next morning).  Most of us were starving, since we'd only had snacks all day since breakfast.  Joseph, on the other hand, wanted to go straight to the pool.  We convinced him to go to dinner first, and the kids got in the pool when we got back - around 9:30 or 10pm!

The restuarant we ate at was right downtown.

There was live music playing outside the window we were seated by.

Elena and Stephen inside the restuarant.

Elena ordered a Tlayuda, which is a specialty of Oaxaca.  We had no idea it would be so BIG!

The food was good, and we enjoyed seeing Oaxaca's Cathedral while downtown.  It rained on us a little, but not bad, and it had cleared up by the time we got back to the hotel for a swim.