Day 6: Petrified Waterfalls, more Ruins and some Tequilla baby :)

..Ok Ok..so first of all..who ever knew about the existance of petrified waterfalls !??...

Hierve el Agua is the name of the place..we were picked up from nearby our hostel where the day had already started in a really promising way: we stopped a beatiful women (which looks like Catherin Zeta Jones from the Zorro movie) to ask for directions...WOW...apart from her beauty she was able to speak english..a FIRST in mexico for us (apart from the guides) and on top of that..she drives a COOPER babbbby....MIAW !!!! haha..

..Pickup arrived on time and we were on our way to the mountains...quite a long way to be precise but for us...every little metre of the view was a new experience...taking píctures is literally a must. On our way to the place we passed through remote villages with cows and sheep in the middle of the street..on alomost every corner.

"The passage of time literally halted" (Steve Abela, 2009)

On the way to the place the guide was explaining to us how the local place we are visiting was literally unknown to anyone apart from a couple of locals until the waterfalls had been featured in a nationali magainze "Unkown Mexico", it was then when a local beer (Cerveza Corona) commercial was shot and since then this place has boomed in toursim. It was then when the local community (two towns) setup a bloackade on the street by a town representative to allow for passage against payment per person. It was funny to hear about this custom however it is more than understandable..it was like paying an entrance fee, however rather than the government or a private company making profit the money is used in the local towns: bueno.

Ok..ok so here it comes: We arrived at the parking spot where the guide dropped us off and told us to walk about 5 minutes towards the natural wonder (yes this is a local custom, guides point you towards a the direction rather than taking you all the way :P)..For us the walk took much more than 5 minutes as we were absorbing the scenery. We only were assigned 50 minutes at the place, but none of us really bothered to check out the time...at any time...The first wonder which hit our eyes was this kind of natural pool, where the water flowed up from a spot (forming bubbles: which the locals used to think was boiling water hence the name of the place) and of course flowed downwards...to another poool formation and then flowing down the mountain where we could not see...Only a couple of minutes had passed here when I put on my swimsuit and slowly slowy made my way into the first pool, and believe me, the water is not boiling AT ALL..it wasnt even warm...however it was neither freezing cold. Oh yes I went in and the feeling of calmness and abslosute serenity settled in...I was just there in the water (no you could not see the bottom: had no idea about any fish or so..just asked a couple of other tourist who made it out safely before us) staring at the open space of mountain scenary in front of us...incredible...in the mean time steve was taking some shots of the spot and of me (of course) however it wasnt much later that we switched roles...when I got out of the water I wasn't freezing at all, maybe the feeling from the experience was giving warmth to my body...it was then when I realised..when did I ever plan to be walking barefoot, half naked in the mountains :P...WOW...I dried up my hands and took some shots of steve swimming...even though this was an unforgettable experience which doesnt need pictures for one to remember..still have a still shot of such a moment, such an experience is always an asset. You must be wondering where the petrified falls are..well some of them where being formed just beneath us, beneath the pools we were swimming, however, there were the others on the adjacent distnace where you could see the waterfalls as in stuck on PAUSE..quite a view.

After this we couldnt not jump in the second pool of course so off we went to it and jumped in together...this time we gave the camera to an American couple (well actually they are from Mexcio but live border with the USA..still the term Americans doesnt indicate people from USA but people from the Americas which includes the Mexicans) and they gently took pictures of us, and of course we returned the favour :) This started out a nice preamble to conversations with the couple...We knew we were already late however we sincerely didn't care...how many times will we be doing this again??, so what are a couple of other minutes :P

We made our way to the van where all the (old and boring) people were waiting for us while us and the couple excused ourselves and the driver took off to the next destination: Mitla (place of the dead: since they have many catacombs).

In between the awesomeness of the waterfalls and Mitla, we of course stopped for lunch were we sat next to the Mexican couple. Here we opened up a very touching story and we heard first hand about how Mexicans, even though they might be well-off to mexican standards still look up to the USA and how they dream to go there..however in reality is that when they get there, if they manage to get there alive without being cought life is not as easy as one thinks...the need of papers etc for work and knowing that they are living a lie and that at any time they might be cought...as was in this case..the story is deeply touching.

Another ruin however in this one a temple was still standing (with also some modern help like iron beems)..the only missing part was the roof, which at that time was made of bamboo and wood so it is more than reasonable that its not there anymore. We were allowed to go inside the temple, something which only privalaged persons such as priests could do during their time and we had the chance to see original wall stukko and also the original patterns of design. What is incredible about the design is that they are made piece by piece..just like a mosaic but with shaped stones..this allowed them also to make the room look like it had virtually no corners as the design continues on the adjactent wall and creates this optical illusion. Another difference which could be seen here is that rather than the 'pyramid' being built top down (smallest layer at the bottom, top layer bigger and jutting out).

An interesting fact is that Oaxaca is placed in a valley hit by a lot of tremors (we missed one by a day or two) and it was fascinating how such a building managed to stand and resist all these earthquakes throughout all these years. The reason for this is the building method of the stone by stone - this allowed the building to be 'flexible' and resist the shakes...and yet during our times with all our knowledge and all our technologies we cannot (or rather we economise = we dont want to) build all buildings in such a manner.

It was now the time of day that we never regret: Mezcal (tequilla) tasting. We had a bunch of shots with the couple and instead of salt we were using chilli and lemon..along with the pure mezcal, or else coffee vanilla and a bunch of other tastes...the fun part is that on our way back to the hostel in the van I realised that Mr. Tequilla (Steve) was 'happy' (semi-drunk) and it was quite funny :P he was laughing at everything and of course denying the evidence..well done..about 10-half shots and hes was out :P

Once we got to the hostel we got ready for the following trip: 11 hours of bus..we were sooo looking forward to it. Made our way to the bus station by Taxi, where we recognised a couple we had seen in our Mexico City so we stayed chatting up while waiting for the bus...and on we went...