Weblog: Mexico Day 13: Benito Juarez
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I slept in and then made myself some breakfast. The sky was mostly clear, so I walked up to the viewpoint (mirador) I had seen the day before. I got there around 11, and the fog was just starting to roll in. The view was spectacular. Benito Juarez was clearly visible, and most of the time I could see far into the valley. There was a lookout tower, and after climbing that I could get almost a 360 degree panorama over the hills.
This spot had everything I look for in a geocache, so I went back on the decision I had made in Oaxaca and placed the Mirador Sierra Norte virtual cache. A virtual cache is a cache that has no physical container. To log a find on the web site, you must answer a question that can only be answered if you have been to the location. Knowing I would not be able to maintain a physical cache, this was the next best thing, and I hope it attracts some visitors.
As I lingered at the viewpoint and ate some lunch, I heard some voices in the distance. A group of four German speakers came up the hill. Three of them were tourists, and the fourth a Swiss guy living in Oaxaca who gives nature tours of the area. This group was just a morning trip from Oaxaca. He was very knowledgable about the area and I tried to get as much information out of him as I could, especially about the history of these villages. I also found out that the mountain villages don't use daylight savings time, which explains the mystery of why the bus left exactly an hour late (and would give me an extra hour of sleep the next morning). The swiss guy's company is is Tierra Ventura, and based on meeting him, I would definitely recommend their services if you're ever in Oaxaca and don't want to go it alone.
I had wanted to walk to another village in the afternoon, but my foot started hurting quite a lon on the way up to the viewpoint, so I took it easy for the rest of the day. I hung around at the village and finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, which worked out perfectly because Amara at the hostel in Oaxaca had wanted to read it, and this way I could drop it off for her the next day.
I would love to have been able to spend more time in this area, to take a week or more hiking from village to village. By all accounts, the the changes in elevation make for a very diverse ecosystem. The combination of friendly people, safety, quiet, nature, and mountains makes this my favorite part of the whole Mexico trip, and the place I most want to return to.
Posted on Thu, 17 Oct 2020
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