vampyresheep

Day 6 Friday.
the widest tree in the world

We had breakfast at the hotel, located on a pretty sun terrace overlooking the pool. Rob was feeling a lot better but my stomach was really bad (maybe shouldn’t have had a spicy dish last night when I was already feeling a tad fragile). However we had booked a cycle ride for that day, so I just had to hope I would make it.

Met with our guide, Ivan, a few blocks south of our hotel. There were 5 of us all together and once he selected suitable bikes for us all, we started off on the bumpy streets of Oaxaca to the cycle path which would take us to Tule. It was about 10km to get there and once we got used to the bikes, it was an enjoyable way to travel through the suburbs of Oaxaca. Tule is a pretty little town/village famous for having the widest tree in the world. On arrival, we parked up the bikes and went to see the tree – more interesting than I expected, a fascinating old plant with so many interesting formations. We had lunch at the local market and then set off for the bike ride back. Although the return route was slightly downhill, a combination of tiredness, sore bum (partly from stomach problems and partly from a bike seat akin to a razor blade!) and everyone else eager to get back, did make the journey very tough and uncomfortable for me. I guess I could have stopped, but pride wouldn’t let me be the fat unfit one of the group that was holding everyone else up, so I struggled on close to tears at one point.

When we got back, decided we needed to treat ourselves to icecream, so headed to the Merced Market. Couldn’t find any icecream there but eventually came across a roadside vendor where we had a cup full of the most delicious tuna icecream. (tuna icecream isn’t fish, it’s the fruit from the nopal cactus, aka prickly pear, and is officially the tastiest thing on earth). Headed back to hotel but a combo of getting confused by the grid street system and icecream vendor not quite on the corner shown on the map, I managed to mis-navigate us several blocks in the wrong direction, on a day when the temperature was reaching 28c! By the time we got back to our hotel, the pool was just what the doctor ordered and we spent the afternoon either in or beside the water.

In the evening we headed to Gozobi rooftop bar, where we’d enjoyed a lovely sunset drink last time, and this time decided to have a meal aswell. The food was fantastic, they had a wonderful range of artesan beers and we had a great view of the parades passing along the street below. The sunset was pretty awesome too.

Photos https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/10-28-Tule-cycle-ride-and-Oaxaca