Mexico, April 2012 − Travels − Captain Tom

Mexico, April 2012

My third visit to Mexico City and the third visit to Christine, Stephan and Laura

This time we wanted to go to Oaxaca which is the capital city of the state of Oaxaca east of Mexico City. I have - not completely in chronological sequence- compiled some pictures about some locations and topics

  • Ride to Oaxaca and back
  • Oaxaca
  • Hierve el Agua
  • Pyramids of Monte Albán
  • Barro Negro - Black clay pottery in San Bartolo Coyotepec
  • Arbol del Tule - the big tree of Tule
  • World Trade Center in Mexico City
  • The flight
  • other things to mention

April is the hottest month of the year. And I could feel it. But the climate is easy to live with due to the elevation. The sun is quite hot during the day but it gets cooler quite quickly in the evening.

This is an overview of the locations visited.

Map 2012_04_mexico

1 Ride to Oaxaca and back

We have to go to a garage. Some fluid is dripping off the engine compartment. Turned out to be no issue.
Passing Volcanoes In the distance (but due to the dust in the air not visible on photographs) we could see smoking Popocatépetl and we also passed the highest mountain of Mexico volcano Orizaba (Citlaltépetl). The picture shows Iztaccíhuatl
We are passing quite different sceneries including a cactus forrest
2 Oaxaca

A nice vivid mexican city.

On the very first day we see a colorful procession
The Zocalo, the central square is quite busy.
Tom and Laura at the end of a beautiful day
The church is quite impressive. It is combined with a historical museum and a cactus garden The square in front of the church
There is a mass being celebrated inside the church
The inner courtyard of the museum
Museum floors
View into the cactus garden
Ornaments on the ceiling
It is a holiday and streets are filled with people walking around
Colorful wooden creatures offered at the art market
3 Hierve el Agua

Boiling water - does not boil at all but is still a very impressive wonder of nature. Somewhere in the mountains a source of limy and sulfurous water fills nature made pools where you can have a bath in and simultaneously have a breathtaking view.

Mountain view
Pool
View
Laura at the edge
Stephan Laura in the pool
Tom at the edge
Still life
Enjoing the view
A group of believers (we were not able to identify the religion) performs christenings
4 Pyramids of Monte Albán

Stefan, Laura and Tom walking around
Christine, Stephan and Laura coming down a pyramid
TV recordings of a violonist who performs "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) with the pyramids in the background
View from the other side
Mountains in the background
Tom, Christina and Laura have a break
5 Barro Negro

San Bartolo Coyotepec is known for black polished pottery.

We get a demonstration
Laura tries her own pottery
6 Arbol del Tule

A bald cypress with such a giant trunk that I can't get it onto a picture

7 World Trade Center Mexico City

I want to have a view from above onto Mexico City. So we go to the world trade center which has a revolving restaurant on top

View towards the stadium
Christine within the restaurant
The Mexicana Tower
View to the city
8 The flight

The flight goes from Berlin (TXL) via Frankfurt (FRA) to Mexico City (MEX) and back. This is probably the last flight from/to Berlin Tegel (TXL) for me. The airport will get closed in early June 2012.

Frankfurt: Airbus A380 versus Boeing 747
Stadium of PSV Eindhoven
Wind power plant off shore of the UK
Mississippi delta
Approach to Mexico City
Approaching Berlin I can see the new Berlin Airport BER in Schönefeld
Berlin
9 Other things to mention

The hotel in Oaxaca was quite nice and they had a pool. The were quite a lot of mexican families staying there
We had breakfast in a little restaurant some blocks down the street. Some papagein there were quite noisy
A garden fence made of cactus
The three live in a apparment complex with a nice garden
Grashoppers with chili at the market in Oaxaca. We had to try it.
Blooming cactus at the pyramid complex of Monte Albán
A van is being protected by Mother Mary
The area around Oaxaca is known for agave hard liquor which is called Mezcal instead of Tequila. The raw material are the hearts of agaves. Here we found a heap of it