August 13, 2015

I was lucky to miss the weather today as it poured down rain in Oaxaca. Unfortunately, I had to backtrack through Oaxaca shortly after the rain stopped. I can now say that one thing worse than riding down a pothole-filled street is riding down a pothole filled street with 6 inches of water on it and not being able to see the potholes. Only once did I think I was going to disappear in traffic, when my front wheel went into a hole about ten inches deep and two feet long. Luckily the edges were smooth and I just rode back out of it. 

Oaxaca Waves

I hadn’t actually planned to go back through Oaxaca. My Garmin GPS decided to lead me that way. I had looked at Google Maps last night and noticed there was a cut across below Oaxaca. I figured if I took that road, I could save a night at Overland Oasis, and add another night in San Cristobal in order to get some bike service done. Apparently Garmin doesn’t agree. It lead me right back to Tule and past Overland Oasis, though it was early afternoon so I kept going. I need to spend some time learning how to put routes into the Garmin, and I also am going to have to re-learn to upload new maps to it very soon, as I think my current maps run out at the Guatemalan border.

Garmin also doesn’t like it when I take off up a mountain on a dirt road, because that’s where I had to go this afternoon and Garmin didn’t show a road there. Fortunately the locals had signs, and when they didn’t the locals were helpful with directions. 

Such as “Turn right and go straight”. Until I get to a horse pen that’s been constructed right in the middle of an intersection. Ask again. “Go south and the road bends around to the right and keep going up.” (This is my interpretation of the combination of Spanish and hand gestures.)

Eventually I found my way out of whatever little town I was in and onto a nicely maintained one-lane dirt road headed up the mountain. A bit muddy from all of this morning’s rain, but otherwise a nice road. About five miles later, I started back down the other side of the mountain into Hierve el Agua.

Pools at Hierve el Agua

Hierve el Agua translates to “boil the water”, but it’s not because of the pools here. I checked. They are not hot. However, there is a natural rock formation near the pools where water saturated with calcium carbonate trickles over the side, leaving a white “petrified waterfall” appearance on the rock cliff. 

Quinceanera photo shoot at the pools.

Due to the threatening weather I decided to rent a cabana. Probably should have saved the $10 and skipped that. The tent would have been more comfortable and aside from some wind, the skies cleared just before sunset. The cabanas at Hierve have become quite neglected. There’s also no food here, so I broke out my camp stove and heated up the Cup O Noodles I’d been saving, along with some hot chocolate (I’m back in the mountains and it’s rather chilly).

Back over the mountain in the morning and continue south….