Around Oaxaca - photos 3

Around Oaxaca: Pueblos Mancomunados and Sierra Norte

From Oaxaca and the office of 'Expediciones Sierra Norte', we organised 2 days of hiking in the Sierra Norte, the southern part of the Sierra Juarez; one day in Llano Grande and the next day in Cuajimoloyas, village part of the Pueblos Mancomunados community or ''Commonwealth of Villages''. We spent the night in Llano Grande in a cabana which was comfortable with hot water shower and a fire place where Lee was happy to make a fire with proper wood. There was no heating system in the cabana and the night was particularly cold and rainy. The second day, the rain came late morning and instead of the 5hrs hiking, we only did 3hrs but we were quite happy because we were tired and freezing {well me anyway}. We had not done any mountain walks for a long time...our leg muscles were just not responding!!! But we had a good time and saw superb landscape and it was hard to believe that in the hot Mexico, there were typical pine forest mountains!!

- On our way to the Piedra Larga mirador, we saw hundreds of these ''mariposas'' flowers, specific for this part of the mountain,
- Lee at the top of the Piedra Larga mirador. Lots of clouds but still superb view...
- From the Mirador, we could enjoy the view of this rock formation. Can you distinguish the figure of a man?
- The second day, we went to the Piedras Coloradas Mirador which was offering a nice view of the pine tree forest. To reach this mirador, we needed to climb a steep rock formation and I can tell you I was pretty scared as I don't like heights but I managed it and I was proud of myself!
- This type of cactus is called a ''Maguey''. They produce a flower every 20 to 25 years and it takes around 1year for the flower to grow. On the left, we can see the stork of a future flower...looks a bit rude doesn't it.....