Dutchie goes biking around Oaxaca
Today I got in touch with my Dutch roots and went biking. We rented a couple of mountain bikes to explore the surroundings of Oaxaca, and decided to make it to Tule, some 10 kilometres from Oaxaca. The trip started off fine and dandy. The sun was shining brightly, our spirits were high, and the hills didn´t bother us one bit. We were biking man, zigzagging through the crazy Mexican traffic, dodging the taxis and passing by the oh so slow local buses that just stop wherever and whenever they want to.
Halfway there, our luck changed. Dark skies started to gather over the valleys and mountains and it wasn´t long before it started to poor down from the skies. That´s rainy season for you, it happens all the time really. We quickly found some shelter under trees along the side of the road. Usually the showers don´t last that long. Unfortunately enough, today it just kept on pissing down on us.
The trees offered little protection from the heavy rain and we noticed a piece of plastic, strung to some trees just a hundred metres further down the road. It turned out to be one of the many fruit stands, and we parked our mountain bikes under it and just sat there, talking, smoking, and hoping the rain would end soon. But the lightning, thunder and rain just continued for what seemed an eternity. The side of the road turned into a small river.
Finally it did clear up a bit, and we decided to take our chances and continue our voyage. We biked it high-speed to Tule, found a little Mexican restaurant and drank a cup of coffee to gather our strengths again. There we were, soaked, cold and completely covered in mud… What a daytrip… It was all worth the effort though. Because we found our holy grail, an absolutely gigantic tree.
