Shrooms and Mezcal...

Okay, our weekend trip wasn't nearly that debaucherous. We did, however, have a lot of contact with the raw materials used in such vices. Here are some highlights...


I got some decent shots of Popocatepetl, the active volcano outside Mexico City, puffing smoke from the bus window as we drove to Oaxaca on Friday evening. We got in just in time to catch some shut-eye before a weekend of trekking.

We headed out early Saturday from Oaxaca City up into the Sierra Norte. We started in Cuajimoloyas, which was holding the Sixth Annual Mushroom Festival. The mushroom-hunting contest sounded intriguing, but we headed out with our guide as planned, not before buying some awesome matching baseball caps with an embroidered mushrooom.

Bustling Cuajimoloyas

After an easy beginnning walking through lovely meadows of flowers and mushrooms, we got to the good stuff. We got to the midway point, where a new guide met us to help us down this mountain and straight back up to Latuvi.

Our local guide gazing out towards our destination ... that ridge far in the distance.
Oh yeah, and we're already halfway at this point.

After a bone-jarring walk/slide down a trail of slick pine needles, we reached the valley below and Ignacio's lovely trout farm and tomato greenhouse. Ignacio and his family cooked us up some freshly-caught fish with onions and cilantro to give us energy for the rest of the walk. He used to sell fish by the kilo to restaurants in Oaxaca and nearby towns. Unfortunately, he lost 20,000 fish in the flash floods from Hurricane Stan last year, so he's just getting back on his feet.

Ignacio cleaning the guts out of my trout as the doggies look on hungrily.

As we pushed away from the table after a delicious lunch, we soon realized that we could barely hobble. The final 3K straight up the mountain to Latuvi, hanging on a ridge, was - well - slow going. We collapsed in our cabaña, leaving only to buy chocolate and have a lovely light meal with the equally lovely Marta at the comedor nearby.

Misty Latuvi

Marta, in between bouts of giggling and serving up té de poleo, told us funny stories about her first days working at El Pollo Loco 15 years ago, right after arriving in Los Angeles. She's happy to be back in Latuvi, earning money and being with her family. In Latuvi, groups of visitors rotate among the three families with comedores so that everyone had similar earnings.

We slept like logs in anticipation of day 2 and 14 more kilometers of hiking...