Death Defying Sunday Afternoon with Melody
On Sunday, Melody and I took a bus to La Sierra Norte, mountains just north of Oaxaca, to spend the day in the cloud forest. The first crest of the Sierras is only about an hour and a half from the city, making it a perfect day trip. So off we went.
I took a cab to meet her at the bus station, but then it turned out that the 9:00 bus we needed to be on only had one seat left, and there wasn't another bus until noon. Lots of craziness ensued from there as we tried to catch another bus at another station, and finally made our way to the cloud forest via a taxi, a bus, and the back of a pickup truck with a couple of bags of cement.
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| You could hear baaaahing all through town |
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| The colors! |
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| Chilly but happy. |
We decided to go ziplining, which is one of the eco-adventures the tiny town offers. Interestingly, the zipline runs right over the town center, which gives you the odd sensation that people are casually flying over you, Superman-style, as you wander the sleepy pueblo. You can see what I mean in this video I took of a guy doing it.
I was pretty scared about the whole ziplining thing. I had done it years ago in Costa Rica, and my mindset when it comes to these extreme-ish sports is pretty much if I've survived it once, I don't need to do it again. Melody, on the other hand, was gung-ho! That is until we started hiking up to the jump point when she started getting nervous– and understandably. However, once there, we proceeded to suit up with the help of our uber-serious zipline guy.
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I look weirdly serene for someone
about to jump off a cliff.
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| Gloves a little big? ;) |
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| The moment of truth |
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| Her feet are no longer touching the ground. It's happening. |
Then Melody jumped (first, even!). Here's a fun video of that.
A little less exciting is this video of me landing– or rather, not landing, at the other end of the cable. Yep, I got stuck out there before the end of the line and the guy had to shimmy out and manually pull me in.
To me, the funniest part of this grainy, impossible-to-see video is Melody laughing... and me finally landing. Wait for it...
After Cuajimoloyas, we decided to go to another small mountain town, called Benito Juarez, to get some lunch and find the hanging bridge, which looks like this.
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| Eek! |
After a delicious whole-trout lunch, we went looking for the bridge. To get to it, the sign said we had to hike about 2.5km. The road was a bit steep but not too bad, and we met these nice ladies along the way who chatted with us.
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| I offered to carry her flowers. You can't tell here but they found this very amusing. |
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| Bundled flowers are surprisingly heavy, by the way. |
When we were walking for a while, they told us about a shortcut to the bridge up a mountain trail, but they said it was steep and difficult. We took it, of course. And after a grueling uphill climb via the shortcut (thanks, ladies) in which we almost got lost when presented with a fork in the road, we finally made it to the "highway," a small, two-lane mountain road. We kept going a bit further, and then came upon the bridge, which dangled between two mountain peaks above a canyon whose sheer dropoff isn't accurately reflected here. It was swinging in the breeze and looking terrifying. The sign above Melody's head says "Maximum of 7 people."
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| Not sure what happens when 8 people get on the bridge. |
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| She's reluctantly off! |
It was a Sunday full of accomplishments that ended with us getting completely drenched in a downpour on the way back from the bridge. Did I mention it was cold? Luckily Melody had brought extra clothes for us (she's smart like that) and we were able to warm up before the journey home (via pickup truck, 2nd pickup truck, and bus). Thanks for a great day, Melody! It's always an adventure. :)
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| It started raining while we were on the bridge. And lightning. But we did it! |
Money spent Sunday (These are guesses and also Melody paid for some of this)
50 - Taxi to meet Melody
25 - Taxi to other bus station
20 - Bus ticket to Tlacolula
70 - Truck to Cuijimoloyas
210 - Ziplining
50 - Truck to Benito Juarez
150 - Lunch
100 - Truck/Collectivo out of Benito Juarez
20 - Bus home
695 pesos = about $37 USD
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