Gardener in Chacala Goes to Oaxaca

I got back to Chacala yesterday, after my eight night trip to Oaxaca. I had a hard time figuring out how to download the 500 photos in my camera unto my computer. But
I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and knew the problem was too many photo in the camera. So I edited out about 100 photos (doubles, blurry ones, etc), and everything worked fine. I was really anxious about it. But it worked out fine.

Oaxaca is a 24 hour bus ride from Chacala (east and south), and about 8 hours southeast of Mexico City. That's a very long bus ride. It cost about $80US each way. Oaxaca is a state and a city, and it a very different climate than Chacala, although it does have the same rainy season in summer/dry season in winter as in Chacala.It poured a heavy, drenching rain every afternoon, starting about 4pm, and lasting for two or three hours. It's warm though, and I only used an umbrella, no jacket or rainjacket.Oaxaca is at about 5,000 feet, I think, and is surrounded by three Valles, and then heavily forested mountains behind the Valles. It's very beautiful, the setting and the people too. There are many different Indio groups in the stae fo Oaxaca (including the City of Oaxaca, where I was monstly). Many people speak only their Indio language, with no Spanish. They are very beautiful people, and many of the women and girls wear their traditional clothings. If you would like to see other photos of Oaxaca, go to My Life in Chacala at http://mylifeinchacala.blogspot.com.All these photos are of various private gardens in the Oaxaca area. Some are at museums, at hotels, at homes, office buildings, and parks. This is the entrance to a small, bohemian cafe, gallery, and 8 unit hotel. It consisted of a series of connected rooms, anll with gardens and plants in pots. I think this is the Rufino Tamayo Museum courtyard, with a roof garden. The Musuem is filled with wonderful exsamaples of every old art objects, some from the years 500BC. Incredibly delicate and beautiful. There are gardens tucked in everywhere in Oaxaca, even on roofs and walls. I would have seen more roof gardens, but I was usually to busy looking and the buildings and the people and the traffic.