Tehuacan Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve, San Juan Raya, Dinosaurs and Salt!

Seriously, this has been a jam packed day.  I was going to write one post for our two day excursion but I think each day may warrant its own post.

By the way, my U just fell off my keyboard so if I miss a u or two, that's why,

We got up super early (5:30) to set out for Zapotitlan Salinas in Puebla state, north of Oaxaca.  This little town (pop. 3000) is in the middle of the Biosphere and has a botanical garden nearby with guided tours.  The two websites I found about how to visit the biosphere both mentioned this town as the best base of operation for all of the cool stuff in the area.  None of the hotels have online booking so we decided to just arrive and wing it.

Our first order of business was to get out of Oaxaca without crashing the car, and then filling up the tank.  We succeeded on both counts.

The drive up was beautiful.  Dry, rolling hills.  We stopped at one look out and had a nice chat with this couple:

We didn't even get lost (just one missed turn but that barely counts, we knew right away).  We arrived in Zapotitlan Salinas around 11am.  We found a hotel, Valley Spring (or Spring Valley?) and got a room.  I think we may be the only tourists in town.  We dumped our bags in the room and had a quick strategy meeting.  I really wanted to go see the dinosaurs footprints somewhere in the park.  Plus, we all wanted to go to the botanical garden. We have today and tomorrow.  Since we got a late start, we find the footprints today and go to the  garden tomorrow.  Agreed.  But first lunch.

Our car in front of our hotel (Spring Valley)

Our 'double' room.  Fancy.

We wandered up the dusty street and found a place that serves huaraches, oblong sort of tacos.  I think those huaraches may be what has finally convinced Carolyn that food outside of a traditional restaurant is the way to go. I will update this when I find out the name of the restaurant because it was awesome.  The food we great but the best part was the ambiance.  As Joe noted, it is a one stop shop for all of your salt and knitted cap needs.  (Name of restaurant if you are looking for awesome huaraches or a tour with Juan Diego is Casa de la Sal).

I forgot until this minute, I bought that salt shaker too.
We don't have one at the apartment and, for the life of me,
I couldn't find one to buy.  So, now I own this one (with local salt included)

We met Juan Diego at the restaurant.  He speaks English and is a guide at the botanical garden.  He told us how to get to San Juan Rayas, the tiny town with the dinosaur footprints.  Go 5 km up the road and then turn onto a 'calle feo', an ugly road, follow the signs.  Juan Diego also agreed to take us on a night tour later and to be our guide in the garden tomorrow.  You have to have a guide to go into the garden.

So, our next few activities planned, we went off in search of San Juan Rayas.  It was an ugly road, in that it was rough, but the view was anything but ugly.  So many cacti!  

That's Joe for scale

The place is dry as a bone but these little pick flowers were blooming 

We eventually arrived in San Juan Rayas.  We passed a couple of people standing by the main road (one block is paved) but we didn't know where we were going so we just keep going, we could see the museum up ahead so we went there.  It was locked down tight. 

Oh no, I thought, I have dragged C & J all this way for a locked gate and a photo of this fake dinosaur: 

Rrrrr, ye shall not enter.

So we turned around, went back to the main part of 'town', took a turn, drove down a side street, scattering chickens and dogs as we went, took a few more turns and ended up in front of the ecotourism office.  Amazingly, those people we had passed had recognized we were tourists despite us being so incognito.  Maybe the chicken scattering gave us away.  

Bustling downtown San Juan Raya (pop. 220), you can see where
pavement ends. 

Anyway, they had opened up the office and some of the local ladies had come over to open up their craft tables.  We asked the guy at the tour desk for a tour of the dinosaur tracks.  He would have to go find a guide who spoke English.  He left on a bike.  This could take a while.  Nothing to do but shop.  Four women had uncovered their wares.  I bought some honey from one, and a dinosaur pen from another.  I felt so guilty about not giving the other two some business, I bought another pen from one and a woven dinosaur thing from another.   Carolyn bought another hat because she forgot to bring her Monte Alban hat.  This one was only 50 pesos (around $3). 

Note the festive pink string holding it on

Ecotour desk.

Eventually, Porfino showed up.  He speaks English and he can take us to the carnivore dinosaur tracks.  There are also herbivore tracks but they are too far away from the carnivores for us to do both today.  I'm telling you right now, if you ever come here, spend a couple of days in San Juan Raya, there are cabanas near the street chickens. That way you can do more of the tours (there are eight).

Porfino came with us in our car.  We took the calle feo to a turn off onto a calle more feo.  He said we were the only tourists to show up today.  We had the place to ourselves.  

We followed a track through some cactus fields. Then Porfino unlocked a gate and we entered one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I exaggerate not!

It was a mini-grand canyon, with a mostly dry river bed.  We walked quite far along it.  Some unidentifiable birds.  Mostly just stunning views every time we turned a corner or came out of a ravine.  Here are too many photos.

Porfino

Honestly, I was so amazed by this place, I kind of forgot about the reason we were there, the dinosaur prints.  They were pretty cool.  There are tracks for at least four individuals. They start on one side of the river which cut away a huge chunk.  

There were other fossils around as well.  Not nearly as impressive but they show that this area used to be the shoreline of the sea.

We walked back and headed back to San Juan Raya to drop off Porfino (with a big tip!) and headed back to Zapotitlan Salinas.  Joe and I went for a beer then a quick siesta for me, before we all headed out for dinner in time to be back at the hotel to meet Juan Diego for our night walk. 

He took us to the salt mines.  I had read there were something about salt production around here. That would explain all of the salt for sale in the various gift shops and restaurants.  Plus the name Salinas.  Juan Diego gave us some background.  This area used to be under the sea so the ground is completely saturated with salt from the sea water.  The local people have been 'mining' the salt for over two thousand years.  Each family has one or more wells.  These are natural springs where the water is super salty.  They used to haul out the water by hand but now they use pumps and hoses.  They put the water in shallow pools nearby and let the water evaporate.  They wash the salt and evaporate it multiple times before it is ready for sale and consumption.  Depending on the well, the salt might be pink or green or white, it might be for human consumption or for animals.  The wells and the pools are the same era as Monte Alban.  

The whole operation is on a steep and rocky hill and he took us there at 8 o'clock at night, in the pitch dark with just a wee flashlight but we didn't break any legs or fall in any wells (although, I did step into an evaporating pool and soak my shoe).  It was so dark we could see the milky way!  I wish I could have taken a picture of the sky.  

Here are some very bad, dark picture of the salt fields.  Juan Diego said he will take us back tomorrow in the daylight after we go to the garden so I will hopefully have better pictures tomorrow.  

This is an ancient well

The evaporating pools

Ok, it is 11:30 and I have to get up early for another full day in the Tehuacan Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve.  Plus the dogs have stopped barking so I might be able to get some sleep.