We joined a tour from the hostel today with the main aim of visiting Hierve El Agua (more on which to come) but ended up on a bit of a school trip to all sorts of interesting places.

Stop one was the village of El Tule, home to Arbol del Tule, the biggest tree in the world – in terms of circumference, anyway. Who knew! It’s about 60m all round, 42m high and approximately 2,000 years old. Also; impossible to photograph.

Next we trundled along to Teotitlan del Valle, a weaving village where you traditionally start in the family trade at the grand old age of six. It’s not a sweatshop set-up though, more family groups working from courtyards their homes to preserve an ancient skill – the place we stopped at, Artesena Zapoteca, certainly seemed to be a happy and profitable set-up anyway.

We had a quick masterclass…