I just love this place...

Today, Nadezhda and I went with jyr and [friend]Tigre[/friend] to get some more details ready for Debconf 6 at Oaxtepec. Among lots of work, we met with [friend]Gnaro[/friend] to talk about connectivity issues. A nice, productive day all in all - If you care to check, I uploaded today’s (raw, no descriptions yet) pictures together with today’s information at the bottom of my Oaxtepec gallery - Yes, it’s a whole bunch of photos, and my connection is quite mediocre (512/128 ADSL line), but there it is :) But the reason I am writing is that Nadezhda and I decided to drive back to Mexico down a smaller road that goes from Oaxtepec to Xochimilco, through Milpa Alta, in the high and rural area of Mexico’s capital. We didn’t know if this would end up being a good idea or a terrible one, as anything can happen in our rural roads. Being straight pragmatic, it was very good - We made a bit over 90 minutes end-to-end, and we saved around 130 pesos (10 euros) of toll roads. But the real win was to have some beautiful landscape session. Sadly, we are at the beginning of the fire season (read: the hot season, where a spark often arises in the tall grass and forest fires break. All of the Cuautla and Oaxtepec region, as well as all the way up Tlayacapan and until Tlalnepantla had thick smoke which took some of the beauty off the beautiful small ridge that finishes at the Tepozteco - here are some simple samples. After that, we crossed an area of fields of nopales - yes, you will get to taste them… But in my case, I enjoyed seeing some nopales fresh cut (first link), some others with the leaves ready to be harvested (second)… And just the shape of the mountains. And then, although somewhat clouded, our beautiful volcanos. I don’t know what Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl have that they make me drool. Every time we have clear skies in the city, I look for them. They are probably the greatest symbol of all of Central Mexico - And although today they look sadly a bit greyish, I still had the change to see the glaciars that were lost due to the global warming in the last 10 years. And after some time travelling with my dear volcanos on the right, we reached one of my favorite spots on this planet. This little road is even better during May/June-October/November, during the rainy season, the way I had met it a very long time ago… The brownish colors are all green, as south of Mexico City towards Morelos, it is very fertile ground. Still, even after five hours of being home, I’m still wholly satisfied at the beauty I could half-look at while driving.