This Sunday morning dawned with clear skies, proffering the possibility of a ride through the countryside without afternoon showers. That turned out to be a false hope, as light rain was falling along a good part of the ride back to Oaxaca — but not enough to dampen the spirits or wash away the good feelings of the day’s outing.
Santiago Ixtaltepec is a small village not far from its more famous neighbor, Teotitlan del Valle; and both of them lie in the Tlacolula valley to the east of Oaxaca city. The terrain there is mostly flat, but we managed to find a few hills to climb on the circuitous route we took on the way out. At times the group navigated barely discernible trails across open fields, trying — unsuccessfully, it turned out — to avoid a multitude of thorn bushes that had previous claim to the territory. At least a dozen flat tires resulted from this crossing, but these were mainly discovered after the group stopped for lunch in Santiago, where it was possible to deal with all of them at the same time.
Today’s trek through the countryside totaled 28.9 miles (46.5 kilometers) for the round trip, with an elevation gain and loss of 1377 feet (419.7 meters) along the way. We crossed a series of hills to accumulate that much climbing, as the high point of the ride was only 5489 feet (1673 meters), just 365 feet (111 meters) higher than the Zocalo in the center of Oaxaca.
