just a short way out of Oaxaca is the small township of Santa Maria del Tule. Any fellow traveller through this wonderful country will encounter many similar small towns, a brightly painted quaint church, local markets, a small town square where the locals sit and chat, watching the world go by.
An exception to prove the rule
Yes a sleepy little town, and yes we are heading into the Santa Maria church grounds. There I got the Fuck me! moment
"Stop swearing, god will hear you" whispered the Birds of Paradise, as they posed for their picture.
It is not the tallest, nor the oldest tree in the world, but it is the one with the widest girth and we all know how important girth is !
IT IS A VERY FAT TREE!
It has a circumference of 137ft 8ins. d=Cπ =46ft 1ins ( or if you do that funny metric stuff, 30 people holding hands in a circle around it)
"Don't you speak to me like that! Respect your elders, I was planted in the 7th century of the common era, that makes me 1,400 years old, give or take, and DO NOT call me fat, or I will have you cancelled, are you not aware this is the age of wokery? "
"Nah, you are a bunch of trees just growing close together"
"Wrong again human, I can proudly attest that my DNA sample shows I am ONE TREE, feel free to wander around and enjoy my beauty, we can carry on chatting as you so do"
"So my friend, back in the day, to the indigenous peoples who lived around me, I was sacred. I was the site of a ritual they carried out, which included the sacrifice of a dove until people got upset that stopped in 1834. Disappopinted face. Ho hum"
"But ya know what? They still love me: they really do, every year on the second Monday of October, the locals celebrate Árbol del Tule Day, YES ME, THAT'S ME. We have fiesta time, jiggy jiggy, music, food, fireworks all for me me meeeeeeeee!"
"Cheers for that I shall remember you in my dreams."
Thanks for visiting my page, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. this is Stephen aka, 