The Tule Tree: My classroom, the journey

Not far from Oaxaca proper is a small Puebla (town) called Santa Maria El Tule. Last night a few of us from the school I am currently studying with visited  that Puebla. We took a bus then a taxi to get there. The taxi was a Nissan Versa, old enough to have handles to roll down the windows, and was small. Five full size adults and a driver (full size) were crammed into the taxi, but maybe it was worth it as the 20 minute ride cost us about a dollar apiece.

The town has a grand entrance with a long exquisitely manicured plaza leading up to the Tule tree and a tidy little church with an exceptionally intricate interior. They were not allowing photos in the church. The entrance to town is an obvious indicator of its being a tourist destination, for the Tule tree. Other than the area I described above it is a typical Mexican village, but the tidiness and the landscaping for the long entrance set it apart from the typical Oaxacan Puebla.

The walk up the plaza leads to a booth where you must pay 50 pesos to get close to the tree.  Someone might wonder, why? Why pay 50 pesos to see a tree up close? The tree is claimed to be 46 feet in diameter and its irregularly shaped trunk is only measured as such, it takes 30 children holding hands to encircle the tree. Inside the gate where one can go for the close up viewing experience there are several young children who look to be about 6 years old. Do not be fooled by their age. For another 50 pesos they will take you an a tour around the tree with a powerful flashlight that illuminates places on the tree, even in broad daylight. The children are reported to be able to identify shapes in the tree in multiple languages. Our “nino guia” showed us about 20 shapes the growth of the tree had created over the years. Some seemed obvious and some not. He spoke two languages I could identify. He definitely did not speak Polish or Bulgarian as we had a Polish man and Bulgarian woman from the language school with us to vouch for that fact. More pictures of the tree are below. See which shapes you can identify. The elephant is my personal favorite.

After viewing the Tule tree we sat in a Mexican food court and ordered dinner. The food was fine. The notable thing about the dinner was that about every 3 to 5 minutes an order was brought to our table. That meant that when I finally received my food a couple people were almost finished with their meals. I have found this peculiarity to, maybe not be common, but  also to not be unusual in Mexico. After the meal we piled back into another small taxi for the 20 minute ride back into Oaxaca city.

As mentioned in the beginning of this post our tour group was four Spanish Language School students and Sheila also. The school is a lovely space for learning. Many of the classes take place in a courtyard. I have included 3 pictures of the school courtyard below.

Finally, I read today in Timothy Ferris’ weekly newsletter an article by Brian Kelly. I mention this because he described two types of travelers. The descriptions resonate strongly with me. Kelly described two types of traveler’s, those who retreat and those who engage. Those who retreat, Kelly says, seek to escape routines and relax  seek R&R. Travel is meant to be easy, a vacation.

Then there are those who want to experience and discover new things. For those travelers outcomes need not be certain. The object is to encounter new pleasures and challenges, it is about learning and expansion. I have written of this experiential type of travel several times in this blog and to hear Kelly refer to it has helped to crystalize it in my mind. We are traveling because we desire to learn enough about ourselves to allow us to establish a new base for ourselves. What that means is the discovery we seek.