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On the day before, after leaving Cuernavaca and entering the mountains,
until it became too dark to see, the mountains and fields seemed barren
and parched. The poor cattle we saw on this desolate land were looking
for a blade of grass or anything to eat. Their skinny frames were witness
to the fact there was not much vegetation.

Now, as we left Oaxaca, the fields were lush with green grass and
plentiful crops everywhere. We were in a different world.

Shortly after leaving Oaxaca, we entered an area where there were
Alp-like mountains. Rivers gushed out of canyons, with prosperous looking
farms tucked along their banks wherever the canyon widened out to form
a little valley.

We started noticing the sides of these mountains were terraced,
somewhat similar to the mountains of the Himalayas in Western China. At
first we could not figure out what sort of crops they were growing. Finally,
one of the terraced fields came down to the highway, and we could see it
was the type of cactus plant with large sharp spears radiating out from the
its base. In a small mountain town, we saw a truck loaded with this cactus.
The spears had all been cut off, leaving the root portion in a large ball. Audrey
advanced the theory that the Mexicans make liquor from cactus, so we
assumed this was a truckload of raw product that would eventually be used
to induce many hangovers.

Later in the day, along the rivers we started seeing groves of coconut
palms and bananas. We also saw farms that were surrounded by square-
shaped fields of different shades of green and yellow. We met numerous
trucks loaded with produce heading north. They were probably on their
way to the markets of Oaxaca or Mexico City.