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Today I am high in the mountains of Oaxaca state, a range known as the Sierra Mixe. Small roads, isolated towns and wild countryside.
It is not my first time here. Sometimes I travel here twice a year to stay with my Mexican family and enjoy the peace I find among frequent thick mists and forest covered mountain slopes.
Location and routine
The pace is different from Mexico City. Some of it slower by comparison, rather than design. This is a land that proudly declares itself as the region that was never conquered by the Spaniards. Old traditions lie in the daily movement around the market, in the steady sweep of the machete on the crops, in the daily church attendance by many in the community here.
Just 10 kilometers from my base here is one of the most sacred places of the region, the Zempoaltépetl. A mountain that peaks at 3,460 metres it is viewed as the spiritual heart of these highland Mixe communities. My neighbours here, and my stepsons, annually climb to the peak and lay sacrifices and offerings at the summit, seeking blessings and favours for the year ahead, or asking for spiritual intervention and guidance over themes which might be troubling their households.
