It's about five hundred meters from Highway 190 (kilometer marker 39.5) to our home. The winding road makes it a little longer.  Here is a short video showing the road from the highway to our house. We've been without rain for over a week yet we still have a little standing water. During the dry season our house can be seen from the entrance. When we return home at night, it is very difficult to see the entrance especially when making a left turn. There are no street lights and no sign. Sometimes it's hard to find the opening in between the bushes. Everette put reflectors on the posts but they don't help much. When we first moved down in 2012, it was in the middle of the rainy season. The water was about a foot high in some places. We've invested quite a bit improving the road. Dirt can't be placed on the road since the force of the rain washes it away or turns it into mud. We've put down sandstone and another type of filler that we don't know the name of in English. The stretch passing the carrizo was especially spooky at night that first year. It was too easy to conjure up animals coming out of nowhere. The headlights added to the surreal atmosphere.

Standing at our front gate and looking up over our left shoulders, we see what we call Bear (Oso) Mountain. Don't you think that it resembles the head of a bear complete with right ear, two eyes, and a nose?

This is posted in front of a Pemex station outside Tlacolula. Can you imagine posting this in the USA? Nope, that would be major discrimination. However, we see these signs often, employers requesting that either women or men apply to work for them, for whatever their reasons.

Just across the highway from our home and on the way to the zoo, there is currently a women's prison.

The Federal government is now completing construction of a maximum security prison which will house approximately 5,000 criminals from across all of Mexico. We are not worried about escapees; they will want to flee the area quickly. However, we are a little concerned about how their families and friends may change the makeup of surrounding communities.

Construction of this facility has provided much needed work for many of our friends and acquaintances.

This river runs from the mountains east of here and behind our home and provides water for the pueblo of Tanivet. There is lots of water now due to the late October rains.

The other day on the way to the Jaguar Zoo outside Tanivet, we encountered these animals on their way to feed in the fields nearby. We enjoyed this since we were in no hurry.

I must say that this was a little intimidating for both us!

These animals provide a living for many inhabitants of these small villages.

Here's the entrance to our local zoo.

The snack bars at the zoo offer the typical "sabritos," hats, mugs, and other keepsakes.

Of course, you can also buy mezcal and cold beer.

We sure thought this was interesting. They couldn't find a pole of say 14' so they lashed two 8 footers together.

We have mentioned in several posts that the new Macro Plaza de Oaxaca opened the end of August. This restaurant named Toks is located in the plaza. We have eaten both lunch and breakfast here. The atmosphere is clean and lovely, the staff is well-trained, the menu is varied, although the prices are a bit high. We might indulge every other month or so.
 

This is the classiest restaurant we have visited in all of Mexico. The menu choices include items we are familiar with from the States.

Yesterday, we had to buy four new tires for our Toyota truck (the roads here are pretty treacherous in places). The store where we bought them, mounted them, but the machine to balance was not working. They sent us down the road to a shop which balanced them for nothing. I loved this sign mounted on the back wall: In English, There are 3 types of work: the cheapest, the quickest, or the best. You can choose 2 at a time. [1] Good and fast, but not cheap. [2] Cheap and good, but not fast. Or, [3] quick and cheap, but not good.