Oaxaca has 32 World Heritage sites. 27 Cultural and 5 Natural which is the most of any country in Latin Americas and Ranked 6th in the world. One of the Natural Heritages of this state is it's Bio Diversity. It has the most Bio Diversity of any country in the Americas. All Cacti are indigenous to the Americas only. Beans, Squash and Corn...all originated in Oaxaca over 10000 years ago and were domesticated 7000 years ago. Oaxaca was still hunter-gatherers or what I like to call Leavers. They only used what they needed. The other side of the world, in the Fertile Crescent the Takers were building an agricultural civilization and communities. They had horses, cows,water buffalo, donkeys, etc. Now Oaxaca was doing the same...large cities throughout Central and North America.
Carol guided my new found friend Jean and I on a two hour tour of the Botanical Gardens that were all indigenous plants to Oaxaca only. My thoughts of this 2 hour tour of being boring, were quickly laid to rest. Carol, had been coming to Oaxaca many years, trained to be a docent at the Garden and a gardener herself. She was a wonder and brought her classroom in a bag. She was constantly pulling out samples and charts to aid in our understanding of this complex transformation that took place after the Spanish Conquerors arrived and just from trade all over the world.
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