Modern plane travel has accustomed us to traveling vast distances in a matter of hours. This is, of course, a great convenience. But it can never match the pleasure and satisfaction earned by those dawdlers who have the time to enjoy older modes of transportation - the train, or, what our friend Neil Watson rolled from Mexico City to Oaxaca to Huatulco in, the car.

A worm’s eye view of some serious cacti.

Cacti and reptiles are like an old couple that have been together for so long they start to look like each other.

Back building of the botanical garden in Oaxaca.

Best part of a road trip: the pit stops.

A cactus having a bad hair day.

A little bit of color among miles and miles of vast emptiness.

I always enjoy seeing these fences out in the middle of nowhere. Though it may look like a great wilderness, it’s somebody’s land and they want to make sure their livestock doesn’t leave it.

This looks like one of those gags in a movie where a guy is carrying a fake cactus around the desert to hide behind. (Unconfirmed whether there was anyone hiding behind this cactus.)

Now that’s a patina.

The greatest miracle of all: shade. And not a plane in the sky.

All photos by Neil Watson.