Chance Encounters...

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Sunday

We got back from the ballet around 11:00pm (the ballet was good, and dancers quite talented, but I wished I hadn't looked at Romeo with the binoculars and found that he had terrible buck teeth...!), and went right to bed since we had to get up early enough to catch the tour we had booked to the ruins at Monte Alban today for about $12.00 each, which ended up including two side trips to artisans' workshops and show rooms and to a partially ruined church/monastery.

The best part of the tour was our companions! We quickly discovered that all 6 of them had flown in for the wedding that we watched on Friday! So we had all our questions about the ceremony, the guests, and the couple answered...(it was a "destination wedding", she's from the state of Coahuila and he's from Puerto Rico, they met at school in NYC, the family of the bride is wealthy...)

The bride's aunt and cousin spent quite a lot of time talking with us, so we got a glimpse into some wealthier Mexican lives. The aunt was educated at boarding schools in California and Switzerland, and now owns, with her brother, an organic produce farm that employs 250 workers and sells to the States and Canada. Her father started the original farm that was much bigger and employed 5000 workers! The cousin is a young doctor specializing in botox, breast augmentation, and other cosmetic surgery. She was great to talk to and has traveled a lot...

The Monte Alban site was most amazing for its location on top of a mountain, which was leveled by hand several hundred years BC. The first workshop was that of Dona Rosa, who invented a new technique to produce metallic-like pottery in the 1950s. We watched a demonstration by her grandson who has been a potter since the age of 5. A link for more info: http://www.oaxacatimes.com/aug-sep-oct-2011/21-arts/47-black-pottery

We also visited a wood carving and painting workshop. We returned around 6:30 pm...hot and tired!

Monday was back to school for me and an afternoon of walking around the streets of Oaxaca for both of us...

Tuesday we started to finalize our plans for our time in Oaxaca, including hiking in the mountains and another tour of the valley and some other ruins. I will continue lessons through Wednesday and maybe take a last one on Friday. I have an abcessed tooth, which started Saturday. I've been in touch with my dentist at home and tonight we got a recommendation for a dentist here, and I had an appointment right way at 7:00pm. He thinks it is a gum infection only, and I won't need a root canal...hope so!

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