The Monte Alban Blog

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It's an area covered with history, tales and tragedy.....



I've been to several ruins in Mexico and Central America in my travels.... Chichen Itza, Tulum, Copan, Yaxchitlan, Bonampak which sadly was before I started this blog and even sadder I didn't have a chance to write about them and get the pictures up before my External hard drive crashed last year in Vietnam :-(. Nevertheless, I made it to Oaxaca and got a chance to see the long awaited Monte Alban ruins! This is one of the cleanest sites I've been to much like Copan in Honduras, you could easily go by yourself for a bit cheaper price, but I booked it through the hostel I'm staying at in Oaxaca (Don Nino) and it costed 200 MX for a full day and included going to a few other places which I already knew was a chance for the locals to show their goods like woodcarving and black pottery, but I didn't mind as I wasn't going to buy any of that anyway so I was along for the ride.



The van picked me up before 10am and I was with 3 other people which were great people and also a local guide who spoke English and I'm not a tour kind of guy, but it was worth it, the guide has been doing tours for 38 years and he had so much info my brain was going to explode! His personality was great and he didn't mind if we just wandered off on our own to explore and take pics which is what I did. The entry fee is separate from the tour price and it costs 64 MX to enter, there are all sorts of vendors selling nice stuff on the entry way to the gate and even a few guys hawking inside the ruins which can be annoying, but hey, what are ya gonna do right? They are making a living from this so it didn't bother me at all. It was an amazingly beautiful and sunny day to walk around and there were several groups there all with guides, but by no means was it crowded. It was really nice. The ruins are for the most part very well preserved, but a few are falling down and you can climb on them, but some are fenced off too brittle to climb I suppose. The two big towers where the best views are, are open for climbing and awesome views of the whole site as well as the surrounding mountains and valley's where the villages are since it was built on top the mountains about 2,000 meters up.



It's dominated at each end with a north and south platform and it has tomb complexes as well as palaces and a ball court which are really cool. I won't go on and on about the history of it as you can find most of the information online anyway if you are planning to visit. On the south end of the site they have an area where some of the massive stellas are located, just singularly lined up next to each other which most are in amazing shape still, but I think the most amazing fact I got about the Zapotecos and their ballgames was that the ball was made of rubber and weighed about 3 kg's they would have stone rings levitated on the sides of the court and the court was as smooth as a modern basketball court due to the sap they used from the trees in the area. The players would have to use any part of the body except the arms or hands to get the ball through the rings, most commonly with the hips. The winner of the game would then be sacrificed to the Sun God and the losers would be ostracized along with their family and in some cases would have to find other lodging lol that's harsh!



Anyway I really enjoyed it and as I said it's been well kept so kudos to whoever is in control of such things! WELL DONE! Hope you guys enjoy the pics!



Buen Viaje

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