Ruins on and under hills

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Next stop on our whistle stop tour was the city of Oaxaca. We got there on another overnight bus, from Tuxtla. We went straight round to our next CS host, Vul, but it was possibly a bit early for him. He said in his profile that he has to get up early for work...early seems to be about 9am. Not so early! He runs a cyber cafe with his flatmate, down in their lounge, meaning the house really consisted of two bedrooms and a bath. Going to work involves getting up and walking down the stairs! Even the kitchen was taken over by the business, leaving us a fridge and microwave to cook dinner in! Still Vul and Emmanual were great guys to meet, even if cleanliness is an unknown concept!

Oaxaca was all about Monte Alban, chocolate and mezcal. Plus some other neat places, buildings, museums etc. As usual this trip we didnt have the time to fully explore, but maybe next time...

Chocolate - several places making chocolate and selling various flavours and products. We went in a couple of places and watched them mixing cacao into chocolate and into chocolate drink powder. And of course tried some...chocolate food and drink. The drinks were like cocoa rather than hot chocolate, and nothing like the bland malty milo we get at home. Depending on what you ordered, it could be sweet or bitter, but both were definitely chocolately. The bars of chocolate were grainier and less creamy than stuff like Cadburys. Good, but different. You can buy, and get tasters, of chocolate in many places, shops, the market...

Mezcal - Oaxacas trademark drink, a cactus based liquor like tequila. Lethal! Like the rum we tried in Cuba, it comes in various ages, the older the better, smoother, less likely to burn on the way down.

The best museum so far - the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca in the ex-convent of Santo Domingo. Thorough and big, but not too huge to be unmanageable, enough to keep us occupied for 2-3 hours. It had exhibits from pre-Columbian life through the conquest, the Dominican monks and on to the “modern” times of early last century. There was an impressive display of the treasures found in tomb 7 at Monte Alban. Nothing on the scale of King Tuts tomb, but certainly impressive.

And that takes us onto Monte Alban. Vul came out with us, leaving Emmanual in charge of the internet cafe. Rather than taking the expensive tourist bus, we took two regular buses and a tuk tuk type thing out to the ruins just outside of town. Vul took us round the site, explaining more than was on the signs or in the guidebook. Its not a big site, and with not being allowed in or on many of the ruins, it didnt take all that long to go round. The site is high on a hill looking over the valleys surrounding Oaxaca, and was once the capital of the Zapotec empire. The height got the culture nearer their gods, and was also easily defendable, with great, clear views in all directions. I wont go into the history of the site, that you can find in a guidebook or on-line. It was a much bigger complex though.

The buildings were more or less surrounding a huge central plaza, which also had a few buildings in the middle. At one end is the North Platform, a huge platform with pyramids and a sunken plaza. It was a great place to sit and view the whole site. Along one side of the central plaza was a building where big carvings / reliefs of what were originally thought to be dancers. Now its thought that they represent chieftans conquered by those living in Monte Alban. Almost all are mutilated in some way. This site has the smallest ball court we have seen so far, a fraction of the size of the one at Chitzen Itza. The main plaza here was probably used for rituals and ceremonies that anyone could attend, whereas the sunken plaza up in the North Platform would have been for special invite only. It ws sunk about 6-8m down from the surrounds, which were raised up high on the platform. Behind the North Platform are some houses with tombs that you can wander round but not in the tombs.

We stopped in Cholula next, a small university town next to Puebla. We were here to see a pyramid hidden in a hill beneath a catholic church, and met another great couch surfer too. And witnessed an attempt to create the worlds largest mole.

We stayed with Daniela and her friends, students at UDLA (Universidad de las Americas) in their neat house - it even had a garden, lime tree and vege patch! They were very welcoming and involved us in all they were doing.

Cholula is famous for its many churches, one of which was built on top of the Teneapa Pyramid. When Cortes arrived and destroyed the Toltec temple on top of a misshapen hill, it is said that he didnt realise that the bug hump was actually a pyramid. When investigations began, archaeologists discovered three other pyramids built one atop the other, with onion-like layers showing the different construction styles of the different cultures. The pyramid is the largest in the world by volume, its nearly 400m along the base and 66m high. The pyramids in Egypt looked way bigger than this one though! Still, we got a bit puffed walking up to the top, with it being at over 2100m. There is a museum to look round as well as being able to walk through a few hundred metres of tunnels inside the pyramid, mainly dug out by the exploring archaeologists. These highlight some of the different pyramid layers inside. Really neat! Then you “pop” out the other side to walk round the uncovered ruins. More could be uncovered, but no-one is going to remove the church on top.

Mole is a Mexican curry sauce made from up to 7 different types of chili and a similar amount of chocolate, plus other ingredients. Heres the wikipedia page for it. Cholula was trying to make the worlds largest mole, then planned to share it amongst whomever turned up. We watched from up on the pyramid, but didnt go in to get some, it looked very red and fiery hot!

And for those wanting to find out more about some of these places, a couple of wikipedia links. For anything else, I'm sure you all know how to "Google"!

Monte Alban

Great Teneapa Pyramid of Cholula

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Photos

The twotravelbugs - a self portrait
Just to prove we were actually there!!

Building of Dancers
Where the reliefs were found

"Dancers" or conquered chieftans?
Building of Dancers, Monte Alban

Sanctuario de Nuestra Senora de los Remidios on top of the Great Teneapa Pyramid, Cholula
The tent in the foreground is where the worlds biggest mole was being made and eaten.