Day 30 - Oaxaca and Monte Albon

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Day 30 - Saturday 23 June 2007 - Oacaxa and Monte Alban

Today we took a short bus trip to the ruins site of Monte Alban. The bus trip took us up quite high and past a lot of local mexican homes. The homes outside of the actual towns seem to be fairly basic. Some are even just basic walls, no flooring and sheet metal for a roof. They are also packed in together tightly. I´ve attached a pic, so hopefully you get some idea.

Monte Alban began around 500 BC through 800 AD, but I don´t think anyone one actually knows why it was abandoned. It was the capital of the Zapotecs. There are 12 sites within the area and we had a local tour guide taking us around them for about 2 hours.

Again, there are quite a few steps here, although not as many as at the pyramids, but it was pretty hot and no shelter, so a tiring morning. Worth it though, as the structures and buildings and the views around the valley are simply amazing.

There is a main plaza, with a north and south platform, a ball court, central buildings with temples, a palace and other sections. All pretty impressive, given how long ago they were built. Mostly only the bottom layers of the structures are original, the top layers have been reconstructed over the years.

After the visit to the ruins, we headed back to Oaxaca and explored yet another market. I have to admit that I´m a bit disappointed in the markets here. Maybe its that I´m getting over buying tacky touristy stuff (J&J, there is lots of tat to choose from!), but so far, I´ve bought nothing. Hopefully this will improve in the other towns.

T&I then had a late lunch and roamed around for a while. We have our one and only overnight bus tonight at 9pm and arrive into San Cristobal around 9 tomorrow.

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Photos

Gherard
climbing the stairs with his umbrella. It was pretty hot, so maybe he was hoping to do a Mary Poppins up to the top and down again..!