The road to Oaxaca

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The bus rode through some beautiful landscape en route to Oaxaca, glorious mountainous landscape, with cacti taking the place of trees. After a while the land flattened and lost some of its interest. At this point my mind drifted on how to liven up my trip a bit. Slow progress with the Spanish had been frustrating me, which so many of my plans and options revolved around. Uncertainty over what to do about work and a general concern about spending too much time and money drifting from city to city and not seeing the more interesting and less accessible places. I had written a travelling philosphy to which I want to obey to make the most of my trip, I think I´m a little way off at the moment and I need to rectify the situation, maybe by taking a few more risks and chances. As a starting point, with the need for some exercise as well I thought I would hire a bike for the day once in Oaxaca to give myself a little more freedom. Awoken from my daydreams by the red dusty landscape amongst the trees which seemed to have suddenly appeared, I again started to watch the beauty of the landscape pass the window, wishing I had a car to explore myself.

The next day after finding a hire shop, losing it, finding it again, then returning with ID and once again after I had some how managed to lose the map he had given me I got properly on my way. Aiming to cycle the 10km up hill to the Monte Alban ruins, having done a lot of mountain biking in Greece when I was working there I had been getting withdrawal symptons. Having with the midday day heat this was proving quite a struggle, after a few breaks for rest and water I eventually made it. Unsurprisingly I was the only one who had cycled it, despite the large bike rack.

Monte Alban has some great ruins, beautifully perched on top of a hill with great views in all directions. It´s purpose (probably religous) is not entirely clear but it´s beautiful and interesting nonetheless and a must see on visiting Oaxaca.

Having kept a close eye on the wearabouts of the second map, I picked what seemed the correct path down. Within about 100m of having gone off a properly sealed road, to a gravel road, I got a puncture. Fortunately the guy in the shop had given me all the gear necessary and I was soon on my way. After a diversion in the road I stumbled across a place with good views called Bueno Vista, the roads occasionally turned to sand as I rode past farmers and locals walking through the fields gaining the occassional curious long stare. I rode through a couple of little towns with a chilled vibe before the dim light caused me to rejoin the main ugly highway back to town. It had been nice to get properly out and I wish I had had more time to explore but all the ponsing about in the morning had taken time.

The evening entertainment in the Zocola is pretty decent with live music nearly every evening.

On sunday, after a few failed attempts to find jobs at language schools I ended up playing chess with a few guys from the hostel. Being pretty good at the game I´m not accustomed to losing but I did several times to the guy who ran the place, a good player, and later to an old guy in Zocola from the States who has the look of a homeless man to him, and is there every evening without fail charging a peso a game after 20 games he has enough for his room for the night. An interesting guy who spent a few years in Japan in the 80s and seems to be a bit of drifter, I didn´t really ask to much about what he does here, not too much I suspect.

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Photos

Yagul
A beautiful setting