Sitting on the roof in the sun with a couple of fabulous buns for breakfast is a perfect start to the day!
We then headed into the town to the church of San Domingo …
… containing an another very elaborate gold altarpiece.
Next door is the old convent, an impressive building, with a courtyard and views of the cactus collection in the botanical garden beyond.
It is now home to the Museum of Culture and we were particularly interested to see the finds from Monte Albán before visiting the next day. Monte Albán was begun around 500BC and served as the Zapotec capital and a major socio-political center for over 1,000 years. After its decline, the Mixtecs used the site as a sacred burial site and Tomb 7, discovered in 1932 was a big deal, containing some 200 ritual objects. It must have been like finding buried treasure, lots of gold and precious items worked with skilled craftsmanship and here are a few – a representation of Mictlantecuhti, the lord of the place of the dead, made with a human skull decorated with turquoise and green mosaic …
… a golden pectoral, designed to be worn around the neck of a Mixtec dignitary …
… a breastplate of turquoise beads …
… and several of 30 intricately carved animal bones telling of events in Mixtec history.
This golden pectoral tells the order of the universe – the ball court is the sky, the sun disc is day and the flint knife the moon and the monster with gaping jaws is the earth.
There were many rooms telling of the history of Oaxaca since the Spanish conquest, but unfortunately no English translation, so we passed through quite quickly.
We had deliberately had a light breakfast so we could go the the market for lunch. Mercado 20 de Noviembre is the fresh food market and we walked through the meat hall, filled with the aroma of grilling meat, which looked delicious, but we moved on!
In the centre were more stalls …
… with many serving tlayudas which are large thin & crunchy tortillas spread with refried beans, lettuce, avocado, cheese and salsa. Chris chose veggie with squash blossoms …
… and I got some meat after all, a piece of Oaxacan cecina, pork marinated in chilli & spice then grilled. It was one of our best meals and also one of the least expensive!
After a turn round the rest of the market …
… we decided on a bit of R&R, but in my case a chance to catch up with my posts! Dinner was a real treat at Las Quinces Letras, where they offered veggie mole so Chris had the mushrooms with white mole while I had Chilli Rellenos in a fruity Mixtec inspired sauce, together with Mezcal cocktails and guava mousse to share.
Next morning, a cooler day was forecast, which was great as we were off to Monte Albán, the Zapotec capital which sits on the top of a flattened hill some 400m above Oaxaca and includes ancient pyramids, a main plaza, ball courts, residential terraces and underground tombs.
We took the bus which wound up the hill past brightly coloured houses.
The visitor centre had a small museum where original carved stones can be seen, removed from the site to prevent further erosion and replaced with copies. They are carved with various images …
… and some like this one are called The Dancers but actually show tortured, naked war captives rather than dancers.
As we entered at the north end, we could soon see what a commanding position the site held with giving huge vistas across the valley below.
We explored this group of buildings, with stepped platforms.
Our first proper view of the site from the north end was certainly impressive, showing how the artificially levelled hilltop gives a central plaza for gatherings with ceremonial centres at either end and residential and temple platforms along the sides and continuing down the slopes.
And yes I was there!
We made our way down, past the a patio area with a central altar …
… to the the ball court.
It was hard to understand how much restorative work had been done, or was still being done to keep the site intact with so many visitors.
Just like the other sites we visited in Mexico City, the focus is on monumentality rather than the detailed decoration we had admired in the Mayan sites of the Yucatan, although there was some simple details.
We climbed up the South end and looked back across the site.
At the back were some other buildings, still not completely excavated.
We explored the central section of buildings last, which were covered in engraved stones, which detail conquests by Monte Alban over other towns, probably to advertise their power. Each stone has the glyph of Monte Alban at the top with an upside down head to represent the conquered people.
We really enjoyed looking round the site at our own pace and may have missed a bit of the detail by not having a guide, but we were still able to be amazed by the human endeavour needed to achieve this without wheels or beasts of burden to help.
On the way back from the bus, we passed through our most local square with the Señora de la Soledad church where there are a collection of cafes selling local ice cream.
They use condensed milk but it’s quite icy like a sorbet – mine was burnt cream and prickly pear …
… and Chris bravely tried mango with chilli!
Later we went for mezcal cocktails at the Magnolia Roofbar, overlooking the back of the church, so we could watch the sunset, but the sky didn’t light up like the first night and there was a chilly breeze so we didn’t stay too long before going for dinner.
Off Travelling Together 