Oaxaca City - Part 2

The last two days have been fun and full of walking.  We are staying about 10 blocks away from Oaxaca's downtown, where everything of interest is.  It's about a 15 minute walk to the plaza and then some more walking to wherever you want to go from there.

Day 3
We spent some more time checking out the churches and other sights.  We saw the aqueduct (Los Arquitos) which was built in the 18th century to supply Oaxaca with water from the nearby mountain springs.   Although the structure is still standing, it is no longer used to supply water, being replaced by underground steel pipes.  The city has built up and engulfed the aqueduct with doorways and streets placed under the arches of the old aqueduct.

Los Arquitos paralleling the street.

One of the arches of the aqueduct now turned into a door.

The most incredible place of the day was the Santo Domingo Church and ex-Convent.  Inside the church, the front alter was covered in gold leaf, the ceiling covered with paintings of biblical stories, and everything so intricately carved.  Definitely an awe-inspiring, truly breathtaking building.

Interior of Santo Domingo Church.  It was impossible to capture its ornate beauty and size in a picture.

Karen in front of Santo Domingo Iglesia (church).

Next, we went to the ex-Convent part of Santo Domingo. The convent part was where the native people were converted to the Catholic faith. The ex-Convent now houses the Cultural Museum of Oaxaca. What an amazing museum!  It went on and on covering the culture of the area from the time of the native Mesoamerican peoples to the conquistadors up to Mexican history of the early 1900s. We all read Spanish well enough, but it would have been nice to have been able to read a little better so that we could understand the displays...which were all in Spanish.  But we got the gist well enough.  The coolest part of the museum was probably the jewels, statues, and bones found in one of the tombs of the nearby ruins of Monte Alban.

Human skull covered with turquoise found in Tomb 7 at Monte Alban.

A reoccurring figure in Zapotec carvings

Gold figure found at Monte Alban

 Day 4
Looking for some cool old ruins, Chet and I headed out to Monte Alban (Wyatt said he'd already seen his fill of ruins).  We were planning to get going early in the morning, but sometimes the world slows you down.  Consulting our trusty guide book of Oaxaca, we found out we could catch a bus to Monte Alban (about 11 km outside of Oaxaca) from near the plaza in downtown Oaxaca.  At the plaza, we realized we forgot our money for the bus back at our place.  So, a trek and a half later, we were back at the plaza ready to go...but we had missed the bus by ten minutes (we hadn't known what the schedule was but it turned out the buses left on the half hour instead of on the hour).  So we patiently waited an hour and made it on the shuttle to Monte Alban.  It was interesting seeing the rest of Oaxaca, outside of the downtown area, we headed up a hillside covered in cinderblock and tin roof shacks. Finally, at the top of the hill, we made it to Monte Alban.

Monte Alban was home to the Zapotec people and later the Mixtec people from 500 B.C. to 800 A.D. with the hilltop city being occupied for over 1,200 years before being conquered by the Aztecs.  Over the years, Monte Alban grew, was remodeled, and was home to more than 40,000 people at its peak.  Excavation starting in the 1930s unveiled the elaborate stone pyramids and buildings along with the buildings' treasures.

Monte Alban from the top of the north pyramid.

Monte Alban from the south pyramid looking west.

Chetos (his spanish nickname since most people don't know how to pronounce Chetco here) on what he says was the disembowelment/sacrifice platform.

The ball court

Day 5
Today was a nice, slow day. We hung out, read our books, wrote some blogs ;)  About noon we went down to the zocalo (plaza) and bought a taxi ticket for our transportation back to the airport on Tuesday morning (Karen likes to plan ahead but I must admit I'd probably still be in Sayulita if it wasn't for her).  After some people watching, we headed to lunch at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre which is a market consisting of an acre of food vendors.  The market was full of hustle and bustle with each vendor trying to get us to eat at their little restaurant.

Overwhelmed by all the choices, we finally came to a consensus to eat at the Carne Asada row.  This row was filled with vendors with charcoal fired barbecues, their stalls displaying the fresh meats they could grill for you. Seeing that all the locals were eating here we decided we had to do it to, simply for the experience if not anything else.

Being completely unknown to the process, we were swept up by the first vendor, handed a plate of veggies, and pointed to the nearest barbecue stall.  There, we chose chorizo and some type of other meat (maybe Asada?) to be grilled.  We were then given a number for our order, pushed to the vendor's specific table. All this happened in about 2 minutes and consisted of a flurry of spanish being shouted and wild gesturing.

At our table we were shown a selection of salsas and veggies to choose from to accompany our meal. We ordered three Cocas (Coca Cola) and waited for our food.  Three Mexican gentleman sat down at the bench on the other side of our table.  I noticed later that they sat down in a mirror image of how we were seated with respect to who ate the most.  The guy who ate the most was situated across from Wyatt (who normally eats the most in our group), then the middle eater was situated across from Chet, and the lightest-eater and smallest man was situated across from myself...funny how the world shows you symmetry in the oddest places.  The Mexican gentlemen also ordered Coca-Colas to go with their meal.  After a laugh of "Wait...was this mine or your Coca-Cola?" with the gentlemen, our food arrived with grilled meats and veggies and some tortillas.  I am not much one for photographing my food, but this is a meal I would have liked to have a photograph of. Alas, the food took over our brains (and I didn't want to look like even more of a gringa American photographing everything).

Our meal was a giant basket of chorizo and asada accompanied by a stack of fresh tortillas, the salsas we selected and grilled veggies. Supposedly it was 3 portions but looked to be enough for an army. Even the locals had a difficult time finishing their mountain of food. I am proud to say (with a bit of effort) we finished our basket. We left the market very satisfied albeit very very full.  The rest of the day was spent enjoying the people watching at the zocalo and splitting a pineapple for dinner.

Carne Asada row with meat vendors lining the walls and the barbecues adding the haze to the air.  (Photo courtesy of Wyatt)

Hasta luego!
Karen and Chet