Monte Alban

After groggily going to the smaller bus station to buy our tickets to go see Monte Alban, one of the top 5 best ruins in Mexico, we went to a café right around the corner. We were expecting the food to be made quickly, and then we would eat the food quickly and go back to the terminal before our bus left at 9:30. 

 However, as time ticked away, we chatted and waiting for our food to come. Meghan and I both ordered smoothies, not questioning how large they were. At 9:20, when our food finally came, we noted that we couldn't eat in 10 minutes plus walking back to the station. 

 So we called and switched our tickets to the 10:30 time. The only downside of going an hour later was that it would be hot most of the time we were there. But I assumed it would be fine. 

 The smoothies that we ordered were too big for a giant, let alone a human. It was good, but I felt bad about wasting almost half of it, by dumping it down the sink later on that day. 

 We took our time leisurely walking back to the hotel and chilling there until it was time for us to head back over to the bus terminal. 

 The ride was about 30 minutes, not too bad because Meg and I played cards and listened to the girls across from us speak in Italian. When we arrived, we paid our fee and debated (actually only Mom&Dad debated, my opinion didn't matter whatsoever) on whether or not we wanted a tour guide. When we (they) agreed on having a tour guide, a man named Julio volunteered. Thankfully he spoke English so I didn't have to spend the next hour and a half trying to piece together what he was saying. 

 First, he gave us an overall explanation of what we were going to see and find out today about Monte Alban, a former city which was first inhabited by Zapotecs around 500 B.C. They flattened the tops of mountains and there they built temples to honor their gods. There were also houses for the upper class on the slopes of the mountains and houses for the lower class down in the valley. 

 We walked slowly up the hill, stopping to listen to stories about important trees that had been there for centuries. One of the places we went to first was the Gran Plaza, which was was where all the markets were held, where upper class people bought things and lower class mostly just watched. There were many temples around the plaza, most of which were blocked off for protection to the stones.

 One of the coolest things Julio spoke about was a room that only got direct sunlight twice a year. There is a small temple over the room, leaving one hole near the top where the sun can shine through. 

 After Julio finished the tour we wandered up the stairs to see two separate temples on either side of the plaza. When we saw almost every ruin and took pictures of it, we headed down to the museum and walked around looking at all of the artifacts that the archeologists had dug up and preserved, such as a skeleton that had been placed in a tomb, like Julio explained.

 Feeling like we were finished and had seen everything we needed to see at Monte Alban, we hopped on the 2:00 bus back to Oaxaca. All of the seats were full, so Mom&I slid over to make room for a sweet girl who Mom tried to talk to some of the ride home. 

 We walked for a little bit and stopped at a locals restaurant. Mir was a four course meal, two soups, a main course, plus a small rice pudding in a plastic cup with a very small spoon. It was delicious, I would definitely eat there again. 

 After stopping by the hotel for a nap, we walked downtown through a craft market, which consisted of at least 30 very small stores, where not one store didn't have another store that was selling the exact same thing. Most of them were selling pottery, small colorful animals, clothes or shoes. 

 We all purchased an item, and feeling satisfied we went to a café where Meghan and I split some quesadillas. 

 Dad had heard that fireworks were going to go off around 8:40, so we walked around to try to find some rooftop restaurants where we would have a great view. Apparently all the locals had had this idea way before us so we ended up watching them standing in the plaza. They were still beautiful, and more far away then I've experienced before so they were much less loud then I expected. 

 After they ended we walked back to the hotel and Dad went off to find some food since the rest of us weren't hungry. I took a shower which took forever since out of the 30 streams of water, 7 of them actually worked. 

 After taking at least 10 minutes trying to get shampoo out of my hair, I gave up on conditioner and went to bed.