Oaxaca is an old city, complete with cobblestone streets, glorious churches built over ancient Mayan temples by the Spanish, numerous mescalarias, awesome rabbit warren markets, hordes of tourists and hawkers and nightclubs that give you hangovers.
Casa Arnel was our base…lovely setting but what hotel doesn’t put room numbers on the doors, and has a shared bathroom set-up that is severely lacking in ratio of bodies to showers. And heaven forbid you want prompt service at reception, breakfast, or laundry. A saving grace was the rooftop terrace where we polished off a few bottles of duty free before hitting old town to find a decent club for a dance. I’m pleased to report they serve Captain Morgans spiced rum as the house rum, however that’s not necessarily a good thing in hindsight. Just because it’s a good rum, it can still dish out a killer hangover the next day. The night had merits, we got to dance, request songs from the DJ and I got to know a gorgeous Mexican boy or two … 😉
Dragging our sorry selves down to the other end of town to take a mini van to the Monte Alban ruins, we spent a few hours climbing up temple stairs, looking over carvings on estelas, soaking up the panoramic views from the high vantage point with 360 degree views over the valley. Aren’t all religious sites on hills…?
Dating from around 500-800 AD, (if I remember correctly – like I say, the head was fuzzy) it was a mainly ceremonial complex. As I didn’t get to visit Teotihuacan in Mexico City, this was my first experience with the ancient culture ruins that will continue to show up on this trip and it’s amazing to think they built such grand stone structures without using wheeled equipment – apparently as the circle is sacred – being the shape of the sun – they thought it sacrilegious to use it for utilitarian purposes. And they didn’t have slave labour either – the culture was such that the populace was “happy” to pitch in and do the hard yards as a sign of worship, and should work and worship and sacrifice not occur, the powers that be would stop the sunrise, the rain or anything else they wanted to threaten. Nice huh?
The next day was a full day on the road hitting the surrounding area for an eclectic array of highlights. First up was the world’s fattest tree – or to be PC, widest girth. A some 2000+ year old cypress in Santa Maria de Tule. The knots form shapes like a lion’s head, monkey’s face, crocodiles…and this was without a hangover. The surrounding square or zocalo, and church grounds were beautiful with roses, animal shaped topiary, fountains and free grass.
Mitla is another ancient cultural site, sporting temples with the tall steps which were strange for a race averaging 150cm in height. The idea of large steps for temples was to make the people climb with a forward lean or on hands and knees – forcing them to bow in reverence. We had to crouch for the tombs…barely a metre high at the doorways and with halls that varied in height with a stepped hallway to the burial chambers. The structure is all stone once again and since the area was a known earthquake zone, they didn’t use mortar, just set the stones together and if a quake happened it all settled together neatly.
A windy drive out of the valley and through tiny villages brought us to Hierve del agua, a petrified waterfall and pools akin to the calcium pools in Turkey. Now, when Ernesto sold us on the idea of doing this trip we could have sworn he said hot springs. So when we all squealed like schoolgirls at the freezing water, much to the comical delight of the locals in their jackets, we made sure to make a mental note to pay closer attention to what Ernie says next time.
We also had a rug weaving and wool colouring demo from a Zapotec lady before heading to a mezcalaria – we got to see the journey of mezcal from agave plants around 8-10 years old at harvest, smoking, crushing, fermenting, distilling and aging, mezcal is everywhere throughout Oaxaca and they’ve found a way to make it actually drinkable – turn it into all sorts of flavoured creamy drinks like Bailey’s etc. I got the coconut one to kid myself it’s like a piña colada, just needs pineapple. We left the worms behind though.
We’re now on the night bus to San Cristobal de las Casas. We were sold an upgrade and I was expecting a bus similar to full cama in Brazil…besides a free drink and not one but two toilets, it’s a regular bus. And as we’re traveling over mountain ranges we are all feeling a little less than well. At least I think it’s a road full of mountains – we haven’t had a strip of straight for more than 100 mtrs – so unless we’re on a rally track, with a frustrated lead foot driver, this is all I can think it is. It’s certainly turning into one of the longer bus rides I’ve been on…and we’re only three hours down…nine to go….blergh.