7-25 Sunday excursion to Monte Alban

8 pm

I am tired and my head hurts a bit. I took a daylong tourist trip - with the emphasis on tourist - to Monte Alban and some other locations in the Oaxaca Valley. I didn't really realize the type of thing I was in for.

First, this morning I called Mom and Dad. They were both in good cheer and pleased to hear from me. I was glad to hear them too! Dad was impressed that my room and board was only $110 a week. Me too, quite frankly - cheaper than living in the U.S. by far.

Then I walked downtown to catch my tour. There was lots of standing around waiting. This was to be a theme of the day.
I was one of the first people there, of course. My disease in life is to be early.

The tour guide, Arturo, told me to come along with him. He took me to a big huge autobus, very modern and nice. I went inside and we chatted a bit. Then he informed me that the bus we were in was going to Tule, not to Monte Alban. I just figured it was my typical bad Spanish misunderstanding, and went to get out of the bus.

The jerk stood in the aisle, and when I went by, rubbed up against my butt - I yelled "Hey!!" but he just acted like nothing had happened.

I spent all day wishing I would have hit him in the head with my elbow.

He wasn't even my tour guide, thank goodness. We had a big 15-passenger van, which we were jammed into like sardines. Our guide Juan Maria spoke Spanish and some English, but most of the people on the tour had Spanish as their first language or our only language in common, so he spoke Spanish.

We left Oaxaca through some pretty terrible neighborhoods that I had never seen before. It was not at all like downtown, or even my neighborhood, which is rich by comparison.

In these neighborhoods, there was even more graffiti everywhere, little narrow dirt streets up steep hillsides, empty lots filled with trash and of course the endless political posters and signs painted on the walls. It seems the poorer the neighborhood, the bigger quantity of the posters.

Monte Alban, as you might expect from the name, is up on a mountain. The van was a bit close - the only other American, Brady, was quite stinky - I guess from backpacking or something - so the Italian girls I was sitting with started waving their hands around and we finally figured out how to open the rear window (we were sitting in the back row), which let the exhaust fumes in, thus my headache.

Despite Monte Alban's fame and popularity, the parking lot is nowhere near big enough and isn't even paved, so people are parked halfway down the mountain and hiking up the narrow road. It is all wickety-wack like everything else here.

There are hat vendors and a nieves (snow-cone) vendor in the parking lot. The first thing you do is go up steep stairs - the handicapped access is a steep dirt road to the left. Then up a steep sidewalk liked with vendors on both sides selling the usual tourist crap - jewelry, pottery, which makes the sidewalk narrow and crowded.

At the visitor center, there is one guy selling tickets to about 50 people standing in a long line. From the same tiny booth, another guy checks bags and backpacks.

The tour wasn't very long or comprehensive or scientific. Just the basics. We were basically in and out in about an hour and a half. I was pretty disappointed because I didn't learn much or have time to see the museum.

The ruins were amazing though. I could have hung out there all day and just soaked up the feeling of being there.

The views of the city were gorgeous, and all the stonework was just unimaginable for something that old (I think Monte Alban was occupied from about 1000 BC to 900 AD).

The civilization was really advanced technologically, way more than Europe at the time.

We all climbed up very steep stairs to the top of a huge pyramid.



I didn't even know if I could make it, but there were little old ladies doing it, so I felt like I had to give it a try or be seen as the big fat gringo wimp that I am. My thighs were burning like crazy when I got up there, but it was worth it to see the view.

I saw some of the same types of sages growing wild that I had had at my house in San Luis Obispo. It was thrilling for me to see them out where they are from, native. Sages are my favorite plants.

There are ancient ball courts that are about 30 feet deep. You walk right by the edge of them, and of course there are no protective handrails. Our guide actually took a misstep and kind of teetered on the edge for a second.

No doubt the fall would maim or kill you. Oh well! If you go over, I guess it is just hasta la vista, turista.

After that we got shuttled from tourist trap to tourist trap. The tour was basically an excuse to take us to various shopping opportunities, which I am sure give kickbacks to the tour company for delivering busloads of tourists to their door.

The first was a little town, Arrazola, where they make alebrijes - fantastical carved animals of copal wood, brightly painted with flowers and spots in psychedelic designs.

They gave us a load of crap about how they were an ancient Indian tradition of making the animals to protect the spirits of children, but I learned later that someone invented them about 30 years ago and tourists love them, so an industry was born.

They are really very cute and clever. They have a playfulness that appeals to people. I didn't buy one. They are fun, but would look so out of place in our house or anyone's house that I know...