Monte Alban

Today we took a thirty minute bus trip up into the mountains outside Oaxaca to the ruins of the ancient Zapotec city, Monte Alban. This world heritage site was built around 500 BC, and it became the first urban complex in Mesoamerica. In its time it was about the size of Oaxaca today.

Monte Alban wielded enormous political, religious, and economic power over the inhabitants of the Great Valley of Oaxaca from 500 BC to 850 AD, when it was abandoned for reasons unknown. I was relieved to learn that in the city's ball courts which we saw, the game played by the ancient Zapotecs used rubber balls, not human skulls such as their neighbors the Aztecs and Mayans used in their ball court games. The Zapotecs, however, did, according to their stone art depictions, completely emasculate the leaders of the tribes they conquered in the Great Valley of Oaxaca. Some aspects of history one would sometimes rather just not know about. Like the Bush years.

On our way to and from the bus station we saw parts of Oaxaca much less beautiful than the part of the city where we are staying. I knew there had to be more to the city than we had seen so far. The bus ride up to the 5,000 feet Monte Alban was a thrill a minute. A new city of tar-paper shacks has grown up along the hillsides from Oaxaca over the past decades and the road is one sharp turn after another. Guard rails have not been invented here yet. We rode the bus back down chatting with two women passengers who told us interesting stories of their world travels. They showed us the way to the city zocalo after we left the bus. In the zocalo, free bags of rice were being distributed to the victims of the recent flooding in the valley surrounding the city. I, of course, did what I do best when it comes to aiding the local economy: shop.

Tonight we had dinner in Lonely Planet's favorite restaurant in Oaxaca. There are those of you who know me well who will laugh at this, knowing my great enthusiasms, but, it turned out to be the most architectually beautiful restaurant I have ever eaten in in my life! Alas, yes, I forgot my camera, so I have no photos and any description I tried to give would not do it justice, so I will not even attempt it.

At the beautiful restaurant, Harry ordered canneloni with huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn, which he loves but I refuse to eat. I had mushroom linguine. (Yes, I know mushrooms are a fungus! Just shut up about it!) We ordered and drank an entire bottle of wine from the Baja wine country. After dinner we asked our waiter about mescal, a liquor made from the maguey cactus, which tastes like scotch. It is sold in shops all over town but,we have not tried it. Our waiter brought us each two shots of two different varieties of mescal made in the state of Oaxaca. I loved the way it was served to us with a "special" tasting salt and orange slices. I asked the waiter about the special salt which I had been consuming wholeheartedly and he told me it was salt blended with ground-up worms. I refrained from screaming. (Actually, after late-night web research, I learned what he called worms are actually moth larvae that live on the cactus plant) What a relief that was! Proving once again, sometimes it is best not to know everything. Oaxacans are well-known for encorporating insects into their cuisine. I had seen grasshoppers on the menu the night before last.

I, being an adult-child with alchoholic roots, had no trouble guiding my tea-totaler husband home along the smooth cobblestone streets after dinner. He was bombed and I was feeling no ill effects. Nothing like genetics to see you through when needed. He gently slumbers now as I write this blog into the wee hours of the night.

My friend Bill never fails to point out that I fall in love with every new place I visit. Oaxaca is no exception in that regard. It is magical, full of beautiful places, lovely smells, amazing art, and delicious foods. Perhaps I will return someday, like the vanished Zapotecs, and learn to eat more insects fearlessly .