This morning we took the bus at 9:30 to Monte Albán, a mountain and archeological site not far from Oaxaca. It took 25 minutes of shaking and bumping and curves to get there and when we arrived, it was still pretty empty and not too hot. The grass was still a little wet from the night and it was quite quiet and peaceful as we walked into the big square full of pyramidal temples. This had been the old capital of the Zapotecas, the indigenous people of Oaxaca.
Most of the pyramids had been graves or temples, but people had also lived around this impressive complex. The energy the space transmitted was entirely different from what I had felt in Teotihuacan. The floor was covered in green grass, the surroundings were green instead of deserted and there was a soft cool breeze. The different squares of the city were lower than the normal floor level, as they had used the excavated material to built the pyramids. There were some quite nice ornamental elements and chisel works with pictures and hiroglyphs on the buildings. We spent 2 hours inside this 2000-year-old city before going back by bus at 12.
Some shaking, curves and bumps and we were back in Oaxaca were we split up for the rest of the day. I went to the Central market snd bought some meat and vegetables for dinner and had a little break with a mango at the hostel before moving on towards the artesanal markets of the city.
I walked through the streets and markets until 4:30 and then met up with the rest at the Convent of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, which is also the museum of Oaxacan cultures. It was huge and very confusing, interesting but overwhelming and we were pretty tired already. After this, we went to a bar and bought the plane tickets for the rest of our journey, which left me pretty pissed because I had to do the booking 25 times on my phone so it would finally work.
Dinner took place at the hostel; I cooked, the others brought food from outside.
