This morning, it was time to change the scenery...time to visit the ruins. Going to Mexico means visiting ruins, right? Of course it does. But first, breakfast. We awoke to fresh pineapple and papaya fruit salad, granola, sweet bread, yogurt, butter--the usual. Our entree today consisted of beautiful tamales wrapped in squash blossoms and folded inside corn husks. Some had chicken inside. Others (including mine, thankfully) did not. We weren't sure why. Pilar came in with a Golden Retriever puppy, which added some liveliness to breakfast.
After breakfast and much-needed showers, we were off to the market to buy a picnic lunch, and then to catch a bus to Mount Alban, the most famous ruins in the region, ancient home to the Zapotec Indians.
The bus ride was short but harrowing, screaming around narrow hairpin turns. Amy couldn't help shreiking and we were all a little nerve-wracked, but we arrived safely at the top. We climbed a small hill and entered the grounds of Mount Alban. We explored the museum a bit, then walked out into the erstwhile city. One of the first things we saw was an impressive whirlwind in the dust. We watched, enraptured, then started to explore the city. This involved a lot of climbing.
Everyone was tired so at last we headed back on the bus. Back in Oaxaca City, we stopped into a chocolate shop for a few minutes, to watch them grind cacao, almonds, and cinnamon into a syrup that poured over sugar, then grind that mixture into powder. That night, we went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was o.k., but the service wasn't very good and they made Ben's martini with black olive slices from the pizza. Weird. We were all a little tired and cranky and snappy, and afterwards, we waited while Nick had to stand on line at the all-night Farmacia for what seemed like hours, to get some dramamine. We were preparing for our bus ride to Puerto Escondido, and we had a feeling we would need it.
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