Pobres, Pero Felices: Oaxaca

If nothing else, we're flexible. We decided to forgo the trip to Puerto Escondido, partly because of the 10 hour bus ride from Oaxaca, and partly because of the 16-18 hour return to Mexico City. We're on the bus now for Mexico City after spending a day and two nights in Oaxaca, and may return to Puebla in a couple of days.

We had breakfast at this café on the zocalo

Oaxaca and Puebla compare favorably, but there are differences. Both zocalos are full of activity, but Puebla's is more upscale. In Oaxaca, vendors' shelters line several of the sidewalks (the zocalo in Oaxaca has two squares, catty-corner to each other). There are hawkers everywhere-they walk up to your table when you are eating, and if you give eye contact they are extremely persistent. Some of the street musicians are good, Roger particularly liked the man playing a ukulele and pan pipe simultaneously. Some are really bad, and you feel like giving them money just so they will stop.

The banner basically says, stop killing our people

What really breaks your heart is the number of children, as young as five years old, who are selling wares all day. Ancient grandmothers who hobble around and young mothers carrying their babies on their backs are difficult to resist, but there are so many you have to say no. It is obvious that the poverty level in Oaxaca is much higher than in Puebla, and there were several large banners protesting the corrupt, elitist government which has given rise to many of the economic injustices there.

Main cathedral on the zocalo

Nevertheless, perhaps in part due to the competitive vendor market, the shopping was wonderful, beautiful clothing and textiles everywhere. We visited a market which supports a women's artisan cooperative and the wares there were exceptional. You'll get a chance to see the lovely tablecloth we purchased there if you come to our fiesta later in the summer.

For Roger, the trip to the ruins at Monte Alban was worth the whole trip. He had seen photos, but the size of the site and relative lack of disturbance makes it very special. Monte Alban has an urban history perhaps unmatched in Mexico. Its earliest occupation was at least contemporaneous with the Olmec of Vera Cruz, often said to be the “Mother Culture” of Mesoamerica – and you can easily see the Olmec influence in the ceramic figures and stone carvings. The trade relationships with the Teotihuacan culture of the Valley of Mexico shows up as well in the later construction stages of Monte Alban. If we understood our guide correctly, the oldest writing -inscribed glyphs and still un-decoded – come from Monte Alban.

Christina and Omar at Tomb 1 on the North Plaza

We had the good luck to be approached by a guide, Christina, a German. She came to Oaxaca twenty five years ago to study the use of herbal remedies, and is quite knowledgeable concerning the archaeology of Monte Alban and several other sites in Mexico, and also has developed ties with the local villages. She and Roger hit it off famously, two highly verbal lovers of archaeology.

Christina is multilingual, so she would address some of us in English, some in Espanol. We did a tour of the museum on site, then walked the North Plaza. Unfortunately (for Roger), the taxi driver who took us up the mountain said you could see the site in 40 minutes, so we asked him to return in two hours to allow for Roger's tendency to linger at museums and such. Everyone was impressed and delighted with the tour, but Roger promised Christina that if someday we come back, he'll hire her for a two-day tour, and bring a bottle of tequila with him. She liked that idea.