Wow...what a great day!!!
So much to talk about and so many fotos!!
Our day...desayunos, driving to Monte Alban without getting lost, stopping at Walmart's Bodega brand store to pick up some goods (orange juicer and more!!), Monte Alban for several hours, getting to San Martin Tilcajete without getting lost, exploring several tiende de alebrijes and buying some great pieces at great prices, a super comida (Goose...you would have been proud of me) and then getting back to Oaxaca without getting lost!!
The plan...some selected fotos from the start of our day as well as from Monte Alban. It is already 11pm and we are up early again mañana, so I will probably post the rest of the Monte Alban y the Tilcajete fotos mañana. Let's see how long these first 20 take.
When I awoke this morning, I felt out of sorts. Here is a self portrait foto...see what I mean?
We saw this courtyard restaurante ayer, so today we went in for desayunos. This
foto is from our table looking out to the street.
And this is Bexico eating healthy.
A great desayunos and great service!! The cuenta was a sorpresa...they charged $10 pesos for the butter y jam!! ja ja ja But the fresh baked goods they delivered when we sat down (and charged $25 pesos for) where DELICIOUS!!!
We picked up the camioneta (truck) from the parking lot and headed to Monte Alban. Had the mapas and did not get lost. Also managed to stop at Bodega and picked up another fan, a juicer and some misc items we do not find in Huatulco.
As we parked in the Monte Alban parking lot, we saw these peeps.
Who knew? Sombrero rentals!! Just kidding...ja ja ja But it was VERY hot up there and the hat salespeople were doing a brisk business.
Signage.
Bexico ready to go!! Please click on any foto to enlarge it.
We paid our $51 pesos (each) to get into the grounds and I asked for a mapa. The hombre pointed to this display and told me that was my mapa!!
That's ok as we brought our own. Antes our walk, we were approached by a senorita who wanted to know if we wanted the guided tour. We declined and off we went.
This foto was taken from atop the South Platform, looking north.
And this foto is looking south towards the same platform.
In many promotional fotos, you will see the brown grass actually green. Those fotos are obviously taken despues rainy season.
Three smoggy city views. You can see the Auditorio Guelaguetza in the first foto.
Just the remnants of a door way.
It was mucho calor...very hot. We each finished a 1.5 litro bottle of agua and the sombre (shade) was appreciated.
Many of these types of artifacts were taken and put into museums and were replaced with copies. This is one of the originals.
Some of these items are 2500 years old.
These are the steps leading up to the Southern Platform.
Bexico on said steps.
And looking down the same steps.
I think this is a foto of what they call Building P on the left, Palace in the middle and Building Q on the right.
Bexico walking down from the Northern Platform and back towards the museo and our truck.
I took a few more fotos and this is a view of the Ball Court.
Those are all the Monte Alban fotos for today. There are some 46 more I will share later.
We managed to take a different (quicker) route to San Martin Tilcajete and again we did not get lost!!
We loved Tilcajete and all the artisan shops. Some were waaaay better then others in regards to quality and detail and some tiende had very unique pieces.
And there were great fluctuations on price as well. Some lame pieces were expensive and some great pieces were cheap. The stores on the main hwy (175) seemed to have great pieces and their prices were not bad at all. We bought 2 small pieces here for $50 pesos each and they would have cost $150 in Oaxaca.
Here is where we bought our two small pieces. Fotos mañana.
And next door...
A crazy dog with no hair except for a beard y mustache!!
The ninas were hard at work creating new pieces.
And the works they created were beautiful!!
And this was our favorite piece.
The bear reminded us of BC but at $3500 pesos (a great deal), it was possibly too mush to spend. We decided to head into the town and see what they had there.
As we drove off the highway and into the very small town of Tilcajete itself, we came upon over a dozen more tiende selling the alebrijes and here we experienced a mixed bag of quality and price.
But here we scored huge!!
We did not see the piece we were looking for...a giraffe with a mane, but we saw something that we both thought was unique...the only one we had seen in any of the store here and in Oaxaca!!
The owner of the shop gave us the tour, tried to sell us some items and then led us into his second showroom.
Here we found the piece and he quoted us $1200 peso...around $100 Cdn. I asked if we could get it for $1000 and he called the artist in that actually created the piece.
She wanted $2000...yikes...we were headed in the wrong direction. But we settled on $1300.
Here is the artist with her piece.
And here she is packing up our new mono!!
The fotos do not do the pieces justice. This artisan told us she spent dos semanas (2 weeks) working on the piece. It is beautiful and will look great in our own villa!!
So we left the village and before we hit the highway, we saw these interesting bird's nests.
And stuck to the adage of letting sleeping dogs lay.
As you leave the road from the village and turn left on 175, there is a restaurante y tiende. The shop had a few nice items in it, but we really liked the restaurante. It seemed to be run very professionally by young adults, including one who spoke fluent Ingles.
And why would Goose be proud of me? Being the "foodie" that I am (ja ja ja), I tried the stuffed agua pepper. It was stuffed with pork meat and then the whole pepper was cooked inside an egg...kinda like an omelette. It was served with arroz y frijoles and was delicious!!
Here is the cocina.
And sticking to the theme of eating only Oaxacan food for lunch...
I ensured we tried some Oaxacan fresa helado!!
And then I met this nino.
He poked his head into the restaurante and I said hola to him and gave him the peace sign. I then went about taking some fotos and saw him on the patio giving his parents the peace sign. They looked humored and laughed when I pointed out I had shown him the gesture,
Drove the 35 km back to Oaxaca and gased up so we are ready for the drive home. We then chilled out and after a few hours, we went out for a walk.
It was a warm night...no wind and no chill!! It was a quick walk, but we did see something quite interesting.
Blocking traffic was a wedding procession. There was a guy lighting off fire works and rockets, 8 dancers in traditional ropa, a mariachi band, two of those huge paper mache figurines dressed up as bride y groom and then the 40 people who were either guests or in the wedding party. Not cheap...but it looked like everyone was having a good time...except for the peeps in the cars who had no where to drive.
Well folks...media noche here and I am pooped. Mañana we are up again at 7am for desayunos and then the road trip.
I promise to post the rest of the Monte Alban fotos soon...as well as fotos of the Oaxcan treasures we bought.
Hope everyone has a great domingo!!
Saludos
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