Oaxaca

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

We caught a bus from Mexcio city to Oaxaca (pronounced wahagca) which took us about 7 hours and was fairly uneventful. We arrived quite late in the evening so caught a taxi from the bus station to a hostel that we saw a leaflet for at the hostel that we went on the wrestling trip from. It is part of the same group the Hostel Moneda, but we hoped for better luck this time! It is a really nice place with an open air courtyard in the middle with a bar. It's really pretty with brighlty coloured arches. Much better than the Moneda!

We went and found ourselves some dinner in the town. We had been a bit disapointed with the mole sauce after hearing so much about it, but we we had some really nice mole negro in the restaurant. It's made from lots of different chillies and really bitter chocolate. It's nice, not spicy really and just a bit chocolatey.
When we got back to the hostel the Mexican barman offered us far too much to drink and consequently we have now had Tequila in Mexcio and have had hangovers today!

When we got up the barman/tourguide/receptionist announced that he was doing a tour of the town so we signed up for that before going in search of breakfast. The tour grew into a ride to Monte Alban and a trip to the market and was pretty cool.
We had planned on going to Monte Alban. It is a Zapotec ruin built between 300 and 900AD. Our first trip to a ruin was all it promised to be. Lots of shambly pyramids and nice views from the height of the mountain. It was quite fun to be in a group for a change, we had Slovenians, an Australian and two Mexican for company.
After visiting the ruin we drove back into the town and visited the market. Oaxaca is famous for it's crafts as it has a high number of indigenous people living in the surrounding area. There were some lovely brightly coloured blankets and lots of wooden animals. We bought a picture and a flat metal skeleton.

This evening has been a quiet one after the excesses of last night! Tomorrow we will have more of a look around the town and then probably catch a night bus to our next destination.