A Long Walk

Yesterday, Emily and I set off with our roommate, Lizzy, and a friend who lives nearby, Melissa, for a walk up the hill to Monte Albán. The map in our book places the Zapotec archeological site at about 6km outside of the city, and notes that you can take about an hour and a half to walk from Oaxaca to the site. The weather was lovely, and so we decided we wanted to hike it.

We set out up and over a nearby hill on our way towards the site. The views from high up the hill were lovely, and we all felt optimistic about our hike. You can see where this is going...

After about 30 minutes, when we came down from the hill, we were in a very urban part of town, and though we pressed on, we did so despite the frequent lack of sidewalk, the stink of the industrial part of town, and the noise and smoke from passing busses and trucks. Thankfully, the nastiest part of town was not terribly long, and after another 30 minutes or so we were past the urban grossness and at the base of the road that would take us up the hill to Monte Albán.

This last part of the hike was lovely, though it seemed to get a bit long for our companions. The hills were green, and we were once again treated to beautiful views of the entire Oaxaca valley. We could even see in the distance the hill we had started out on, a long ways away. This last part of the hike was a bit of an uphill battle, and the road seemed to keep going and going--every time we came around a turn hoping to see a hint of the ruins, we were treated only to more road.

But we did, in the end, get to the top. We later learned that the walk was about twice as long we expected: probably a good 8 miles. Not a bad day's walk. And the site is lovely (which we discovered only after stopping in the cafeteria for a rest and some food). Monte Albán was primarily a Zapotec site, and a center of Zapotec life from 500 B.C. to about 750 A.D. The site itself is not as tremendous as some of the sites we've visited--in fact, you can capture most of the main part of the place in a single photo frame.

The more interesting tidbits concern Building J and Los Danzantes. Building J is the building that looks a bit askew and is shaped like a spaceship (front and center in the first picture). The guy who discovered the site, on the basis of pure speculation, offered the theory that the building served as an astronomical observatory. Why did he think that? Well, because it maybe looks a little bit like a spaceship. That's good old-fashioned science right there, folks.

The other interesting and well-known area of the site is known as Los Danzantes. This is a collection of figures etched in reliefs in stone on the walls of one of the buildings. The figures are called "the dancers" because they are in various contorted positions, as though they were dancing. In fact, though it may be hard to see, they are all contorted in pain due to the fact that they have been captured and subject to genital mutilation, represented by little pools of blood in their groinal region.

One last cool thing, and this one we came across today in the Oaxacan Cultural Museum. This super-cool skull was found in one of the tombs from Monte Albán, and likely belonged to a priest.

So, maybe it was not a site to top Palenque or Chichén Itzá, but Monte Albán offered us a good hike, a great view, and a lovely archeological site to poke and climb around.

Washergate News Update: In our last piece of news, our clothing situation was finally resolved last night. When we get back from Monte Albán (in a taxi--no more hiking) we went by the lavandería and picked up our clothes, finally freed from the washing machine and ready for us to get them. Big sigh of relief for having clean underwear again.