We booked an all day tour that took us out into the countryside. The major destination was Monte Albán, a large pre-Columbian archaeological site. We also visited several artisan workshops (more on that in the next post), and a monastery dating from the 1500’s.
Our guide told us there was uncertainty as to the origin of the Monte Albán name. Some say a Spanish solder said it looked like the Alban hills of Italy. He favored the idea that Monte Albán means white mountain, and that for several months a year the morning glory tree, the Casahuate, covered the “white mountain” in white flowers. I like the second story.
The Zapotec archeological site was amazing, with a bunch of amazing structures. We learned about the history from our guide, and then I took a bunch of pictures.
Amazing carvings in the rocks.
There was a museum at Monte Albán, and another at the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca in the city of Oaxaca. Both were great museums, and had amazing artifacts.
The sign says “no tocar,” and Susan is not touching the cat.
Later in the day we visited the Ex-Monastery of Santiago Apóstol (in Mexico they call all of them Ex-Monasteries) is located in the town of Cuilapan de Guerrero. Much of the monastery was destroyed by earthquakes, but it was still very pretty.
At the back of the monastery complex there was an intact chapel, and a funeral was going on.
I took a nice video of the procession leading to the cemetery, including a brass band. I really liked this video.
Love the art and architecture.