Monte Albán v. The Martin Ladies

DAY 4

Note to readers, this post is chock-full of pictures from our trip to the ancient Mesoamerican ruins of Monte Albán. So get ready!

Holly and I had reserved tickets for a tour of Monte Albán a bit earlier in the week. So we rise early, gorge on a huge breakfast to fortify us for the day at my house, and trek into town to the hotel from which the van leaves. Our van is filled with a large family from Mexico City; Oaxaca's just a quick flight, or 6-hour drive from the mammoth city--so it's a logical choice for family spring break trips. We luck out in that we are two of very few English speakers at Monte Albán today. That means that our tour consists of 6 people--whereas the Spanish speakers were sandwiched into groups of 25.

Our tour group

Monte Albán is set atop a flattened out mountain that looks over the three valleys of Oaxaca's "central valley." It's about 11 by the time we get rolling on the tour--and with no shade at the top of these vast ruins--it's a bit hot, people. Holly and are working on our tans...or for Holly, her burn.

After a tour of the grounds, complete with history of the 5 different epochs of Monte Albán, our guide sets us free to explore on our own for an hour. Holly and I head for the big pyramid on the south end. It's the one to summit. Here I am sitting at the the base.

Holly points the way forward; no fear in those eyes. Though, I guess it's hard to tell, since she's wearing sunglasses. We're determined, I assure you. We hear it's the best view in the whole place. We follow our guide's instructions and walk almost sideways up the steep steps. Even though the people that built this mammoth place were much smaller than both of us, they built the steps narrow and tall in order to force all to walk sideways out of respect for both gods and leaders.

Here's how we feel when we reach the top...

We take a quick pic at the top to prove our success as the first sisters to EVER climb this pyramid and survive.

As you can see, like the good little mid-westerners we are, we're both sporting regional caps--Holly's from Kalamazoo, mine from Chicago--go Cubs! We're not alone in sporting our hometown caps--we've spotted a few others in Boston Red Sox caps. In fact, this Boston couple was unfortunate enough to be on our tour.



I say "unfortunate" because these two had the misfortune to encounter superfan, Holly K Martin--who informed them in the first five minutes of our tour that they not only had a shitty baseball team, but that their football team blew it this year. I mean, she's right, people. You all would have been so proud (I know I was!)--unless of course you're from Boston--in which case you would have cried, baby.

I catch some shade at one of the few trees in Monte Albán--which happens to be situated atop the big pyramid. It's a just reward for summiting, I think.



On our way out to meet the van back into town, we pass this staircase that has been partially restored.



It's important to note that what you see in all of these pictures is only 20% of the ruins that were left behind by Mexico's ancient people. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds they cannot excavate the remainder of this hill, nor the two other small mountaintops which were a part of Monte Albán's past (El Gallo and Monte Albán Chico). Many of the tombs we passed, in fact, have been looted, or not even fully restored. So make your donations today! I'm sure there's a Monte Albán Foundation somewhere on the internet for your devoted fans of Mesoamerica.

After Holly and I get dropped off in town, I take a quick shower to wash off the ancient Mesoamerican dust. Then we head over the Cordero's house so comida. Everyone is in attendance, Rafael and Azucena (the parents), Alejandro and Mau (the brothers), and Eugenia, Isaac and Miguel Angel (the cousins). Azucena's created quite a spread, cold pasta salad with veggies, taquitos de pollo with spicy guacamole and a green salad. We finish off with a bowl of nieve (snow).

They all seem really excited to meet Holly, exclaiming "Igual que tu mamá!"(looks just like your mom!) as they embrace her. I have to do my most challenging translating yet--as they talk without cease the whole time we're there. For instance, later when friends are over sharing the story of the recent birth of their daughter, I think this is what Holly was actually getting from my translations, as I was listening and talking at the same time:

"They did a caesarian...lots of tissues layers...pull back pull back...darkness inside gut...reach in for baby...lungs open now...twist head out like screw...baby ok."

It's sounds like a telegram of the events. But we muddle through. Alejandro gives us a ride home, where we relax at last. However, it's a Saturday night--so we can't go to bed early. Instead we opt to check out a movie. Alejandro, Holly and I cram into the two-seater truck to make our way out to Cineápolis. Juno's all sold out, so we opt for "Jumper," a mistake, I'm sure we'd all admit. Holly wants me to inform all of you that even though we all recognized within the first 10 minutes that this movie would be bad, we stayed through the whole thing. Apparently, it's the kind of bad you sit through and then joke about later--as opposed to the kind of bad where you throw your popcorn at the screen and run out in disgust.