Same routine as yesterday, except when we got to the office we left almost right away.  

 








 

 

 
Went to Monte Alban first. The guide spent about 20 min. explaining the site in Spanish. I had breakfast: good tasting omelet and black beans with fresh squeezed orange juice. $9 with tip: everything was about double what you pay elsewhere; typical tourist trap; although I paid only $3 for a t-shirt from a vendor outside the site.  

There are 'entrepreneurs' all over the area, even among the ruins: most are reasonable with their pricing, and you can always bargain.  

 
http://www.advantagemexico.com/oaxaca/monte_alban.html  
http://www.mesoweb.com/mpa/montealban/montealban.html  
http://www.mexonline.com/oaxaca/oxarc101.htm
 
As previously stated, ruins don't do much for me unless they are truly impressive. This one is okay, but I'm looking forward to Tikal and others. Spent two hours there mostly climbing up and down, though most of the structures are off limits, and, as you can see, a lot are unfinished (don't know if they'll reconstruct these or leave them as is).  


Next, we went to a place that makes wood carvings, mostly of animals, called alebrijes.  


 













The guys do the wood carving, the girls do the painting, mostly. Interesting to watch them work, how they do everything by hand. Their store is tourist priced; cheaper pieces in the markets, though I don't know about authenticity. On the way out of the town of Arrazola, there were more stores; I wonder how their prices are.  

 

 








Our next stop was Cuilapam.  

  






 


 

Big attraction: unfinished church. In 1520 the Spanish came into a town of 43,000 and began building this church. Construction stopped several decades later, as the town declined (population in 1600 was at 7,000).  


 



 
It's dinner time. We went to another buffet place: pretty much the same items as the place we went to yesterday. Liked everything here a little better, and about $1 cheaper.  



State government offices.  

  















 
 

Last stop was San Bartolo. Home of black pottery. The clay extracted from the local soil is grey and can be fired as is, or polished just before final firing to give it the shiny black finish.  


 
Got back at 7pm. Read and went to sleep.