Oaxaca Tours

Up early - sun already warm by the time we had breakfast. I 'lashed out' and had huevos rancheros (fried eggs served on lightly fried corn tortillas topped with a tomato-chili sauce). 

 

I went for a walk while My Friend 'did his thing' at the hotel. Our tour to Monte Albán ('White Mountain') was scheduled for a pickup at 9:45 a.m. (but Mexican time so far is to be early!). Anyway, it meant I had about an hour and a half to wander around taking pikkies and I had a wonderful coffee at a place I had spied yesterday.

 

 It is very colourful as you can see -

Monte Albán is an ancient Zapotec archaelogical site atop a mountain 400 m above the Oaxaca valley. We were taken there with a group in a bus and had a wonderful tour with an excellent guide. There is a huge plaza on a flattened area on top of the mountain and this plaza houses many pyramids, tombs and temples. There is a neat little museum too. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

Very hot by midday - the umbrella was useful for shade. Back at the hotel, we decided on a siesta before heading out on our afternoon city tour scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

Our tour included a visit to the museum attached to the Santo Domingo church - Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca - housed in the former convent. The museo is immense and our visit was enhanced by the information provided by Montserrat as very few exhibits had any English captions. There is an ancient books library, jewellery, pottery, courtyards and - out the back - an amazing botanical garden occupying what were once the convent's orchards. 

From here we had another look inside the wonderful Baroque church of Santo Domingo and we visited a several galleries. By now it was dark. 

We said our goodbyes and we 'made tracks' for dinner at Los Danzantes, one of the top restaurants in town. 

We had a wonderful meal starting with mezcal cocktails which they brought with wonderful warm artesanal breads and muy picante (hot!!) dips; My Friend chose candied pork (Costillar de cerdo de chile pasilla y papas en polvo de chiles) which, despite the name was not picante; I had chicken which came wrapped in a plantain leaf, fried slices of plantain, rice and - in keeping with my dietary risk-taking today - mole! (Deshebrado de pollo con mole rojo, arroz con plátano macho frito). This was definitely the place to try the mole even though the sauce is associated with Puebla. This was excellent. We finished by sharing THE most delicious dessert (eat your heart out, Trace): Empanada de holjaldre, ate de membrillo, queso crema y reducción de vino tinto - wow!! (basically, puff pastry stuffed with quince jelly, cream cheese and red wine sauce. Oh wow! About $US45 total.