Oaxaca

Trip Start Oct 01, 2008
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Trip End May 08, 2009


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Flag of Mexico  , Central Mexico and Gulf Coast,
Monday, December 8, 2008

Oaxaca is a smashing city. Wonderful colonial buildings and squares as well as first rate bars and restaurants  deservedly make the place a major stop on the backpacker trail. However, more memorable for me will be the trips we took outside the city. Monte Alban is considered one of the most important pre-Columbian sites and looking around at the vast complex of tombs, stone carvings and ball courts, many astronomically aligned, it's hard to imagine how such a sophisticated civilisation was decimated by the arrival of a small number of Europeans. The following day we headed to Teotitlan, a traditional weaving village. A local indigenous family treated us to a superb lunch and a demonstation of the tradional weaving and dying methods. (Antonio, the father did give us a bit of a shock when he asked, in English, if we wanted to see his mother dying - it took us a moment to realise he was talking about her masterly colouring the fabrics with various plants and herbs) The grandmother, who spoke little Spanish, had in fact been photographed by the National Geographic a few weeks previously.  
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