We have conquered the North Platform of Monte Alban!

When last at the ruins of Monte Albán, you found Mary Ann and Tom electing to not climb the North Platform due to some very scary steps and no railing.  Today was the visit to this incredible UNESCO Heritage Site for our friends Mall and Tom. Everyone we take there is so impressed with these ruins.  While they were covering the whole mountain, we concentrated on our missed North Platform.

While the Boyd’s, with their long legs, were covering the whole complex in 1 ½ hours, we spent a leisurely hour scouring the tall ruins of the north end. Rather than go up the scary center stairs from the grand plaza, we accessed it by using several side stairs, all which were very manageable.  When you get to the top the views are magnificent.  We chatted with a beautiful Polish girl (I think they are all beautiful) touring by herself, who has been working in Brazil and has been visiting Mexico.  We took her photo with her camera and told her to send it to her mother and tell mom the photo was taken by a handsome young man!  She was pretty amazed when we told her how interesting and beautiful we thought Warsaw and Krakow were.

Following refrescos in the café, after our strenuous morning, we were off down the hill to Atzompa for another look at the green pottery.  Tom and I thought we had escaped any buying and thought the ladies were right behind us when we took a seat in the El Patio café.  Then the time got longer and longer, and we suspected that we might be in local craft buying trouble. When the ladies did arrive at our table they surely were carrying bags. I thought Mall had committed to not carrying anything large back to Leavenworth, but Mary Ann had led her astray. 

Mall in her two or three trips around the Casa de Artesanias had been going back to the same jug (pot; vessel; art object) and saying things like “I just don’t have enough room in my home for objects to be out on surfaces”.  I had been saying “you need to be expanding more than your kitchen when you start the re-model”.  She is the now proud owner of a priceless art object, which we will be looking to admire, when we visit them in Leavenworth.  This assumes Tom can live through carrying it on his lap all the way.

 

 

The view from the north platform of Monte Alban

 

The conquered north platform

 

Quirky Living Note

 

Fresh fruit and vegetables – It seems that you can purchase fresh and vegetables everywhere here in Oaxaca.  You find them in the mercados, supermercados, mini-mercados, at roadside stands, vendors in the middle of the highways, tiny fruit and vegetable stores in every block, and what today was a new one.  We saw a pickup truck with a canopy going door to door coming up our street loaded artfully with fruit and vegetables.  Well, if you cannot go out, they will come to you!