Thursday, September 20, 2007
Monte Alban
We went to Monte Alban yesterday, at the top of one of the neighboring mountains. (Oaxaca City is in the valley.) It was a prominent city in this region of Mexico for about 1000 years, roughly 400 BC - 600 AD, but don't quote me on that! It is believed to have been occuped by the Zapotec people, an indigenous tribe still in existence today. (The weavers we saw last Saturday are Zapotec.) Monte Alban is a fascinating place, and really beautiful. The various buildings served as temples, houses for the elite families, meeting places. There was a building devoted to scientific astronomical observations and an open-air sporting facility. All quite impressive. We are heading to Puebla for the weekend tomorrow and then to Mexico City from Monday to Thursday of next week. I almost forgot the last picture - that is me eating chapulines (grasshoppers!). Magdalena, the mother of the family we are living with, is in the background of the photo. She bought some chapulines for us to try. She said the small ones are the best, and she bought them from someone who cleans them very well, then roasts and flavors them with chile, garlic, lime juice, and salt. They are good - I couldn't really taste the grasshopper flavor (whatever that is!), and they are supposed to be a good source of protein. :)
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4 comments:
2 points for adventuresome eating! Sweet views and doesn't look to crowded.
those are some great shots. btw... if you e-mail me how to logon on to your blog editing page, i can try and help show you how to lay out photos with text.
that's pretty cool... grasshoppers, eh? i gotta ton of them in yard... should we have a cookout?? ;)
yeah, Andy, you're right. Really not that crowded. Part of it is that it's the off-season for tourism. Oaxaca is also still recovering from uprisings that occured about a year ago. It was perfectly safe when we were there.
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