We spent yesterday checking out the ancient ruins at Monte Alban, a site that was inhabited by the Olmecs, Zapotecs, and Mixtecs from about 500 BC to 1000 AD. It was supposedly the first city built in Mexico and was a very impressive feat of engineering and much larger than I expected. The complex was built on top of mountain which was flattened on top to allow them an incredible defensive position over encroaching enemies. It was also designed with incredible acoustic engineering, allowing priests; and leaders’ speeches to be projected around the complex for all their people to hear. Additionally, there were 2 buildings that were designed with a hole in the perfect place to allow sunlight to come in only on specific days of the year, which would indicate important dates such as the start and end of rainy season (to indicate when to plant corn) or important religious events. To this day, this method still works, which indicates that they had the ability to do calculus 2500+ years ago. In addition to calculus and astronomy, they also had the ability to farm, had water control and storage systems, could tell time and had a calendar, had an advanced numbering system, and also were very advanced in medicine. They had a good understanding of human anatomy, could mend broken bones, perform surgeries and there is even evidence they did brain surgeries.
The real adventure began after we left Monte Alban. We took a taxi to get there and really had no plan as to how we were getting home. We had hoped there would be some taxis waiting in the parking lot when we finished, but no such luck. We also had the phone number of our taxi driver that dropped us off, but we didn’t really feel like waiting 45+ minutes for him to come pick us up. We found an trail that appeared to lead back to Oaxaca, so we decided to hike down and try to get to the main road to flag down a cab. So we hiked down the mountain to the highway but quickly realized this random section of the highway was not a good place to flag down a cab and so we kept going down the mountain on unmarked trails, through the desert and eventually reached a small village on the outskirts of Oaxaca.
We were quite the attraction there, everyone we encountered stared at us like, “where in the hell did these gringos come from and what are they doing here” 😂. Eventually we flagged down a tuk-tuk who was able to take us into the city to catch a cab to take us home after about 4 miles of trekking. Overall, it was a solid little adventure that gave us some interesting perspective on the Oaxacan landscape and some areas of Oaxaca that are not frequented by tourists.
- Oaxaca Rundown
- Hurricane Avocado
- The van with wings
- Oaxaca: Monte Alban
