The week has been relatively tame on this side of the Rio Grande. No strippers, no Bee Gees, but, of course, a little mezcal. My B'lore buddy, Gautham, and his wife, Lara, had a gathering at their place on Friday night. The gathering was a farewell to our Swiss friends, Dave and Sebastian (fondly known as Sea-Bass), who headed back home this Saturday. Great guys, who have been a ton of fun over the last two weeks. Gautham and Lara have bitten the bullet, and moved to Oaxaca for a year. Gautham is in Spanish class with me, and Lara is teaching English at a local school. They rent a beautiful little house in the nearby hilly town of San Felipe. Is quite an experience to be at a soirée with people from all over the world, hearing at least six languages being spoken at once. Needless to say, the following day involved a bit of a hangover...'tengo una resaca' or 'estoy crudo', which actually translates into 'I am raw'!
I spent most of today at Monte Albán with some German classmates. They are actually not all German - some are Swiss - but the title sounded better with just German. German, Swiss. Indian, Pakistani. Same thing. ;) Monte Albán is the ancient capital of the Zapotec people - one of the important indigenous (pre-Hispanic) people of Mexico. As of lover of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Monte Albán translates into 'White Mountain', though it is named after the hundreds of trees bearing white flowers that grow in the area. Monte Albán is an incredible site, resting on a flattened hilltop about 1,200 feet above the Oaxacan valley (about 30 minutes by bus from Oaxaca City). There are spectacular 360° views of the city below and the mountains of the Sierra Norte. It is estimated that Monte Albán was originally occupied around 500 BC; just a few years before the birth of John McCain. Over the centuries, temples, palaces, ceremonial centers and tombs were built on this hilltop. (I´ll post some photos on my web album later this week.) Supposedly, some of the carved hieroglyphs and a dot/bar system suggest that the ancient residents here may in fact have been the first people to use writing in Mexico...old bloggers! And then, between 700 and 950 A.D., for some unknown reason, Monte Albán was abandoned and fell into ruin.
Hasta luego!
