aching quads

10:40PM, internet cafe, last night in oaxaca!

the aching quads are from scaling monte alban yesterday. though i´m in pain now, i have to admit that it was worth the hike. they say that monte alban was built as a holy center on a mountain top overlooking the pueblos of the valley below. the view of village houses dotting the countryside flanked by green mountains is breathtaking. within the ruins, we scaled a small pyramid, saw an ancient ball court, passed by the remains of building where they watched stars, where they danced... it was amazing.

later that afternoon, after having visited el ex-convento santiago in cuilapan - an amazing never-finished dominican monastery built in the the 16th century - we decided to go to a local craft village, arrazola. This village´s special craft were wood carved figures called alebrijes.

after making two bus changes along bumpy not necessarily paved roads, our 15 year old bus driver delivered us to the entrance of arrazola where we were met by two eleven year old boys - ramon and josue - who asked us if we wanted to see some wood figures. we could go to the craft market, ramon told us, but the shops there were *very expensive* and he knew a better place where we could watch the artisans work and choose from *three* rooms of wooden crafts.

ramon and josue (who had surprisingly cool, gelled, spiky hair for an 11 year old ) thus became our guides through the city, taking us from craft house to craft house, as well as to the local catholic church (at my insistence). the church in town is painted the color of an orange creamsicle and is under renovation. we slid along the the slick floor to the altar and then back. as we exited the church, jean told us to look up at the mountains. i did and saw monte alban right before us! ramon told us that they used to be able to walk directly up the mountain to the ruins, but that recently they had built a wall or a fence to prohibit unauthorized crossing to the ruins.

as he was explaining this, a middle-aged woman approached and asked us if this was our first time in oaxaca.

yes, this is our first time here, jean and i said.

do you think that you'll come back.

oh yes, we've really enjoyed it here.

well you should come back, she says. either by yourselves. or next time with your husbands!

jean and i suppress a collective sigh.

yeah! next time we'll bring the husbands.

heh.

***

for a different take on our adventures, check out callista's blog.

www.n-spiration.com/callista

dos mujeres, un camino. you know what i mean.