Oaxaca, Mexico

Next up we headed to Oaxaca City (pronounced Wa-haka), about 7-8 hours by bus, south of Mexico City. Mainly we were using this as a stopover to break up the otherwise even longer trip south so we only really had one night and one full day here before catching an overnight bus. Oaxaca City was quite cute though and was the beginning of us seeing more colonial architecture, very colourful too. It was nice to be in a smaller town again too after the enormity of Mexico City.

Again we arrived in the dark, about 8:30-9pm so it was hard to orientate ourselves with the place first off. We were starving as well but thankfully there was a little taco place still open just around the corner from our hostel. We had such good food here we went back the next night pre-overnight bus. It was our first taste of tacos al pastor, which is basically spit-roasted pork meat like kebabs. Apparently this name actually comes from the Lebanese merchants who immigrated to Mexico City in the 1900s and brought this concept with them, because "pastor" means shepherd. So now it is intertwined with the Mexican culture too and it's a great mix to say the least, as the pork is usually cooked with chilli and other miscellaneous herbs and spices. NOM.

With the day we had in Oaxaca City we explored the small historic town and also caught a bus up to the top of one of the mountains on the outskirts of the town called Monte Alban. Like Mexico City, Oaxaca is at altitude (1555m) but situated on a plateau with higher peaks surrounding it. So aside from awesome views of Oaxaca and the valley below, Monte Alban also had ruins from an ancient town, dating back to 300-900 AD.

There were big pyramids, the Gran Plaza, tombs and a ball court where they used to play an ancient game called Pok ta Pok. This game between two teams involved trying to get the ball through a hoop in the middle of the court, but only being able to touch the ball with their hips or knees. Slightly hard to comprehend how this would work!

Edit: We were fortunate enough to see this game being played in real life in Mérida - see that post for further info!

To be fair Mike and I aren't massive on ancient ruins or buildings/history in terms of buildings but they were interesting to see and difficult to comprehend how they were even built at that time with who knows what kind of tools.

Time to brave the first of (hopefully not too many) overnight buses. Wish us luck!Read more