Day 5: Arrival Oaxaca, Oaxaca

Here it is already: time to leave Mexico City and go to the next place, next city..next state. The bus tickets already booked and the distance of 6 hours already waiting for us. The ride thank god is overnight departing at 12 so plan for the trip: zzZzzZZzz sleeeeep :)

When the van driver arrived to pick us up at the hostel the guy to us looked really fishy and i wont hide the fact that both of us were kinda worried about getting to destination..however as we are being thought more and more everday..looks are and can be decieving..as he was so helpful that he also showed us the direction which we should take towards our bus company :) gracias dios.

We were so surprised that to ride these (first class) busses the process was much like at a normal airport: including baggage check-in...which we did like the extra security.

Once at our stop we grabbed a taxi and off to the new hostel...blah no need to give more details about it since it was simply BAD...from the rooms to the personell...so unhelpful and unwilling to help at all. The hostel was located within some kind of complex..and we could not even sit down in the restaurant place (to wait for our pickup) because "you need to buy something"...so we decided to spend our money some place else and went round to visit this new city...

..even though it is the same country, this was a different state and believe me..it was very noticable. Not only from the building structures and the feel of being outside of the capital metropolis but also the people. The place we were staying at was kinda cool; full of teenagres, and full of life..we had time for quick breakfast and it was time for the tour of the day..Monte Alban ruins.

Even though these ruins are not as impressive as the ones of Theoutacan let me tell you: it still was as fascinating. These ruins were once built and populated by a different population and culture and this was quite visible: the Zapotecs..the tour guide we had is one of the most knowledgable persons I have ever met in my life. He has over 55 years of experience and still walking the ruins as if it was his 10th time explaining every little thing with passion and pride, he made these ruins even more intense to us. The Zapotec civilisation was already so advanced that even they knew about the stars configuration, about the solstice and they even performed cesarian births and in some cases open-brain operations (more of an euthanasia but they found proof that it sometimes worked)...

..after this it was off to a local village where the road trip was quite bumpy, felt just like being home. The village basically cuts down local trees and works them into piece of arts where the males are working on the design of the piece (from small ones to very complex single piece designs) while the women are working on the colouring..a very important skill for the community as it is one of their main ways of making money.

After this we went to another town where they specialise in Black Pottery. Here we were shown how they work it out all hand made (just like in the movie ghost just not so sexy)..but the finished product: beautiful.

Needless to point out that we couldnt resist not to buy...like in every other place, we are always buying stuff..I cannot see how we are going to manage to get back to malta with all this luggage :P

Now it was back to Oaxaca city where we went to a local bar and watched half of the Match between Mexico Vs. which was being played at the Aztec stadium (we had passed by it just the day before!) watching the game live amongst a restaurant full of locals was a great experience but we were too tired to survive the second half of the day so we decided to call it a day after a couple of beers, some tacos in a green dip and a shot of tequilla it was time for bed...Buenas noches.

P.S we were both so amazed at the beauty of the women here in Oaxaca, it was unbelievable especially if compared to the Capital where we practically didnt see any cuties at all. Hurrah !