Friday, October 8, 2010 Oaxaca Villages

Today was a carbon-copy of yesterday. I took a shared taxi to Ocotlan for their Friday market, which took a little longer to heat up, but once it did, it was bigger than the one yesterday at Zaachila. My basis is that they had more turkeys at the one today. I had some more goat tacos and was serenaded by a pretty good mariachi band. After that, I came back to Oaxaca town. Luckily Oaxaca is smack-dab in the middle of all these little villages, because it takes over an hour to travel to each one, but then again, it only costs about $1 each way. I took a bus from the second class bus station, which was pretty funny. The first class one is brand new, with new bilingual signage, ample nice seating areas, well-paved driveways, and convenience stores and tourist information with computers. The second class one, on the other hand, has a huge pile of trash taking up a quarter of the lot, which is DIRT and has potholes, the terminal is made of wood, and there is no glass, screens, signs other than ones painted onto the wall back in 1990, or even lights. I took the most rickety school bus to Mitla, the furthest east village in the valley. I walked through the tiny town (on siesta) to the ruins, which were small and not that impressive. Instead, I walked up into the rural hills even above where anyone lived, so it was deserted. I walked through some grass fields filled with grasshoppers, in search of good vantage points. I was a little freaked out because there could be snakes, and the fact that I saw eagles flying overhead didn't put me at ease (remember, the Mexican flag has an eagle with a snake in it's beak). I took an equally rickety bus back to Oaxaca, and went online and DUN, DUN, DUN... checked my work email (nothing notable, thank goodness) and burned my pictures onto DVD just in case my camera gets stolen, etc., which would be unlikely because there's rarely a time when it's unattached to my wrist. I had the same amazing carne asada barbecue dinner again, and took a cab to the bus station for my 10pm bus east to Tuxtla Gutierrez.