El Mirador y Las Ruinas Número Uno - Día Dos

My girl all ready to explore.

Our FFD (First Full Day), began with a great breakfast provided by the hotel kitchen staff. Each day the staff would make us eggs, any way you like them, a meat, and fresh fruit. Coffee and tea was provided along  with bread snacks to get us fed and on our way for each adventure. The kitchen staff was so nice, we tipped them well and they really appreciated our gesture.

We started our day by loading into the van and Eladio snaked the rig through the traffic up to an overlook that give a panoramic view, the locales call this area El Mirador, a spot overlooking the valley where you can see all of the valley below.

Across from this lookout point you can see the many colors of the houses that clinging to the side of hills.  The colors create a montage that shimmers as the heat rises from the valley. A monument to Benito Juárez has been erected at this mirador. Rosario, our guide for the week, told us the story history of this man who is such a hero to so many in Mexico.

Heading out on the FFD.

Early morning view from our room.

Houses across from the mirador.

We drove down and across the valley, up the hillsides and onto the top of one of the many mountains that surround this city. There we entered Zona Arqueológica de Monte Albán . These ruins was one of the earliest cities in Mesoamerica. We were told that they have been dated back to 1000+ years before Christ.  There we spent the afternoon exploring the ruins and marveling at how advanced this culture was. They had water pools with running fresh water and they played sports in their facilities. The ruins we explored had been excavated and exposed, but there were said to be miles of undiscovered ruins hidden below the mountain tops. 

This map shows a overhead viiew of the 
excavation site.

Rosario explains the history of
this archeological site.

In the background, to the left,  you can see
El Mirador, if you know where to look.

View from the top of one of the pyramids.

The main sporting arena.

Huge rock slabs carved with pictographs 

The sports arena from the other direction.

They called this a Mexico Cotton Tree.

In the video below, the building that we're standing in front of is named after the Quetzal, a bird. The Quetzal is said to have magical qualities. Supposedly, if you stand in front of that building and you clap, because of the acoustics, instead of hearing hands clapping, the acoustics make a sound that is said to sound like the Quetzal bird. What do you hear?

The evening performance.

Explorandor - Día Uno

Over the past five weeks we have gotten into our daily life patterns and have acclimatized to the temperatures. It is time to change things up a little and go out and see more of Mexico.

Linda got an email from our friends Jill and Barry. They had set up a trip with a small group of four couples to travel to and explore the area around Oaxaca City and invited us to join their party.

Ruth hands out our boarding passes for the day.

Oaxaca City is located inland and south in the lower part of Mexico. To get there we had to take a van to the Manzanillo airport and fly Aeromexico to Mexico City where we transferred to a plane that flew for two hours south into the high country landing at the Oaxaca International Airport. This journey started at 8:00 am and we landed in our new destination at about 4:00 pm. This included a three hour lay over in Mexico City.

This long first day started a bit bumpy. Our tour company picked us up at our casa and rendevoused at Jill and Barry's home to load into a van for the airport. Just as we arrived at the meeting point, a group of Villa Orbregon taxis pulled in and blocked our van. The taxi drivers were not going to let a van from the airport pick up passengers in their territory.  This is not unusal. Taxis from the local towns around Manzanillo Airport can not pick up passengers at the airport proper, because the airport drivers won't allow them this option. There was much chatter and hand waving, but finally Ruth, the owner of Mex-Eco Tours, said it was not worth the delay and loaded us into three taxes.

Popocatepetl and Iztacciuatl
two volcanos from our plane.

The rest of our travel was uneventful and our Aeromexico flight landed (after a pretty turbulent entry) at the Mexico City Airport where we connected with one of the guides, Noel, and another Mex-Eco tour group from Puerta Vallarta. Noel lead us on to our plane that took us to our final destination for the day Oaxaca City.

At this point we met our van driver, Eladio, and our daily tour guide, Rosario. 

Our hotel, Hotel Marques del Valle, in Oaxaca’s historic centre was a wonderful home base for our stay and exploration. It was located on the main jardin for the historic center of the city. 

Our  hotel from the plaza.

She looks pretty good after a full day of travel.

Cathedral of Oaxaca, north side of zocalo.

Our hotel lobby at check-in.

Another view of the Cathedral.

Coco Beach

 If you can drive or take a taxi up to highway 200 and then follow it southeast you will come to an intersection just past El Aguacate. At that crossroads, you follow a paved road in the direction of the ocean and after crossing several washouts, the road turns and parallels the beach.  This area is called Coco Beach and that is where we took a taxi so that we could meet some friends and enjoy lunch at Restaurant Palma Negra.

Linda and I shared a taxi with Grant and Jacquie. Barry drove adding Jill, Iris, David and Judy to the lunch-table group.

We explored the property and then enjoyed a wonderful lunch in a beautiful setting. Hope you enjoy the photos we captured while there.

The pool and fun area.

Future cabins for rentals.

Coco Beach, looking west.

Looking east. No shade anywhere.

Nice beach, but very hot.