Day 301 – Group Tour of Monte Alban Ruins
Today we went on a tour of the Monte Alban Ruins with Lescas Co Tours. The company is located in front of the Oaxaca Cathedral in the Zocalo. The tour cost us 150 MXN / $11.25 AUD per person and we booked it yesterday. It included transport and an English speaking guide only. The real total including admission and the “optional” lunch is 375 MXN / $28.13 AUD per person. There were also options to go to the site by ourselves, but we felt it would cost more if we wanted a guide, and we wouldn’t see the other sites included in the tour.
The tour would only start at 10am, so we had breakfast at Cafe Brujula. Once we arrived to Lescas Co Tours, we had to wait a little while for the van to arrive. We got into a van with some locals and foreigners.
Monte Alban Ruins
We arrived at the site around 10:30am. The entrance to the site is a short uphill climb away from the car park. We gave the 75 MXN / $5.63 AUD per person entrance fee to the guide who spoke limited English. At the site, we were merged into another English speaking tour guides group. The other guide only had 3 people, so it wasn’t a big group.
We found out that the site has been extensively excavated and repaired. This was a site that was created by the Zapotec people and its believed to have been founded in 500 BCE. The city is thought to have been abandoned after thousands of years.
It’s a very impressive site with a small museum. The site is on top of a mountain that was artificially flattened by the Zapotecs. The North Platform is very cool. The tour guide brought us here, talked for awhile and then let us have free time.
Bodies were buried in the family tomb, which was in the middle of the courtyard 
Amazing views of surrounding area Gallery of the Danzantes 500 to 200 BCE
The central plaza area is extremely large, and when you think about how long ago the mountain was flattened, it’s just incredible. You will see a lot of tour guides clapping in the plaza to show off the acoustics that are still present today, even without all the buildings.
The entire mountain was flattened Estela 9 Ancient Ball Court…potentially the first game with a rubber ball
Our original tour guide had told us to come back to the carpark at 1pm, which gave us 2.5 hours at the site. This was enough to see almost everything and take photos.
However, we later realised that we had missed out of Tomb 7, that we saw at the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca (Day 300). You can actually walk to it, which is past the museum. If you have a look please let me know how it was.
Alebrijes Autoctonos
After Monte Alban, we drove for around 30 minutes down some pretty bumpy roads to a very large wooden artwork shop called Alebrijes Autoctonos. No photos were allowed inside. We spent around 30 minutes here. The shop was full of very cool gifts that were meant to be unique. However, later when we were back in town, we saw the artwork everywhere for more reasonable prices.
“Optional” Lunch
The next stop was lunch at a restaurant called La Cabana del Indio. The tour agency told us that we don’t have to join in this Mexican Buffet unless we wanted. However, if you don’t join, I think you would just have to wait in the car while everyone else eats. There is no other restaurants in the area that we could see. The meal was 150 MXN / $11.25 AUD per person. In our opinion, the food was very average so it might be worth eating inside the car instead. Drinks are extra.
We actually had a chance to talk with the other tourists during lunch and it was nice to socialise. A Mexican family on holidays, was really friendly and they ended up paying for everyone’s drinks. They refused to take payment, no matter how hard we tried. They also acted like everyone’s translators for the trip when the guide was away. Very nice people.
Ex Convent of Guerrero Cuilapam
Following lunch, we went to the Ex Convent of Guerrero Cuilapam. The tour guide gave a 5 minute explanation about the site before giving us 15 minutes of free time. The convent was very nice and had no entrance fees.
There is a museum that has an entrance fee at the back, but we didn’t go as we didn’t have time.
Alfareria Dona Rosa
Our final destination was another workshop/store called Alfareria Dona Rosa. This workshop done really nicely. There is a demonstration explaining the process of making the black pottery. Once the demonstration was done, the lovely family from lunch time asked if a demonstration could be performed in English for our tour group.
They arranged an English speaking worker to translate for our tour group, which was really cool. We donated some money for the demonstration and ended up buying a few souvenirs. This place is super cheap compared to the first workshop we went to.
On the way back, it started the daily downpour. Luckily for a change we were inside the van. However, when we arrived back in Oaxaca it was still raining. We were driving straight past our hostel, so we got the driver to drop us off one street away. We ran back to the Hostal Don Alvaro to pick up our bags, which we had packed in the morning.
The rain had eased, so we started walking towards our first Airbnb experience. The place was called Comfortable Room in Jalatlaco. As we were walking the downpour restarted. We were drenched and so were our bags so we hailed a passing taxi. He let us in with a warming smile. He took us to the Airbnb and only charged us 50 MXN / $3.75 AUD, which according to the Airbnb host, is the expected price.
The Airbnb itself was very nice, with a massive room and toilet. It even came with an outdoor sun room and balcony. We were very impressed with our first Airbnb room.
After we settled in, the rain had stopped but the skies were still grey. We ended up walking to a nice restaurant called Nanixhe. The place was empty, but the staff were friendly. The food was a little more expensive than we would have liked, but it was nice and easy to get to. After dinner we just headed back to the Airbnb to sleep.
We also called Lescas Co Tours and booked another tour to the Mitla Ruins for tomorrow. Once more, the tour would be easier and cheaper than doing it ourselves. Despite the lunch being average, and the guide being very lazy, the transportation alone was cheaper than going by ourselves, to all the sites.