Expedition (December 30)

(Map of the day.)

Andrew and I set off to see some of the temple sites that weren't included in yesterday's trek. The first challenge: finding the second-class bus terminal. This place provided new definitions for the words 'seedy' and 'rundown.' The terminal itself had many wickets to buy tickets, however you just pay the driver money when you get on the bus; we never bought a single ticket. As we were just figuring this out, a corpulent man asked us if we were going to Mitla (all of our destinations were on the road to Mitla, so a Mitla-bound bus was what we needed). The man quickly ran back outside, and proceeded to chase down and whistle at a departing bus. It didn't see him, and left him in the dust. This was highly embarrassing, as the area was full of people waiting for their rides; they stared at him and us. And it turns out, the next bus was coming in 20 minutes. Hardly a big deal.

When we boarded the rickety bus, we managed to convey that we were only going as far as Yagul, an old temple site. The ride was pretty short; the unceremoniously let us off in the middle of nowhere at an intersection along the highway. I think they were laughing at us as they drove away. The temperature was about 30 degrees.

Across a field were cliffs that had a painting that is 3000 years old (at least according to yesterday's tour guide; he had pointed it out as we passed it on the highway). Click on the pic to enlarge it, and you can see the light beige figure in the centre of the frame:



We started up the small road that had been pointed out for us, and began a two kilometre uphill trek. We passed two guys digging a ditch beside a field; they stopped their work to stare at us. We arrived at Yagul drenched with sweat, and delighted to find we were the only visitors. The site was quite large, had an excellent example of a ballcourt, and had tombs that we could explore (they aren't nearly as exciting as they sound), although these ones had some great stone faces flanking the entrance:



A view from above; you can see the ballcourt to the left, and the white-walled maze of a bunch of walls to the right:



A closer-up of the walls. What is unique about this site is that many of the stone walls were plastered over:



Yagul's ballcourt; I'm standing where games were played whose outcomes were used to predict everything from the weather to upcoming battles:



We spent about two hours exploring before making our way back down to the highway. On the way, Andrew tried his hand at filmmaking:



Our plan was to try and flag down another bus or a colectivo heading towards Oaxaca. Luckily, randomly, some guy was at the intersection (I have no idea why; there is nothing nearby that he could have come from), and he had just hailed a bus. We sprinted, got on, and caught our breath during the short drive to Dainzu.

We were again let off at a lonely intersection. We set off down the curving side-road, and found Dainzu after about two kilometres. It was even more deserted than Yagul; there wasn't even a parking lot and the ticket booth was abandoned (although the groundskeeper found us later -- he had been chillin' in a little shack in a far-off corner of the site).

The site consisted of one temple and some foundations:



The temple ruin had a large tomb that had unusually high ceilings and a wide large stairwell (most of the other tombs have been hobbit-sized):



There were also excellent carvings on the outer walls of the pyramid:



And yet another ballcourt:



We headed back to the highway, and caught a colectivo (a taxi that continually picks up people until the car is full) back to the city. Due to traffic, he couldn't get us to the bus terminal, so he dropped us near-ish, and we managed to eventually find another colectivo that would take us to the town of Atzompa for $70Mxn (our return trip only cost $14Mxn, so we were clearly given the Gringo Rate on our way out). This town is known for its green-glaze pottery and was not located close to any other sites or towns that we would be visiting (hence hiring a car to take us there).

The town seemed fairly small and a few packed of dogs, often fighting roamed the streets. We wandered the streets and just walked into open doors into rooms stacked high with wares. We were literally walking into people's houses and workshops:



After visiting a few places, we found a few items worth their tagged price. It was clear from looking at the people that life was really hard in this town.