Adventures of David and Paul: Adios Oaxaca! Pyramids, Market Stroll, and Lucha Libre

After spending several days in Oaxaca, for our last full day most of our time was spent outside the city at two nearby attractions - the historic ruins of Monte Alban, and the huge Sunday market in Tlacolula.

We started the day around the kitchen table with some great pastries our friends picked up from Pan: AM. We had arranged with our AirBnB owner to get a driver for the day. It is possible to get to the ruins and the market by mini-bus, but they're in opposite directions and we wanted the flexibility and convenience that comes with a personal driver. Our driver, Hector, was great. He didn't speak English, but we managed and even had some conversations about sports teams in Atlanta.

We went straight to the ruins before the day warmed up too much. There's no shade, and we read the morning is the best time to go, and we second that advice. Monte Alban is a vast complex of ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site built by the Zapotec people and occupied from about 500BCE to 500CE. We spent a couple of hours walking around the impressive ruins.

The courtyard of our AirBnB, complete with weird tree.

A ballcourt. Those aren't bleachers, but were originally smooth surfaces the ball would hit.

The vast central yard.

View towards Oaxaca. Unfortunately it was hazy.

Carvings in the rock.

More carvings on the observatory, showing vanquished enemies.

The giant set of stairs up to the south platform.

Panoramic view from the top of the south platform.

Cactus and a pyramid!

A large pyramid on top of the south platform.

Looking out across the courtyard form the north platform.

Our group!

Tree pose with a tree. I know, original.

After leaving Monte Alban, Hector took us to the Tlacolula Sunday market, about an hour drive to the east. It's a huge market that takes over the whole center of the city, with blocks and blocks of clothes, food, and a variety of goods for sale. Most of the market is just set up along the streets, but the permanent installation in the middle has a large hall famous for smoked meats. Hector took us to his favorite little stall, where we all had goat soup and beer.

David looking out at the agave fields.

Part of the market, which stretched on an on and on.

The church in the center of town, right next to the covered market.

The inside of the church was over the top.

Part of the covered market. Pick some meat, grill it up!

Colorful flags and a decorative goat head.

Paul with goat soup!

David at lunch.

The place for chilis!

Selling veggies in the market.

Smoky hall of grilled meat.

After eating and walking around for a while, we went back to the car and started back toward Oaxaca. On the way we made a brief stop in the small but cute center of El Tule. There's not much to it, but it's a pleasant stop and has a ginormous tree, which some claim is the widest tree on earth.

The center of El Tule, with the church and the huge tree on the left.

Back in Oaxaca we relaxed for a bit then visited the inside of the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman. This is the church that we saw a lot of weddings in front of the past few days. The inside is impressive, with loads of intricate decoration. Next we continued walking south of the central district to grab a drink before our big plans for the night - a lucha libre match! We found a hole in the wall bar called Bony's and enjoyed a couple of drinks.

Inside Santo Domingo.

Dramatic lighting from the windows.

The main dome.

A neat building - Oaxaca has a few gems like this.

Owl art.

Looks like Cuba!

Drinks at Bony's!

We made our way to San Francisco arena, a small indoor facility on the south side of the city center for some good old fashioned Mexican wrestling. We saw the event advertised on posters around town. Lucha libre is over-the-top, scripted wrestling. We were surprised how much the wrestlers went in to the audience - at one point a whole row of people in seats was taken out by a wrestler being thrown out of the ring! We went to lucha libre in Mexico city, which was very different. In Oaxaca it was a smaller affair but with a lot of audience interaction, while in Mexico city it was in a giant arena and was more like watching a game. Lucha libre is definitely an interesting cultural experience.

They had 6-packs of beer for sale. Of course we got one.

There was an over-the-top gay wrestler named Rasputin, who was teamed up with a police wrestler. They won!

The crowd watching the wrestling.

We had to leave a bit early from lucha libre to walk to our dinner reservations at Origen. We had a really good meal here, probably our second favorite place in Oaxaca behind Los Danzantes. Great high-end Mexican food and excellent service. We ended the busy day with a leisurely walk back to our Airbnb.