mexican adventure: Oaxaca

Wow Oaxaca is an amazing city! The city is beautiful. It is surrounded by mountains. We heard that it is the most highly visited city in Mexico. A lot of people speak English there, but they always start out in Spanish first. This helped it keep it's Hispanic feel. There were a lot of amazing crafts and good restaurants. We got there and checked out some places to rent bikes. First we thought we may do a tour, but it seemed pretty expensive. So, we decided to keep looking we found one company that let you rent bikes on your own. It was much cheaper and we didn't have to follow a tour guide around. We decided to do that. Let me tell you, riding on the streets of Mexico on a bicycle is an adventure in itself! Especially on our journey home during the middle of rush hour. But, we were okay. It ended up being really fun. On our journey we did a loop that took us to Monte Alban. It was a steep climb, but definitely worth it. Monte Alban is this huge amazing ruin. It sits atop a mountain that overlooks the town of Oaxaca. The view from Monte Alban is incredible. The buildings at Monte Alban are incredible as well. The only bummer is that you can't enter them. But, I guess that will keep them protected for a lot longer. We wish we would've had more time at the ruins but we had to get back before sunset.

Scenery from our mountain bike trip to Monte Alban.

We finally made it to the top of the mountain. Hootie looking strong at the entrance to Monte Alban.

White flowers that were growing at the top of the mountain. View of the valley below.

Me in front of some of the ruins.

View of Monte Alban from atop one of the pyramids. The building in the center is an observatory. This building is laid out at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the buildings. On it's walls were heiroglyphs that recorded Monte Alban's military conquests of other towns.