Monday, January 19

Dainzú, Lambityeco, Mitla, Yagul

Last Tues we went on an excursion to four different Mixtec and Zapotec archeological sites around Oaxaca City: Dainzú, Lambityeco, Mitla and Yagul. It was a cool, almost chilly and windy day, but later the sun came out in time for a sweaty hike up to the fortaleza at Yagul. The professor is surprisingly spry and fast. He beat us all to the top of the rather steep hike, and barely seemed out of breath.

The sites were all pretty cool. Dainzú had carvings of ball players and danzantes similar to those at Monte Albán. Lambityeco was very small but had some neat face carvings of the rain god Cosijo. Mitla was huge, with temples and carvings intact, and a 16th century Spanish church built on top of the ruins. It even had some tombs we were allowed to crawl into. By the time we got Yagul, the fourth stop, it was 3 pm (we had left at 9) and everyone was tired. But it was probably the most interesting site, since enough walls remain for you to see the labyrinth-like structure. We also hiked up to the top of a hill and got an incredible panoramic view of the valley.

The 3 guys in our group decided to take an alternate overgrown path, in spite of the professor's warning that there were many plants that could cause allergic reactions. Of course one of them ended up with two cacti spines in his upper arm, and another with some sort of prickly thing in his hand. The third thoroughly enjoyed getting too close to the edge of huge drop-offs. That was the first day I lost my voice from so much shouting.

Professor W is a good tour guide. He has interesting anecdotes that start, "When I was excavating here in 1997..." He's also not afraid to say when he disagrees with one theory or another about what people did at said ruins. Makes for a more gossipy archeological history.

2 comments:

  1. there are ALWAYS those three guys. meh.

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  2. Ugh, I have a few of those kids. They wander off during excursions. It's awesome. No cacti here, though.

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