We decided to change rooms today, hopefully to a less noisy room! We were picked up at 10am for the day trip to Monte Alban and several other nearby tourist attractions. The group was 6 Mexican people and us, therefore the guide (Jose-Maria) spoke in Spanish most of the time, with only the vital bits translated into English for our benefit.

After some time waiting around and then changing cars we headed out of Oaxaca and up a twisty mountain road to reach the ancient site of Monte Alban, which is perched on top of a mountain high above the Oaxaca Valley. We entered the site and were handed over to another guide, an old Mexican guy who explained that Monte Alban was built by the Olmecs but mainly used by the Zapotecs for over 10 centuries.

We climbed to a viewpoint where we got an overview of the entire site, it is certainly very impressive, the mountain top location adds considerably to its appeal. We climbed back down and looked at the ball court which was used for playing the ball game, an ancient ritual performed widely throughout MesoAmerica, in fact it is still played today in parts of Northern Mexico.

As we wandered around the site the guide explained may of the construction, he was obviously of Zapotec origin as he was staunchly pro Zapotec and equally anti Aztec. He was not happy that the Aztecs are widely known whereas not many people have heard of the Zapotecs. He explained that the Zapotecs had a good understanding of astronomy and had their own writing and numeracy systems.

After looking around the site we popped into the museum for a short while before setting off for San Antonio Arrazola, a village famous for its painted wooden figures (alebrijes). Katerina and I were particularly impressed by the lizards so we bought one each and I bought one as a present for Michelle.

Next stop was the Cuilapan de Guerrero, a 16th open chapel and ex-convent designed in a mainly Gothic style with many columns and archways. After a quick look around it was time for a late lunch so we headed to Zaachila where we stopped at a typical tourist place to sample some traditional Mexican food. I tried the steak, which was very big, very thin, and very tender.

Our final stop on the tour was San Bartolo Coyotopec, a village famous for its black ceramics. There we watched a demonstration of pottery making by a 75 year old Mexican who had been involved in pottery production for 64 years. He rolled out the clay and began to mould a ball shaped object. He did not use a pottery wheel as such, just two plates which he rotated using his fingers, and employed very simple tools to work his design, including a piece of old pottery to change the shape and a piece of old leather to smooth the clay.

The black colour of the pottery simply comes from the length of time the piece is fired for, in this case 8 hours, several hours longer and it becomes a gray colour. Afterwards we had the chance to buy some pottery, but we declined, and headed back to the hotel through a torrential downpour, the road was almost flooding at one point. We got back and bought some snacks and watched a movie (21 Grams) in the hotel room.

After breakfast we were picked up for our second day tour around the Oaxaca area. The group today was younger, we got chatting to an Australian girl who was traveling by herself, there were also some Spanish people and two Mexicans.

First stop was at Tule to look at a huge tree, certainly the biggest tree I have ever seen, with a diameter of over 14m. We walked around it and took some photographs, then Katerina bought a green ceramic bowl.

Next stop was at rug making place where the age old craft of spinning and weaving was demonstrated, it was quite interesting. The weaving is a very slow process, it takes on average one day to produce a 2cm strip of rug. Katerina was very impressed, and ended up buying a big rug

After looking at the rugs we visited the ancient site of Mitla. Mitla was built by the Zapotecs after they abandoned Monte Alban. At this point I had an argument with the tour guides as I was convinced they were not buying entry tickets for the group but simply pocketing our money for themselves. I confronted them and they obviously denied it, they did not hand over tickets to everybody and it was noticeable that only Katerina joined in, everybody else just stood there. Anyway, the argument wasn't going anywhere so we looked around the site, it was small but quite impressive.

The walls were constructed of stone with some mosaic patterns, there were also a couple of underground tombs which you could crawl down to. After the tour we had some time to look around the stalls outside the entrance, at this point the tour guide approached us and offered to give us our entrance money back, I refused and told him it was not the money (this action confirmed to me that the guide was guilty).

After Mitla we had about an hours drive up through the mountains to reach the petrified waterfalls at Hierve el Agua. There were some pools at the top of the falls (the falls are created by mineral deposits in the water), we then walked to a viewpoint at the other side of the hill where there were more petrified waterfalls.

Afterwards we had lunch at a cafe near the falls where we discovered a video camera that somebody had left behind (we took it back to Oaxaca). On the way back to Oaxaca we stopped at a Mezcal factory to see how the drink is produced. It is made from the guave cactus, in a process almost identical to tequila. We tasted some various flavours, it was OK, then headed back to Oaxaca.

We walked around the centre for a while before heading back to the hotel. Dinner was at a nice place on the edge of the Zocalo, it overlooked the square and had all the attributes of a very good restaurant with one exception, the food was terrible. I had a pasta dish and Katerina had a "small bird" dish, they both were composed of the same bland, sauce, however the Mexican red wine was very good.