Monte Alban and Food Tour 7 January 2024

 

Last night we booked a tour to Monte Aban with Rose and Jasen.

They joined us for breakfast at our hotel. 

When we were here on our first day we looked at the buffet which looked delicious but appeared to have no hot food, so instead we ordered a la carte. On this morning the four of us took the buffet option and got stuck into the beautiful fruit, yoghurt and pastries. Jasen spotted someone walking by with pancakes and asked where they got them. There was a whole room alongside dedicated to hot food that we hadn’t seen! So, even though we were all pretty full we managed stuff some more down our throats.

Once our driver arrived we travelled for only 30 minutes to Monte Alban, a mountain top ancient Zapotec metropolis. It is approximately 2000 years old and is estimated to have had a population of around 30,000. Our guide was really great and had great English, as he spoke we could imagine the people of that time going about their business. Every house had an underground tomb the same size of the house. This is where the family were entombed. 

He talked about the crops that were grown and how lush it is in the rainy season and I asked what they ate for protein. You guessed it, grasshoppers! He said that he has grasshoppers every day and proceeded to tell us the nutritional value. I have to say though, he did look pretty good for 65.

There are three other ruins on surrounding mountain tops. One is almost ready to open for tourists and we could easily see it across the valley. The other two are ‘still covered by nature’.

Carvings depicting captured men of high standing who have been castrated.

If you look closely you can see Lance in a pink short sitting at the top. These stairs were bloody hard work!

Most fascinating was a sport that was played in this time. It was a sort of basketball played with a 3 kilo ball, but you couldn’t touch the ball and you passed it by banging it with your hip or any other part of your body apart from your hands. And to score you needed to pass the ball through a hoop that was not horizontal and more like a hoop in the game of quidditch. And if you think that is weird then wait for this. The winners were sacrificed to the gods! This meant their family’s status would improve!

Monte Alban is a ‘must see’ if you ever come to Oaxaca.

Back in Oaxaca Central we met our next tour guide Carlo from ‘With locals’ tours. He was taking us on a food tour around Oaxaca. Carlo was really nice and has lived his life in Oaxaca. His English was great and his passion and knowledge of food came through loud and clear.

Our first stop was the Mercado La Cosecha. If you were walking last this place you would have no idea that this lovely food market lay beyond the doorway. 

We were outside in a shady area surrounded by food stalls. Caro grabbed our first lot of food which we tlayudas which we have had a couple of times now. But each one has been very different. These had cheese avocado and fresh tomato and I loved them.

Next were little crispy tortillas with I think chicken,salsa and local cheese. I have the name written as Jarnachas but am not sure if that is correct.

And then we had molote de plata o macho which I am sure is the correct name because I got Carlo to write it for me. These were little dumpling like things that had plantain hence the rich banana taste and local cheese, and they too were delicious.

This was all accompanied by guanaban juice which is  sour sop fruit. Sour sop is something that we had never tasted before and it was really refreshing and had bits of flesh in it. I was astounded that Lance loved it, those sorts of things are generally not his cup of tea. Speaking of tea we are really missing our English breakfast tea in the morning. Anyway, I digress. 

We moved off after using the toilet which was donation operated. I felt bad not donating as they had toilet paper in the cubicle and paper towels to dry your hands, but I only had one coin of 10 pesos left and wanted to keep it for emergencies!

Our next stop was on a street corner not far from our hotel and it was a little cart on the corner. Carlo ordered our taco and from a series of plastic bags stored in a hot tub which I imagine must have had some heat source, but it was not visible. Plucking out two small tortillas the cart guy then dug out some slow cooked shredded beef and we added a guacamole sauce and a salsa. It was just a little but spicy and delicious. Having two tortillas meant that it pretty much stayed intact as you ate it.

At around that time my stomach sent me a message. “You will be needing a bathroom very soon”

The next stop was about a 20 minute walk. My mind was racing, what if it is another street cart that we are going to and there is no bathroom. 

Finally we reached the Fonda market. Carlo had brought us here because he had grown up in this food mercado.  His grandparents had eaten here, his parents had eaten here, and he had eaten here since he was a small boy.

The Fonda market was very quiet and before I sat at the table I asked where the bathroom was. Thank goodness I had saved my 10 peso coin, they asked for only 5 pesos but I didn’t care and little did I know that Rose was right behind me with no peso coins in her pocket. “I’m with her” she said as she whisked by the toilet paper lady. The toilet was very clean, well it was when we went in, can’t say the same when we left!

More toilet talk:

I haven’t seen any signs but it has become apparent that the toilet paper does not go down the toilet, but should be put in the basket alongside the loo. 

There are a couple of problems with this. Firstly I have spent the last 60 years flushing it away so before you know it I have dropped it in the potty. And secondly, number twos. I just can’t go there!

So if you see on the news that Mexico has suffered a terrible sewage blockage then you can blame me!

Back to the food. At the Fonda market Carlos ordered four dishes and when they arrived they were in clay plates and were blistering hot, bubbling profusely.

The first was a minced chorizo in a salsa sauce, the chorizo here is amazing! Smokey and full of flavour.

Second was a local cheese soaked in a salsa, this was equally as good, I loved the soft cheese, it was full of flavour.

Third was a chicken mole. The shredded chicken was  moist and soaked in the delicious mole sauce.

Finally, well almost finally was enchilada mole with a chocolate mole sauce. I think this may have been my favourite.

These were all washed down with fresh pineapple juice.

And finally Carlo pulled a small bottle with a crochet cover and offered some mezcal. Every but me said yes, and I was tempted, mainly because of the cute little cups made from some sort of coconut or gourd.

All in all this was a great food tour, Carlos was very genuine and took us to his favourite places. He could talk about the food and you could see his own love of food coming through.

Of course we didn’t need dinner! So we toddled off for a beer or two at Prago which has a couple of roof top bars. We sat and watched the sun set nursing beers, margaritas and for me a couple of mojitos.