Mexico 2005 - First upload...

London to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to Mexico City, about 24 hours we reckon from home to hotel. Next day was a six hour bus trip on to Oaxaca and we'd finally reached base camp one, very weary but relieved. The only casualty along the way was our medicinal bottle of Jack Daniels which died unopened on the floor of the Oaxaca bus terminal. We took it philosophically though, and considered it a blood sacrifice in the Keith Richards style to the ancient gods of these lands.

Through necessity, we had to grab the first hotel with a vacancy of any sort. But the suite at the Hotel Salvador failed on all fronts, not only was the hot water erratic but there was no bath mat (Folly's favourite) and the toilet seemed to be missing its seat too. So the next day we moved to the Hotel Casa Arnel, a far superior and convivial establishment in which to rest and start planning.

We've procured the expedition vehicle, a slightly ropey VW Beetle but it's coped with our first foray which included having to cross some railways tracks at a place where nobody was supposed to. So questionable brakes and suspiciously heavy steering aside, she seems fit for our purposes.

Time for some pyramids then...

Our first destination was Monte Alban, the capitol of the Zapotec people. On a mountain spur 400 metres above the three interconnecting valleys below, they constructed one of the most impressive ancient cities in all the Americas. Begun in around 500 BC, this first required the top to be completely levelled, an enormous human undertaking in itself. On this they then constructed a series of temples and palaces around and in the middle of an enormous central plaza. There's a ball court too as well as what's thought to be a celestial observatory due to it's atypical alignment with all the other structures. As the power and influence of this city grew in the Oaxaca region, it reached its peak between 300-700 AD when its population is estimated at about 25000 and with control of over 200 other settlements in the valleys around. Between 700-950 AD though, it fell into decline for reasons so far unknown and was abandoned after more than 1000 years of occupation. After the demise of the Zapotecs, the later Miztec people followed on to dominate this region and used Monte Alban to bury their dignitaries. Tomb 7 as it is called, contained one of the largest finds ever made of pre-Hispanic gold.

The pyramids here are very stylistic compared to others in Mexico but as they were used for the same purpose, are pyramids never the less. Monte Alban was the pinnacle of Zapotec architectural achievement and they are also credited with the first writing system and calendar in Mexico. But where did the Zapotecs come from and all of this begin?

Next stop then was the small village of San Jose del Mogote. It took us a while to find as our map proved to be wildly inaccurate about its true location but we succeeded eventually, thanks to Sherpa Fran's eagle eyes. Archaeologists have determined that this was where people first ceased being hunter gathers who lived in the mountains all around and moved to the valley floors and began farming, some time around 1500 BC. An homologation of dwellings or proto-village first, it grew ever larger peaking between 650-500 BC, by which time it was a sizeable place. Although not much remains today, it once had a central plaza almost as big as Monte Alban and for us most importantly, what has until recently been called the oldest pyramid in the Americas. This survives, apparently largely unexcavated and we had free run of the place. From the top, other mounds were clearly visible dotted between the houses and it seemed remarkable to us that something this important should remain largely untouched.

The village itself was fantastic with really helpful, friendly people in marked contrast to the urbanites of Mexico City and Oaxaca. Rightly proud of their heritage, they run a community museum which sadly was shut during our visit as the man with the key had gone to town for the day. But that's the way things sometimes go in Mexico !

Tomorrow we head for the hills, well mountains actually and really quite big ones at that. We'll have to negotiate our way between a couple that are over 10000 feet as we head for our next target, Monte Flor, a site we've been unable to find any background information on. Let's hope our map is a little more accurate with this one.