Expat in Mexico... the journey continues!

  Monte Alban and Mitla are the two most famous "sitios arqueologico" outside of Oaxaca.  When Monte Alban collapsed/was abandoned (and it is evidently a subject of dispute as to why this happened), Mitla became THE Zapotecan city of prominence. Evidently, there were settlers there as early as 200 A.D., but the town flourished between the years of 950 and 1521. Although much smaller than Monte Alban, it is cherished for the amazing Zapotecan symmetrical designs on many of the walls, remarkably preserved. It recently opened to visitors, only allowing 200 per day. I arrived before it even opened and was the first one inside! The story unfolds below.... (Note: owing to my usual technical difficulties on Blogger, I was not able to do proper captions/alignment on many of the photos. Forgive this annoying, formatting "blooper"! I am simply not savvy enough to know how to fix this frequently occurring issue.) Besides the amazing designs on the walls, equally remarkable is

 One of the best things about living here in Oaxaca is that the town is surrounded by beautiful countryside in every direction, AND is small enough to make a bicycling excursion out into it feasible and accessible in a fairly short amount of time.  Yesterday (Sunday), I went on my longest Mexican ride yet--over 4 hours, and 26 miles total (and all this, on my low-end, clunky-funky mountain bike! A far cry from the HIGH-end bikes of my compadres). WHAT a feeling of accomplishment it was! And worth every minute, despite achy shoulders, hands and back (we covered some very rugged terrain, as you will see in the photos--very jarring to all body parts!) The weather was complicit in making it the most perfect day for riding: It was comfortably cool the entire time, with the blue sky and varying cloud formations presenting a never-ending show for us along the way. Because there was a heavy rain the previous night, we sloughed our way through many mud puddles and had two impressive stream cros