Oaxaca you haven’t changed that much… but you’re “Ruined”

When I was young between High School and College a girlfriend and I took an adventure to Mexico.  We studied Spanish at a language school for a few weeks living with a family in Cuernavaca.  After our studies were over my friend went to Guadalajara to meet a friend and I went to Oaxaca. 

If you have ever been young and in love you will understand how I felt about Oaxaca.  It was beautiful, colorful and fresh.  I discovered the city on my own.  Exploring the Xocalo, the people selling flowers and birds off of their heads.  And being alone made all the difference in the world.  It was exciting and fresh and liberating in a way that I hadn’t experienced before.  I was there for just a couple of days, I climbed the grassy hills of Monte Alban the “University of Priests” where the ancient peoples came to study and ate the most delicious Mole, it was wonderful. 

Returning a few years later (more than I would like to admit), it has grown and changed and still I love it the same as I did when I was 20.

We drove in taking the pay roads the whole way and escaping from the freezing cold of Puebla, and at first I didn’t recognize the town.  Where before there had been hillside we were greeted by traffic and mechanics, but after a few great directions from Greta we were right in the historic center of town.  The Xocalo had changed from people selling flowers and birds into people selling balloons and trinkets but the charm of the city was still there.  Everywhere people were out walking around, street performers putting on a huge puppet show for hundreds of children and the energy of the city I remembered. 

After taking care of some needed suspension reinforcements on the truck (yes we took way to much stuff with us and are paying for it on every tope) we headed off to Monte Alban.  On the way through town to the grassy ruins we saw some of the changes the town had undergone.  Now there was a SuperMega and a Cineopolis where before there was empty space, but the biggest change was Monte Alban itself.

 Where I had once climbed half uncovered ruins, virtually alone I now found a fully excavated and restored city.  In the last 20 years they have learned that Monte Alban was the cultural and geographic center of the first City State in Mexico, the ruins stretch for over 20 kilometers and they are continuing to uncover and discover more about the peoples who once lived there.  The progress that they have made on the ruins is amazing and made me love the city all the more.