So what *have* we been up to?

 You might have noticed that there was a 5 day gap between my first post in Oaxaca and my second.  I also didn't post much on Facebook during that time? What have we been doing since we arrived?  

Mostly tiring ourselves out.  :-)

On Tuesday November 22nd we went for a hike with Hoofing it in Oaxaca, a group of ex-pats who organize 2-4 walks every week in tourist season. The trip was to the Mitla caves, which contain rock paintings and other evidence of occupation dating back 7-10,000 years.  The caves contain some of the earliest known evidence for the cultivation of corn (or more accurately, its precursor, teocinte).  For context, ancient Middle Eastern civilizations date back perhaps 6,000 years.

This cave was a tool workshop. These are stone tools in various stages of completion.

On Wednesday it was time to go birding.  We ended up at a city park, Parque Las Canteras.

We had pretty good success: we spotted three new species, including the spectacular Black-vented and Hooded Orioles.  On the way home we stopped at La Merced market for groceries and spent the afternoon doing some planning for the rest of our time in Oaxaca. 

On Thursday it was time to go to Monte Alban.  The ruins of Monte Alban are some of the most spectacular in Mexico, as well as being some of the oldest.  The ancient Zapotecs levelled a hilltop at the point where the three valleys of Oaxaca meet, and built themselves an impressive city starting in about 500 BC.   For the geeky amongst you, the Zapotecs studied astronomy and taught it to other ancient peoples of the Americas. 

But we were there primarily for the birding!  We walked up the ecological path to Monte Alban (~4km, ~300m elevation gain) early in the morning.  Among other birds, we spotted our first ladder-backed woodpecker.  

We did a short tour of the ruins too, but it was hot by then and we were kind of tired, so we didn't give them our full attention.  We'll have to visit again another time.

An unrestored pyramid.

Friday was for housekeeping....kind of literally.  The cleaners were coming in so we had to absent ourselves.  We returned to Las Canteras for some birding, then headed over to the local Chedraui supermarket to buy staples.  After that we headed to the centro for lunch (a lovely Pozole soup), and spent the afternoon in the shade on the roof deck of the Oaxaca Lending Library. We wrapped up the day by cooking our first complete meal in our tiny kitchen.  

That may not sound like a whole lot of activity for the week, but there was a lot of walking around in 28C heat involved.  As evidence, I offer up my FitBit statistics:

Tuesday: 11,422 steps

Wednesday: 13,091 steps

Thursday: 16,318 steps

Friday: 19,726 steps

For context, I was averaging about 8,000 a day in Vancouver, none of it in the sun!