When we were planning our time in and around Oaxaca, we knew we would want to visit the UNESCO-designated pre-Columbian hilltop pyramid complex of Monte Albán at some point.
After visiting Teotihuacan a month prior, we thought we might be let down by Monte Albán. Fortunately, this was not the case at all. But we’ll get to that in a moment.
The sun returns to Oaxaca. Rumor has it, we might be nearing the end of rainy season. Four months is long enough for us.
Our Mexico-USA RV Journey 2024-25
So long, friends of the north.
When new friends leave and things get a bit too quiet around the RV park, it’s a good time to catch up with the grandparents.
Finally got the picture!
Occasionally as part of his road school, we have Noe interview other travelers. We first met this couple some five months ago in Lo de Marcos, Nayarit. It doesn’t happen often, but we do run into people we’ve met previously at RV parks from time to time.
A fairly traditional Oaxacan breakfast—foamy tejate and a giant slice of pan dulce. Don’t worry, Riley had plenty of help with that one.
We found a relatively smooth surface for Riley to try out his new scooter.
I tried not to Bogart it too much.
That’s right! We find ourselves in yet another town during the biggest festival of the year. In Tule, that’s Dia del Arbol, celebrating the girthiest tree on the planet, right here in Tule.
Ordering up a few items at the corner store in Tule.
On Thursday, the forecast was looking pretty good, so we decided to finally do our tour of Oaxaca’s famed hilltop archeological site of Monte Albán, located just outside town.
The boys are always excited for a day of wandering around ancient ruins. At breakfast, they were already planning their adventure.
This is Lori’s second visit to Monte Albán. She visited 15 years ago, so we figured that was enough to qualify her to guide us around the site—that, and her guidebook.
We’re usually not huge fans of going on a tour with a guide, especially with the boys in tow. It’s nice to be able to go at our own pace and spend as much or as little time as we want. We did, however, spring for a guided tour at the Teotihuacan pyramids a couple months back and were happy we did for that particular place.
Getting to the site, however, is a bit tricky on your own. Apparently, you can take a public bus, but then you have to walk a few miles uphill the remainder of the way. But there are reasonably priced shuttle buses near the Zocalo.
We were told to head to the cathedral and look for one of the Lescas reps to buy our tickets. 15 minutes later, we were on the bus headed out of town and up the mountain.
Normally, the shuttles take you all the way to the front gate. But these days, they have to stop a mile short due to road work. We were expected to hoof it the rest of the way uphill in the midday sun.
There wasn’t a lot of forewarning, and I have no idea how elderly or people with mobility issues are supposed to get up there. But then again, this is Mexico and it’s sort of every man, woman, and child for themselves, regardless of where you go.
Once at the main gate, we bought our tickets and started making our way around the hilltop site.
Because we’re on a hill, we were treated to some pretty nice views all around of the city and surrounding mountains, which definitely sets it apart from other similar sites across the country.
Speaking of views atop the pyramids, Monte Albán is one of the few major archeological sites in Mexico we’ve visited where you can actually climb to the top of the major pyramid structures. At present, neither Chichen Itza nor Teotihuacan permits this.
In addition to the views, the ruins themselves are pretty impressive, with a ton of history attached to them.
Monte Albán is considered to be one of the oldest cities in Mesoamerica, and was an important economic and ceremonial center for the Zapotec people for a whopping one thousand years.
The hill, itself, has been inhabited since around 500 BC, and the pyramids are believed to have been constructed before 750 AD, when the entire city was mysteriously abandoned.
The first pyramids we encountered were a somewhat small, yet impressive group of three, which also appeared to be the most thoroughly excavated structures in the park.
We couldn’t ascend the north and west pyramids, but the eastern pyramid was fair game, so we made sure to climb that one and were rewarded with some of the best views in the complex.
Like most days exploring archeological sites and museums, this is still a school day—just a bit different from most kids’ school days, I imagine.
From here, we descended into the first of two sunken ballcourts once used for sporting matches, before continuing on south into the main plaza.
So much to explore in a relatively small area.
To the north of the main plaza once stood a large pavilion complex. The base of the massive columns can still be seen on top of the mound.
At the southern edge of the complex is the large and partially unearthed Southern Platform that you can climb to the top of. We got a pretty good workout making our way up and down each of the structures in the park.
The perch at the top offers sweeping views of the archeological park looking north. There was also more to explore around the top of the pyramid and more views of the Valley of Oaxaca.
On the way back to the main gate, we hugged the eastern edge, which took us past a few more platforms and the second ballcourt.
Noe had a lot to write about for his road school assignment. Fortunately, he loves this kind of thing. His younger brother wasn’t much into the history, but enjoyed getting to finally climb some pyramids.
We spent around two hours exploring the archeological park and felt that was a good amount of time for a self-guided tour.
A fun time was had by all, and it was certainly a top highlight of our time in Oaxaca City so far. But the fun wasn’t quite over for the day.
On the way back, we grabbed some ice cream in a whole plaza full of ice cream stands: Plaza de las Nieves. And slowly made our way back to the RV—slowly, due to a large exotic race car rally making its way through the center of town.
