Oaxaca

The town of Oaxaca (Wahaca) is a lovely place and probably deserves more time than we had to enjoy it.

 The Cathedral is also OTT as explained in the Puebla post.

This one is being restored with the plaster base being applied before the gold leaf is applied.

Oaxaca - Mexico's culinary capital

Two starters and a dessert from Casa Oaxaca.

 We visited a choclateria and watched chocolate being made from pod to bar.  This is the finished powder which is then made to a bar etc.

 A butcher's stall with a variety of meats.  to calm the squeamish those are sausages in the middle.

The variety of chillis is amazing hot, mild, fresh, dried and smoked.

Monte Alban

Monte Alban outside Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaca, like the restaurant) is an Aztec or, more correctly, Mexica site first settled around 2000BC.  The ceremonial area in the first photo is close to a typical layout seen at most sites - Aztec, Toltec, Mayan etc.
The second is our group wandering in what we thought was heat, we didn't know what was to come.

Excessive Gold - not for the people.

The church in Puebla has an amazing ceiling which is in the chapel in the first picture, unfortunately it was closed so we didn't get to see it.  These two pictures show the excesses of the church through much of Latin America, using their own riches to cow the people.  However, every seems to assimilate local traditions into the system, whether knowingly or not.

Dilapidated shelter in Black and White

Blowing its Top

A minor eruption of Popocatapetl from a distance.  All we got was a minor smell of sulphur, thankfully.

Hills and Rocks

There were a number of rock formations on the road from Mexico City mainly caused by erosion.