Monte Alban sits at the top of a mountain in the center of Oaxaca Valley. The bus ride itself was great. i'd especially paid attention to the exihibts about Monte Alban at the Museum of Anthropology knowing i was going there. Monte Alban is powerful, this slideshow of the place is very good. The hotel packed me a lunch as part of the tour deal. We spent the morning with the tour guide, then after lunch it was open exploring with a book as guide. 
Cilivizations built on top of the older conquered ones, it's remarkable, beyond words.
Mexicana had a flight from Oaxaca stoping in Mexico City, Guadalara and Mazatlan, i had a ticket for the next day from the in little office downtown. Another tip from the hotel desk. That evening i went to the zocalo cafes and walked around looking at art, especially the indian weavers who displayed stuff around the walkway in the evenings. i only had an already 100% full packpack a quickly thinning wallet, but i found a small one made from local wool, hand made dyes, it's still hangs in the doorway here at the hideout.
It wouldn't be fair to say Oaxaca was all perfect back then. i do remember in that in Puerto Escondido and in Oaxaca City there were always scary looking army guys on patrol, sometimes in jeeps or small troop carriers zooming through the streets or just lurking around generally. it was peaceful there, sorta, in a controlled kinda way, but you could feel the underlying stress that would erupt sooner or later, it has since then, and will again, until the inequities imposed on the indios by the minority Spanish landbarons, bankers, and army muscle are eliminated.
Money governed the length of time i had left on the trip. The hotel cost the most, food and beer second, Roberto had a few good ideas. First i moved into the same hotel he lived in, only a few blocks inland from the tourist zone but still a different world. Almost everybody living there, including Roberto, came from the large family farms in countryside. They worked 7 days a week [even Sunday] saving every tourist dollar they could then returning home maybe once a month to see their wives, kids, grandparents, brothers, sisters etc., who all lived there. Roberto, and most all of them, were the only source of hard currency the families back home had. Roberto was going home on the weekend 6 days after i got back, he was excited already.
mas manana...buenos noches.
