11.1 Lambityeco, and NOT San Jose Mogote

Lambityeco, and NOT San Jose Mogote

     We wanted to visit San Jose Mogote. It is a pre-Monte Alban center that is close to the city. Some archeologists speculate that the early population of San Jose Mogote actually moved to the more dominating Monte Alban site and started the city there.
     We took our trust Moon Handbook OAXACA guidebook and set off. Well, in other write ups I have mentioned that the guide book is not always accurate. This was the case for finding San Jose Mogote. Another problem was hat the site is not found on any of the maps of the area which we own. It is on the map in the guidebook. Well, with our all-wheel drive L?i?l Jumbo, we decided to set off and explore.
     We took a couple of left turns which seemed promising, and drove along them looking for the railroad tracks and water tower which were the land marks. Since the distances in the book are the most likely part to be inaccurate, we drove past and past those proposed lengths of road, seeking. At one point we left the paved road and drove for several miles on a dirt road and along a river bed, hoping for the best. We even took both forks when it split. Well, when that roads ended abruptly at someone?s rancho and the other at a very deep crevasse, we gave up. We stopped in a own to by some water and a guy there told me that San Jose Mogote was on the other side of the mountain, but didn?t know how to get there. So we gave up for the time.
     On the way back towards the city we stopped at a great little roadside chicken stand. The woman cooks them up on Sundays. It was delicious and we will probably go there just for chicken some Sunday soon.
     After the delicious meal we decided to go instead to Lambityeco. This may be the last excavated and partially-reconstructed ruin in the state for us to see. It is literally beside the road on the way out to Mitla. We had passed it many times. At first, months ago, we just didn?t see it, because we didn?t have the eyes for ruins. Now we can pick them up on a hillside a couple of miles away. But it is also a little one, so we had put it off.
     We got there without mishap. We asked the attendant if we needed to buy a ticket, but he said no, which we thought unusual, but just fine.
     The first thing we saw was the ruins of the oldest temazcal in Oaxaca. This is a Mexican sweat lodge. The rocks are heated in a fire outside, and then the steam goes through a passage into the lodge.
     The site has been partially reconstructed, but the fences keep anyone from getting too close to the rally interesting stuff. Thus we have only this long-distance photo of the tombs, and especially of the faces of Mr. One Tremor and Mrs. Ten Cane who are sculpted there. (The names are on the tombs. MesoAmerican names are often their birth dates, of which these two are fine examples.) Likewise, the sculptures of Cosijo in the temple are only visible from a distance. The temple area also has a tomb in it.
     We do find that the camera, perfect in every other way, is sometimes irritating because we do not have some kind of long-distance zoom lens.
     The site has a ball court, but we couldn?t find it, so maybe it?s not so small after all. It is also surrounded by over 200 little mounds, none of which have been excavated. It is speculated that these were used to extract salt. I find it astonishing that none have been dug up to check!
     In general, the site follows the usual pattern of having a court with three pyramids on three sides of it, and living quarters with the same arrangement. It is interesting also because it has some prominent greca-style patterns on one of the pyramids.
     We also decided to stop at the little puebla of Tlacochahuaya for two reasons. One, the church there is supposed to be spectacular inside. Two, when we had Spanish lessons at Berlitz this was the name of our class. (All the classes have names of cities in the language being studied. Thus the French class is Orleans, the German class is Frankfurt, etc. Of course, Suzanne and I are still trying to locate the cities of Minnesota, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Kentucky!)
     The town is entirely hidden behind a large hill, but we found it. The map worked this time. We found the church, and it was closed! We could have waited an hour or two, but settled for this picture of the outside. This is fairly typical of the larger 16th century church fronts throughout the state.
     So, at the end of the day, we drove home, satisfied with little Lambityeco, and wondering where San Jose Mogote was.