Wednesday 10th June

We rise and shine! Breakfast has a yummy range of fruit. We wait till we are collected for our tour at 9:30. Also doing the tour is a couple we saw on the turibus in Puebla. We get to talking and they are from Brasilia in Brazil. After driving around and waiting we collect another couple and the guide and head off toward our first stop the monte Alban ruins. The guide tells us of the civilisation, the finding if the ruins- although they were never list as the locals always knew of them and didn't tell the Spanish. Also of the evidence of advance knowledge - like successful brain surgery and intricate jewellery. 500bc to well after Christ. Also no evidence of human sacrifices.
It's a very hot and sunny day. The next stop is the local wood carving and painted in bright and odd ways. I'm feeling very ill and body aches and increasing motion sickness and nausea. We stop at a church that was never finished as the Spanish diseases killed off the majority of local Indians working on it. They were building two church's, one open with no roof and one 'normal'. The Indians thought the covered churches where darkness, thus the unroofed structure. The space was also used for lectures/education until it was banned by the government. Lunch is next. It looks great but I'm too ill to eAt anything. The last stop is the black pottery shop where a lady discovered how to make the clay turn shiny and black in the kiln where was previously matt and grey. It remained a family secret for 10 years. It was done without a glaze, but when the clay objects where dry they were moistened and rubbed with a stone till shiny. then cooked in the Kiln for exactly 8 hours. Any longer and the clay resumed it's matte, grey, appearance. We walk past a church and museum on our way back to the hostel. Bed is amazing. I cook some potatoes for tea with fresh tomatoes which I enjoy on the roof terrace.