El puente means bridge and the longer holiday we got after Independence day (15.9). A group of us set out to discover Oaxaca (indigenous name, pronounced something like OA-ha-ca, kinda like México is ME-hi-co). Oaxaca is a state to the south of Mexico, with a capital city of the same name. It’s said to be one of the most beautiful cities in here, and not without reason. Filled with colonial beautiful buildings and lacking in ugly skyscrapers, it’s one of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

We also visited Monte Albán one of the first large urban settlements in the Americas (dating back to 500BC according to WP, our guide talked about 1500BC..). The place is very impressive. Much more than its contemporary Teotihuacan (although it’s darn impressive too). I recommend hiring a guide. Ours charged us only 300 pesos for two hours of interesting tales and history while walking around the site (we ended up paying quite a nice tip).

I took a panorama from Monte Albán. See the full image here

Puerto Escondido (“the hidden port”) was our last destination. We took a minibus through a very, very, very curvy mountain road (The Alps are nothing compared to this) and landed in around 6 hours to the coast. Puerto Escondido is a relative small and quiet port with loads of white-sand beaches and possibilities to surf, go see turtles, etc.

After a few days of surfing and relaxing on the playas I returned to D.F. with an overnight bus (~750pesos/first class).