Las Ruinas de Mitla

I woke up this morning with plans to visit the ancient Zapoteco ruins found in Mitla. I had planned to go by myself, but Hermana Angela, Mayra, and Madaì decided that they wanted to come with me. We were just getting ready to leave when I heard one of the kids screaming across the courtyard. I turned to see Madaì (she`s 4 years old, by the way) biting Sergio (3 years old?) on the arm. Sergio's mom came running and, overreacting to the threat to her son, pushed/hit Madaì off of Sergio. Although she stayed on her feet, Madaì stumbled backwards, lost one of her shoes, and began screaming herself. Then all hell broke loose. I got to sit in the middle of a screaming match between the two mothers, each accusing the other of abusing the other's kid. After trying to sit still and let them work things out, I finally stood up from my seat and retreated to my room. I could still hear the shouting, but at least it wasn´t as loud.
Even when things had quieted down, I decided to give it a few minutes before I cautiously left my room. We got our things together and headed towards the ruins, all pretending that nothing had happened.
The ruins, although much smaller than Monte Alban, were definitly worth the visit. The entire grounds only covered a couple of acres, but there were several large buildings you were allowed to enter. The main palace had no roof, but the walls were made of intricately cut stone bricks, arranged into the most amazing designs. Another building had two underground chambers open to explore a bit. In one there was a stone seat that the Zapoteco priest would use for his ceremonies. He would sit down and stand up three times on the seat before making his requests to the gods. As nobody else was around, I hopped the guardrail and repeated the ceremony. And took pictures.
After the ruins we stopped for some nieves (ice cream). I ordered piña colada, and as soon as I had it in my hands I found out that it actually contained alcohol. Who puts liquer in ice cream? So I got another flavor. We walked around the numerous stands and stalls that were selling all kinds of locally made art and clothing. I didn´t buy anything.
We walked home and I fell asleep for a good while before leaving again to find an internet cafe. Later in the evening we walked back to el centro of the town were two teams from the local basketball team were facing off. The outdoor court had quite a bit of sand on it, and watching the players slide around and fall all over the place was very entertaining. These guys were really pretty bad at basketball, but they were obviously having a good time. Egan picked us up in his car halfway through the game, and we all went for a drive before going back to the house and to bed.