Teotihuacan

Very early start this morning, we were up and eating breakfast with Rachael who was coming with us, by 7.45 and even managed to get out the door by 8.30 which honestly I wasn't expecting! We had quite a long trip as first we had to get to the North Terminal bus station which took 3 changes of Metro and about 45 minutes, then with the use of Rachael's guide book, we had to get the bus to Teotihuacan which took another hour. Excited, we chatted all the way and eventually arrived outside the first gate to the site at about 11 where we bought our entrance tickets. No sooner had we walked through the car park than we were assaulted by people trying to sell us stuff which we did our best to ignore until we realised that actually some things they were selling were what we hoped to take back for souvenirs and were a lot cheaper than their counterparts in the markets round the Zocalo. After a bit of haggling we bought a few items including another new T shirt for Andy, he's getting quite a collection, before finally entering the site itself. Teotihuacan is the largest Pre-Hispanic archaeological site in all of Mexico, which is saying something as there are hundreds of them! At its height there would have been a population of somewhere between 80,000 and 200,000 people living in the city spread over 23 square kilometres, the ceremonial centre which is left covers a huge 4 square kilometres and you can imagine how impressive it all must have looked covered in bright polychrome murals. We entered at one end of the 2 km long Calzada de los Muertos (Causeway of the Dead) and found ourselves in an enormous sunken square (The Citadel) looking at a tall pyramid inside which was found the Templo de Quetzalcoatl. You can get fairly close to the pyramid but not inside it, however it was awesome to see, its stepped sides dotted with huge stone carved heads of Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent and Tlaloc, the rain god with even traces of the original paintwork still visible in places. After taking plenty of pictures of the pyramid and the surrounding site which was ruins of buildings around this huge central square and a couple of dig sites still being excavated we turned to our right to start heading along the Causeway of the dead towards the Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. Walking along the causeway you can start to appreciate how important this place would have been a couple of thousand years ago, it is lined the whole way with building complexes and courtyards, small platforms and alters showing this was the main spiritual centre of the city. Passing many more people trying to sell us things from sunglasses and stones to jewellery and strange whistles that sound like a ferocious panther coming in to attack (quite a scary sound!) we soon came to the great Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan's outstanding landmark standing 70m high and being Mexico's second largest ancient building. We climbed the 200 or so steep steps to the top and gazed out across the vast site shimmering in the heat. It was a spectacular sight and even though there were 20 or so other people at the top it didnt take away from the stillness you seem to find in these sacred places. We sat down to rest after our climb and soaked up the atmosphere as well as the sun, being glad we had put plenty of sun tan lotion on that morning as it was almost directly overhead and we would have burnt in no time otherwise. That said, it was a very dry heat and was pleasant rather than uncomfortable, the only downside being that any breeze carried dust with it that stung your eyes a little. We climbed down again after more photos and continued along the causeway where the equally impressive Pyramid of the Moon loomed up in front of us but before we reached it we were side tracked by some ruins to the left that had been excavated to clearly show how there were layers in the buildings. Things were just built on top of one another so in this instance there was a platform with steps leading up to it but in from was a large hole in the ground showing more steps that led into the side of the platform, clearly to where the original one would have stood, this is an interesting aspect of most of the archaeological sites and has led to lots of damage being done to various structures where people have blasted the top layer off looking for older things underneath! Finally we approached the elegant looking Pyramid of the Moon and climbed the very high steps to the first 'platform and could go no higher as it was roped off. Not too disappointed as the view was spectacular, we once again sat to take it all in and enjoy the peace and sunshine. From here you could look back down the whole length of the complex and see what a marvellous feat of planning and construction this sacred part of the vast city was. We spent quite a while here before deciding it was time to think about heading off and so clambered back down the steps and headed towards the exit where I managed to get a particularly good deal on a souvenir, 500 pesos down to 130!! We stopped in a little cafe for an ice lolly and Rachael had a particularly good looking sandwich that far exceeded her expectations before we set off to head back to the bus. Before we could do so however we found ourself amongst more ruins and saw that there was a tunnel, well of course this had to be explored so we found ourselves in a maze of buildings, some almost intact with roofs etc and within these you could see murals covering the walls with colours almost as bright as if they had been painted yesterday. Once inside via the tunnel there were more murals cleverly lit up so you could take pictures without using your flash which would damage the pigment and we spent a further half hour or so marvelling them before finding ourselves back out in the bright sunlight. We managed to avoid buying anything else from the little stalls lining the path to the carpark and had the good luck to catch the bus that had just turned up to get back to the terminal. The journey seemed longer in this direction as it took us through the town as well, bumping up over curbs and swerving dangerously close to walls before getting back onto the main road where we picked up a busker who accompanied us for half an hour playing his guitar and singing to everyone on the bus songs like 'Yesterday' and 'Pretty Woman' as well as more traditional music. It was one of those rare moments where the combination of a successful outing to see something amazing and tiredness from being in the sun fills you with a contentedness that mingles with the knowledge that you are experiencing something unique and random as you bump along the dusty road with the locals...something to remember occasionally, that feeling of peace and happiness with the world that is so rare! Soon enough though we were back at the terminal and found our way to the metro to take us back to our part of town and so to the hostel where we all three gratefully collapsed for a while. Andy and I went back to the metro later on to get dinner from our favourite street side stall, where this time we tried the enchilada's which are completely different to what we've had in the rest of the world. They were delicious, but instead of filling tortillas with stuff then putting sauce over and baking them here they just roll the tortillas, put your 'filling' (Andy had beef and I had egg as she had run out of chicken) on top all of which is then covered by a green spicy salsa, sour cream then cheese! It was very filling and we went back to the hostel satisfied with our meal and worn out from the day's adventures, so we chilled out and watched some more 'Heroes' on the computer before bed.