Friday 8 May 2015

Teotihuacan

This is what greeted me outside my hotel room at the start of day 5. For some reason the hotel was covered in egg-themed rock acts. 


A quick explore of the floor revealed a few more.

This is our car and hotel, which is new to the area and it's not a bad place to crash if you're in the area. We'd arrived late and were leaving early with a drive down to another UNESCO site. We were hoping to get there early enough to beat the crowds.

I'd been to Teotihuacan before but this was new to Tal and Thomas so I let them decide how the day would go. There are 3 entrances and we'd chosen to arrive at the southern one with a view to walk to the north. We were met by the Garden Strimmer Club of Mexico who were testing their toys on the grass around one of the complexes that make up this huge Avenue of the Dead.


The place is obviously UNESCO listed due to the huge pyramids that are here. The site is dated to 100BC which is pretty damn old so it seems odd that they're happy for you to climb the pyramids.


That's the moon pyramid at the Northern end. It's just over a mile from one end of the avenue to the other.

These people had somehow negotiated the right to exclusively film the sun pyramid in the center of the avenue which meant the public were being kept back until they were done. 


We took advantage of the lack of people in the shot to take photos too. It was just a shame we were facing into the sun but a quick tweak of the camera settings and I was able to get something half decent.

The ascent to the top of the sun pyramid was slow but easily achievable if we took regular stops, which we did on every step :) 

The view from the top is worth the climb. You're not allowed to climb the moon pyramid so don't skip this one for that.


The others decided to do the walk up to the north gate rather than leave through the centre. Last time I did this we came by taxi and the driver dropped us off at the south end and met us at the north. This time we were driving ourselves so we had to remember that we had to walk back to the car.

After a quick explore of some ruins at the northern end we then left the site, ignored the guys trying to get us into their restaurant nearby and walked the road back down to the southern end. Our conversation and banter ensured the walk back wasn't done in complete silence - that would have been quite demoralising so early in the morning, and it didn't take us long to get back to the car. There might be a bus that drives the road but I'm not sure of its frequency, we didn't see it whilst we walked.



Some panos taken from around the site.

I like this place but I think the others were a little underwhelmed. The amount of people selling crap in the site was annoying and "almost free" became a phrase we'd joke about in later days. I like this place because it's a whole town that has been preserved, not just a single structure. When I visited in 2010 I vowed never to climb that pyramid again, but I did it. How stupid does that make me?

Now to drive into Mexico City for some parks there.


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