Arriving at Mexico City we navigate the outside, luckily as it’s a Sunday there are no restrictions to deal with and we arrive at the Mi Mexico Lindo restaurant close to one of the gates into Teotihuacan and park there. We have an epic local meal here, a local stew with “drunk sauce”, a roasting hot volcanic bowl filled with various grilled meats and cactus and gorgeous soup served with coriander and lime. Some Mexican nibbles included crispy pig skin (pork scratchings but so much better) and Alex loved the stew as the gravy made him feel like it was home.
Then it’s bed and sleep to be ready to explore Teotihuacan tomorrow.
Having had a quiet and safe night beside the Mi Mexico Lindo restaurant we are up early on the 30th October to see the hot air balloons rising over the Mayan pyramids of Teotihuacan at dawn - except they are not, as it’s foggy! So back to sleep we go, a bonus lie in!
Getting up at a more sensible time we have breakfast hot chocolate at the restaurant (really yummy) and then walk 5 minutes to the Gate 1 entrance to the historic site. Teotihuacan is a vast archaeological site about 40km from Mexico City and covers some 83 square kilometres and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Luckily for us we are not covering the whole area, just the cleared and curated area, but it’s still about 3 kilometres long.
Once we have our tickets and walk in we soon meet some of the hundreds of vendors (all licensed) that work the site. Alex loves the jaguar noise maker so we succumb and make a vendor happy! The first place we visit is the Temple of Quetzaltcoatl which is vast. Moving through it we spot amazing carvings and reach the serpent pyramid towards the rear. The size is huge and emphasised by the steep steps leading from the open courtyard to the actual pyramid.
Of course the vendors are omnipresent, but not overwhelming as the site is so vast. But we spot some nice things and feel we should help the local economy - eventually purchasing sun and moon figurines in golden obsidian. The golden version is flecked with sparkles unlike the plain black stuff - but still volcanic in origin and unique to this area. So the Temple has claimed a couple of victims but we are very happy with our purchases.
As the sun is getting higher so is the temperature so we move on to walk the Avenue of the Dead towards the Sun Pyramid. The avenue is at least 2km long, dead straight and about 100 metres wide. Slowly strolling along it we explore the remains of dwellings lining the avenue. Teotihuacan was once home to between 100,000 and 200,000 inhabitants in its heyday, around 500AD. This is not a Mayan site, rather it is Mesoamerican and the occupants are believed to be multi-ethnic. Its importance was for trading and artefacts from Teotihuacan have been found at a whole range of other locations.
As Teotihuacan was a trading centre, Alex sticks with the history and obtains an obsidian arrowhead as we move along the avenue.
As we approach the Pyramid of the Sun its sheer size becomes apparent! It is huge, getting close to the Egyptian pyramids, but built as multiple layers with stairs rising up to the flat top on which would be a temple. You can’t climb this pyramid, but a security guard on the second level is a tiny dot giving some sense of scale of the structure. We walk down one side, watching the staff digging out weeds (really bushes) from the sides. There is an on-site museum guarded by more vendors, whom Emma talks with, before we see some of the beautiful artefacts recovered from the site.
The museum also has a model diorama of the central site giving some impression of the sheer size of the place. We eat in the gardens beside the museum, a welcome break for our feet!
Returning through the throng of vendors towards the Sun pyramid, Emma uses her well honed negotiating skills to obtain two beautiful carved ceramic face masks and a lovely whistle and Alex gets himself a Sun necklace.
Walking along the Sun pyramid the sounds of jaguar whistles, the calls of the vendors and the brightly coloured wares evoke some idea of what life might have been like here back in its heyday, today it just helps with the overall happy atmosphere.
We move on to the end of the Avenue of the Dead to the site of the Moon pyramid. Not quite as big as the Sun pyramid it is impressive enough in its own right with its accompanying plaza. We had heard about some impressive coloured murals at Teotihuacan so went to find them, strangely enough outside of Gate 3. Unfortunately they turn out to be about a kilometre away in another building, so recognising we have a trek back we decide that an ice cream will have to compensate for not seeing them.
We retrace our steps back to Gate 1, somewhat slowly, appreciating the whole site from a different perspective. Alex is an absolute star for walking so far! As we have been walking back we have been discussing the Dia del Muertos (Day of the Dead) which takes place in Mexico City and make a last minute decision to visit the City.
There is no way we are going to drive into Mexico City and Emma has managed to book a hotel in the historic centre. A quick pack of clothes into our rucksacks sees us trying to get an Uber but with no success. So we walk along the road towards Gate 2 and catch the shuttle bus from Teotihuacan to central Mexico City, North Terminal. The journey in reveals Mexico City nestling between several hills and creeping up the hills as it continually expands from its current 25 million population! It also shows the decision to not drive was correct! The population is so dense a lot of public transport is provided by an overhead metro cable car system which also serves the steep surrounding hills. At the bus terminal we do get an Uber to our hotel and quickly settle in then go out to explore and eat.
Nearby is a recommended restaurant popular with locals and we manage to get a table down in the depths. Lovely food is our reward for the days effort with Emma having steak with beans and cactus and I have tacos with a wonderful sauce.
Then, although tired from a long walking day, we head to the Zocalo (main square) to see the preparations for the Day of the Dead. What a great place, huge, thronging with people and lights and giant death sculptures. People are dressed up in death costumes enjoying the atmosphere in advance to the actual celebration. After a few photos it’s back to the hotel and crash.
We are up early on the 31st October, the day before Dia del Muerte, to explore Mexico City. We start by going back to the same restaurant for breakfast - it’s a popular morning place as well. They have a great selection of Mexican pastries which combined with hot chocolate plus fresh fruit and yogurt makes an excellent breakfast. We start following a walking tour from the zocalo, which is quite different in the daytime, and see striking evidence of how Mexico City is sinking - well it is built on a lake!
The huge church/cathedral beside the square is beautiful but wibbly wobbly with different floor levels and obvious cracks in the columns whereas a European cathedral would be straight and square. And the churches and buildings are built on the shoulders of Aztec buildings!
We wander through the central city, declining the view of the city from the highest skyscraper as it’s very expensive for an elevator ride! The streets are gorgeous and shops are decorated with orange flowers as part of Dia del Muerte with school trips looking at the decorations. We go past the palace of nouveau arts which is stunning and move through a beautiful park then into Chinatown m, through a flower market and subsequently onto the artisanal and market area.
The fish market is great to move through and the artists market has great decorated skulls which Emma loves (and Kate back in England would die for!) but we can’t get home in one piece.
We head towards the La Reforma area of the city, grabbing a McDonald’s en route for lunch (I know but our legs are broken and we need a seat!). Half way up the boulevard we come across the decorated skulls which are semi permanent and huge, nearly as tall as me. Moving on we discover colourful monsters everywhere. Literally over a hundred on both sides of the boulevard. They are papier mache, brightly painted and ready for the following days parade. They are fantastic! We also see many people dressed up beautifully and with incredible face paint and manage to get a couple of pictures.
We continue on towards Chapultepec to see the palace but tired legs (we have been walking for over 7 hours now) and a huge queue for tickets dissuade us so we get an Uber back to Stella out at Teotihuacan. The cost of 800 pesos seems excessive till we factor in tolls of 240 pesos so suddenly it’s quite reasonable for a 45 minute drive. Whilst driving Emma has been researching as we had heard of trouble in Guatemala with roadblocks and Panama being inaccessible due to civil unrest. So we will need to replan, skip Central America and ship Big Blue and Stella from Veracruz in Mexico to Colombia instead.
Getting back to Mi Mexico Lindos around 5pm we share a beautiful pork leg dish with Alex enjoying a lush soup from a couple of days ago, which our lovely waiter had recommended. All accompanied with 3 margaritas, 2 beers and 2 Mezcals (a type of tequila) so the beginning of a sore head by 6pm. Tomorrow we have to move on, but tonight we can be merry!
Guy (with Emma's photo editing)
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