A TRULY incredible day!

Hola!

We have had a truly amazing day, and I thought before I crashed and burned completely, I would try to get something down for the blog!

Temple of the Sun

Halfway up Sun Temple looking down at R!

Temple of the Moon

More Temple of the Moon from top of Sun

Looking down the steps...

Looking toward Temple of the Moon

House of the Puma fresco

From Level 1 Temple of the Moon with R waving!

From Temple of the Moon looking at Temple of the Sun

Moon plaza

Moon plaza with central altar 

Excavated workshops and temples along Street of the Dead

Still some traces of painted plaster walls

Lots of different levels -- 6 in all I believe!

Red mole over chicken breast -- YUMMY!

Rather odd guacamole and chips(?)

Up about 6, and to breakfast about 7.  Excellent as usual; I am definitely going to miss the scrambled eggs with salsa when we leave this lovely place.  We then packed up our dirty clothes, and took them downstairs and out Hilton’s back entrance. Right across the street the lavanderia was open [not self-service, alas], and the nice man took our things, weighed them, and then gave us a really long and complicated receipt, and said they would be ready tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6 pm!  So!  Laundry is at least on its way!  

From there we hit the Hilton’s Santander bank branch for more pesos; couldn’t be more convenient! And then we walked around the corner to the front of the hotel, where we requested UberX to take us to Teotihuacan.  Nice man arrived in about 10 minutes and we were on our way.  The difficult thing, though, is that I’m not sure our driver has ever been to Teotihuacan, so he wasn’t sure exactly what we needed to do!

First off, the traffic going in both directions was bad, worse going in our opposite direction, but our route was no picnic either!  I think it took us about an hour to get there, and we pulled up at Puerta 1.  Nice man there showed us a map, and we decided that we really wanted to enter at Puerta 2.  So … a bit farther along.  

So, suggestions on seeing Teotihuacan:

1)    Get there early!  We arrived about 9:30 am and that was very peaceful, although there were a few people already on top of the pyramid of the Sun.  I think we must have left Reforma and the hotel around 8:15 am.

2)   The biggest highlights are the Temples of the Sun and the Moon, which is what most people want to see first.  If you go to Puerta 2, you will head directly to the Temple of the Sun.  (NOTE: Buy or bring water with you, as once you are inside, there is nothing to buy to drink or eat, and you will most definitely be needing water!  As soon as we got out of the car, a young man was there selling water, and it was well worth whatever we paid for it!) (NOTE 2:  There are bathrooms at Puerta 2 which were fine, although for some reason without water.  As we were going in, a young Asian gal came out with soap all over her hands, and no water anywhere to wash them off!)

3)   The hike up the Temple of the Sun is strenuous, but definitely doable.  Again, the earlier you get there, the fewer the people ahead of you.  When we left the site around 1:15 p.m. it looked like a trail of ants going both ways on the front of the pyramid.

4)   Next, head to the Temple of the Moon.  People may not climb to the top of this one, only part-way up – but seriously, part-way is all you want to do.  With this pyramid, the steps are really high, meaning you almost need your hands in front of you on the steps to help you get up.  They do have a cable up the center of the steps with rubber around it to help, and definitely take advantage of this on the way down!  I have to say that as the steps are so ancient, I looked where I was stepping every step of the way.

5)   We then headed back to Puerta 1, to see the Avenue of the Dead, as well as temples and buildings excavated on both sides.

6)   Puerta 1 is the official entrance with the only really good restrooms as well as a REAL restaurant!  As it was now lunch time, we headed up the stairs to the third floor.

(My Indiana Jones comment when I saw the stairs was:  Steps…why did it have to be steps?)

We were incredibly fortunate that today was an absolutely PERFECT day for seeing Teotihuacan!  The temperature was in the high 50’s when we left the hotel, and was in the low 60’s most of the time at the monument.  Blue sky overhead, and a really lovely breeze made all of the walking so much easier! I seriously cannot imagine what it must be like in the heat of the summer!

Construction of Teotihuacan started in the first centuries A.D., reaching its zenith about 450 A.D. with a population of over 150,000.  Collapse came in the 7^thand 8^thcenturies, with many of the buildings burned.  Eventually, the Aztecs took over the site, more as a religious monument built by the Gods. 

We had a wonderful lunch there, which cost us all of $20!  We both had the same thing – chicken breast with red mole, rice and beans with corn tortillas.  Robert had a Dos Equis beer and I had a Pepsi. Oh!  And we also had a very odd order of guacamole (which was good) with something that Robert thought looked very waffle-like instead of chips; not great but okay.  And again, all for $20 US!

Do need to say that our waiter tried to talk us in to an order of FRIED ANT LARVAE, but you know what? I declined for both of us!  So sorry folks, someone else you know will have to give that one a try!  Katy???

After lunch, we decided we had explored all we wanted to, and climbed way too many steps, so headed out Puerta 1.  Oh!  Here I have to say that there were shops selling all sorts of souvenirs (these folks are also peddling in the actual site) and I picked up a Magnum Classic, and it was wonderful for dessert!

Here is our last tip of the day:  Very important!  When you want to call Uber to come and pick you up, you need to go all the way to the front of the parking lots (at the street entrance).  Otherwise, the driver will have to pay an entrance fee, which they obviously don’t want to do!  As we didn’t know this, we put out the call for Uber at the ticket booth.  Our driver ended up calling us, and fortunately, a wonderful Mexican lady who worked there, was standing next to me and very nicely took the phone from Robert and had a conversation with our driver.  She described both of us to him, and said we would be on our way out as soon as she hung up!  Such a sweetie, I gave her a hug!

Driver spotted us right away as soon as we passed the parking lot entrance, and we were on our way back to the hotel!  It took a bit over 50 minutes to get here, basically because while the traffic was nowhere near what it had been in the morning, there was still a lot of it!  

Walked into the room, and Robert did a face-plant on the bed, and is happily snoring away as I type!

I have claimed first hot soak in the tub, because I am already feeling those stairs!  I walked up both pyramids without my pack, which contained my phone (which has a step-counting APP)  – and I would LOVE to know how many steps I really did today!  Oh well, as Robert says, we’ll just have to go back!

Note on using Uber from our hotel on Reforma:  Going there when the traffic was bad, was $435 pesos ($21.70). On the way back, in the afternoon without awful traffic, the bill was $310 pesos ($15.46) – an incredible deal!

Just so happy that after our few days of rain, the weather seems to have cleared up somewhat! Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer than today, if that’s possible!  So!  As we had such a nice lunch this afternoon, I think our plan is to stay in tonight and nosh in the Lounge.  Then, tomorrow night, we’re planning a great dinner at the Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico City, and we are really looking forward to it!

Lots of love!  Adios!

m

xxx