Pyramids and Pastries

Yesterday we took a tour to the pyramids of Teotihuacan with about 5 other people from our hostel. We could have gone by ourselves and probably saved a lot of money, but this was only about $30 each, had a few extra stops, plus was much easier to plan (since all we had to do was pay and then show up). Our first stop were the ruins of Tlatelolco, built by the Aztecs and still located right in the city. It used to be a major marketplace for the Aztecs and was one of their last strongholds before being conquered by Cortez. All that was left are small "pyramids" with flat tops that were used a shrines to the different gods they used to worship. The main pyramid was continually being expanded by adding a new "shell" around the existing pyramid every 52 years, or whenever a new leader came into power. Everything is built for a reason, most of it to do with the universe, stars, and resulting Aztec calendar. Once Cortez conquered the Aztecs, their objective was to convert the locals to Catholicism, so they used the stones from the pyramids to build a large cathedral, which still stands today. They believed that since they built the cathedral on what the Aztecs considered to be holy land, they would be easier to convert. As you can see, having a guide gave us a lot more information to pass on to you guys...and more to come!

Our group walking through the Aztec ruins of Tlatelolco

The first Catholic church built by the Spanish in Mexico

Next stop was the Basilica of Guadalupe, a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe and a massive pilgrimage site for Catholics, actually the second most visited Catholic site in the world, after the Vatican. It is near the site where Our Lady of Guadalupe (an image of the Virgin Mary mixed with Aztec symbolism) appeared to a a native indian guy named Juan Diego back in the 1500s. Our guide, Alejandro, told us it was more than just a religious symbol for Mexicans, it was also a symbol of their culture.  Not being Catholics or Mexican, we didn't really get it, but the people were really serious about it and there was a really nice park on a hill nearby with a good view of the city.

Inside the Basilica of the Virgin Guadalupe

The original image of the Virgin Guadalupe from the 16th Century

The gardens at the Basilica

We stopped for lunch at a little tourist trap near the pyramids of Teotihuacan, where they taught us a little about some of plants (mainly agave) and stones used in producing traditional mexican handicrafts. Then, not surprisingly, they tried to sell us some. They had some great obsidian carvings, but who wants to carry a big rock around the world?  They also had lunch waiting for us which, despite being a bit expensive by local standards, was really good and we got to sample all kinds of traditional Mexican foods that we wouldn't have ordered in a restaurant (i.e.: cactus).

By then we were all fueled up and ready to climb some pyramids. The Teotihuacan site is massive, with two big pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon, plus tons of smaller pyramids lining the Avenue of the Dead. Many of the smaller pyramids are still underground and haven't been excavated yet. The most interesting thing about this site to me is that they don't know who built it. There are some theories, but nothing for sure, except that it was abandoned when the Aztec stumbled upon it and decided to stay because it was so impressive to them. They gave it the name Teotihuacan, so they don't even know what the original name was. We had a few hours to walk around and explore, including climbing up several pyramids, namely the top of the largest on site, the Pyramid of the Sun. By the end of the day, we were tired and a bit sun burnt, so we basically crashed in the room when we got back and did some planning for our upcoming time in Peru.

Sitting on the Moon Pyramid looking out at the Avenue of the Dead

Adam on top of one of the smaller Pyramids

One of the original paintings from the site - at one time, all the structures were covered in paintings

Today was a "cheap" day for us. We're over-budget so just took the day to hang out and walk around the nearby Centro Historico. One of the things we've really enjoyed about the city so far is just walking the streets and enjoying the beautiful old buildings and seeing all the people. And no doubt about it, there are a LOT of people. Everybody is constantly moving, and I have no idea where all of them could possibly be going. Most of them don't even sit down to eat. There's very few tourists to be seen, except for one Indian guy and his wife that we keep seeing over and over. It seems as if everyone in Mexico City has something to sell you, and maybe if some of them spoke English we'd be able to figure out what it is and maybe buy it. We did stumble upon a little gem today, a bakery recommended on WikiTravel. It is a huge place with tons of different breads and desserts, where you just grab a big metal tray, some tongs, and go to town. People are absolutely loading up their trays with everything from jello cups to croissants to doughnuts, plus all kinds of stuff that we hadn't a clue what it was. Well, I don't think anybody will be surprised that we loaded up like it was going out of style. Once we got all we thought we could handle loaded on our tray, we went to check out only to find out there was a $5 minimum for credit card payments. We were only at $3. That ought to tell you how cheap it was - Stephanie and I got all the sweets we wanted and were only at $3. We not-so-reluctantly found another $2 worth of extra treats and lugged out our bounty.

The street our hostel is on

The awesome pastry shop - all this was less than 3 bucks!