Hola todos,
Our alarms went off this morning just before 6 a.m. No, you didn’t misread that… we had an early morning tour today and had to be both vertical and caffeinated before getting picked up. I was feeling much better after my mild food poisoning, so I was ready to tackle today's adventure.
Our tour was to Teotihuacan, where we would wander through archaeological ruins. Our tour guide, Yun, was a fabulous historian and made the ruins come alive! But first, we had to battle Mexico City traffic. Even though it was only 7 a.m., it was already brutal. We were going against the flow of cars, but we were still in almost-bumper-to-bumper traffic. So it was a bit slow going until we got out of the main city and into the suburban and rural areas--in total, about a 90-minute drive out to the ruins.
There was almost no one there except early morning merchants setting up their blankets of wares and a few other tour groups. I heard it gets super crowded later in the day, so I'm glad we opted for an early (early!) morning.
We basically got a semi-private guided tour of the ruins with explanations about what we were looking at (super close up!), the Mexica people who lived here, and the different archeological theories behind certain sculptures and ruins. I'm so glad we did a guided tour, as opposed to just wandering around ourselves, because I think we got so much more out of it.
There were a lot of steps to climb, and some areas were pretty steep!
There are 5 active archaeological studies going on at the Teotihuacan ruins right now.
The city was built in layers--you can see examples of that layering here. Why? Archaeologists aren't quite sure.
The Temple of the Sun, the most famous of the Teotihuacan ruins. The top part was blown off by the government during hurried excavations and cleaning. Post-Covid, tourists are no longer allowed to climb to the top. (Which would have been cool, sure, but did I seriously want to climb that many steps? I'm not sure...)
Most of the murals in the ruins aren't this well-preserved. But this one was covered by another wall (remember the layering I mentioned?) and so we get the benefit today of seeing this incredible art.
The Temple of the Moon, the second-biggest temple at Teotihuacan.
After the tour was over, we went to a local market where they taught us about the agave plant and obsidian--two local products indigenous peoples used and traded.
We got a demonstration of how the agave plant was (and can be) used as a needle, paper, thread, and shampoo, and turned into pulque (a sweet alcohol).
We had lunch in a cave (a bit kitchy, but we got to chat with our tour group a bit and get to know them!) and then headed back to the city.
After the long drive back (through even worse traffic), we took a quick rest at the hotel, got recombobulated, and then went for a walk through the neighborhood into Condesa.
We stopped by El Mercado Condesa, a two-block-long fruit, vegetable, meat, and artisanal wares market with food stalls. But the smell of the raw meats and the cooking was really overwhelming, so we fled to the quiet side streets of Condesa to walk around the neighborhood in a more authentic way.
We stopped at a coffee shop for a little snackie and cafe (and they had a bathroom, which is always a tourist plus!). Ordering here was, for whatever reason, so complicated--the server did not understand that I wanted decaf espresso in my latte and instead brought me... extra espresso? I *know* it wasn't a mistranslation issue because I have successfully ordered decaf lattes over this past week! But that is part of the adventure of traveling--if you don't have at least one incorrect ordering fiasco, can you really even say you visited that country?
The weather today was perfecto for spending all day outdoors and walking around--it had threatened to rain almost all day, but we managed to avoid it. We headed back to the hotel to rest up. Nos vemos mañana!
Besos,
Tina the ExploraDora
Step count: 98,547
Taco count: 8
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