17Dec13
Teotihuacan has lots of sun and fresh air — a nice refuge from Mexico City smog. See the smog in the distance? There’s another mountain at roughly 11 o’clock, but you can’t see it.
Teotihuacan is an ancient, pre-Hispanic city that is home to the world’s third-largest pyramid — the Pyramid of the Sun. Fortunately, they installed some simple handrails for safety. Here’s Chris braving the descent.
That’s the Pyramid of the Sun above. It’s pretty amazing at the top, and Chris had the foresight to have us get up early so we could beat the organized tours. Yes, friends — today was the first time in three months that we’ve used our alarm.
The ride there was a breeze, but coming back we got to experience some of Mexico City’s famed traffic which was no bueno. There are plenty of buses that leave from Mexico City’s Terminal Central del Norte. We used the company that is at the far north end of the terminal, second to the last. It was 160 pesos round-trip for the two of us, plus 57 pesos per person to enter the park. Here’s more information about hours and tickets at Teotihuacan. The bus company will tell you where to catch your return bus.
Overall, it was a great experience. You get to roam around and check out whatever you’d like, and there’s a small but informative museum with artifacts and other anthropological information. The big thing that I remember from the museum — and from the private tour Chris and I eavesdropped on — was that the people who lived there divided themselves by their trades. I was also pleased to be able to pronounce words like Quetzalcoatl, although sadly it’s because my alma mater still, in 2013, has the Aztec warrior as its mascot.
And there’s the Pyramid of the Moon. You can’t see it, but all along the Avenue of the Dead which runs through the city, there’s an underground water duct system. Near the entrance, there were a number of large holes that would capture the water. But I didn’t have the patience to look for the sign that explained everything.
Enough of my rambling! It’s a world heritage site, so there’s tons of reading you can do on the history. I leave you with more photos.
And lastly, since I began this post with smog, I found this article from earlier this year about a building in Mexico City that eats smog. Happy reading!
