Mexico Part 2: Miercoles

On Wednesday we arranged (or rather Shawn arranged) to have a driver take us all to Teotihuacan. It is a couple hours outside of Mexico City but we made a few stops along the way.

The first was at some ruins that were still inside the city. They had been discovered during a construction project.

We stayed in a really nice section of the city but there is a lot of poverty in other areas, especially on the hills around Mexico City. A lot of the homes were painted vibrant colors and we remarked on how neat it looked (this picture was taken from the freeway and doesn't do justice to the brightness of the colors). Shawn then explained that the government paints the homes in the poorer areas bright colors so they don't look as bad. Instead of doing something to help lift the people out of poverty they spend money on paint to literally paint over it. We drove by a lot of hills just like this one. 

The last stop was at this shop where they gave demonstrations of how the indigenous people would use some of the natural resources in the area. It was fascinating and this guy, who did our demonstrations, was a hoot! The large agave-like plant in the above picture was used as soap, paper, thread and needles.

Each "leaf" has a large sharp thorn at the tip that can be pulled out with "threads" attached. As these threads are used more are woven in. It was also really cool to see how various plants were used to dye the "threads." The poncho that our guide wore was made entirely with this thread.

The blankets and ponchos in the gift shop were beautiful!

There were also a kind of obsidian that had a golden shimmer in the right light. Also very beautiful!


A short drive later we were at Teotihuacan. Shawn had found a man at the shop that was a guide and he gave us the tour of the impressive ruins.

Some of the original artwork was visible on the walls in the ruins of the city.

What makes Teotihuacan famous are the pyramids. There is one for each month. The tallest is called the pyramid of the sun and the next largest is the pyramid of the moon.

Pyramid of the moon:






View from the top:


With pyramid of the sun behind us:

Shawn was under strict instructions from Sandra to NOT get sunburned. We got him through the week without the slightest bit of a burn.

The stairs reminded me of the stairs in my Grandma Temus' house that I would climb as a kid; tall and steep.


On top of the pyramid of the sun:

Some more excavations looking down from the pyramid of the sun:

On top with the pyramid of the moon in the background:

And... a lizard :)

This was a lot of really interesting facts and theories surrounding Teotihuacan but I need to keep this short so I can post more about the rest of the trip. Look it up, if you feel so inclined, it has a pretty fascinating history.