Visit Day 3: Pyramids

After getting Autumn off to work this morning, I whipped up some breakfast tacos and we go on the road up to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. The car ride up was uneventful (meaning that it was just the usual level of craziness!). We trudged up and down the Avenue of the Dead and climbed all three big pyramids. By the end of the day, we were dusty, sunburned and ready for lunch. 

We drove over to La Gruta, the cave-restaurant to cool off and had a late lunch. It was so late that by the time we got over to the museum, it was 4:15, and we only had a few minutes before it closed. We did a quick run though, which seemed to be about the amount of time that we needed anyway, and then jumped back in the car to drive back to Mexico City. 

Everyone was so tired by the time we got home that we just ordered dinner from Pizza Hut. We had to stick with the Mexican theme, so we got a pizza Mexicana con queso extra!

 Entrance to the Avenue of the Dead!

 Mom and Rich at the Citadel

 Whew its a long way over to those pyramids (or in my original estimate, oh about a 1/2 mile...)

 Photo break!

 I guess this was a shortcut?

 Me, mom and the Pyramid of the Sun

 We made it!

 How many more stairs!?!

 Ruth and me at the top

Group photo!

 Break time!

 Thank god that's over!

 Oooh...jaguar painting!

 Next stop, Pyramid of the Moon!

 The original StairMaster...that step is bigger than my mom's leg!

 View down the Avenue of the Dead...spooky!

 Rich pretending to read the sign to avoid the three guys selling stuff behind him

 Mom demonstrating how to go up the stairs on our way down.

 Aahhhh....Chrissy as Guadalupe at La Gruta and Ruthy descending into the "freezing" cave!

 Look we went to the museum (for 5 minutes!)

Time to go home!

Ron & Julie Visit: Day 1

Ron and Julie arrived yesterday for a holiday visit. Autumn had to work today, so the three of us drove up to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. It was a great day! Nice and warm. As usual, we were immediately accosted by the unstoppable entrepreneurial spirit of Mexico, and Ron picked up a few items within minutes of arriving. We climbed the pyramids, went to the museum and then had lunch at La Gruta. No big show today, but at least we had mariachis!

For Julie's birthday dinner, we went out to Villa Maria. She wouldn't let us have he mariachis there sing "Happy Birthday," but we still had fun!


View from the Temple of the Moon

Up we went! (My third time!)

Ron & Julie at the top.

Whew!

Teotihuacan, Take 2.

Our second trip to Teotihuacan brought much better weather than the first.  We got to leave the raincoats at home this time, and the stairs were not as slippery on the sun temple, but that didn't make the climb up or down any easier.  It was a beautiful day, though, and we thoroughly enjoyed taking Carri to on of Mexico's most famous archaeological sites.  Also, we learned that Sundays are free at Teotihuacan for anyone holding an ID issued by Mexico.  That is very good to know!

Carri in the "wild" agave grove...as we know agave is a very useful plant!  It produces paper, thread, needles and, most importantly, many types of booze.

Carri and Autumn on the steps of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl.  (Say that one 10 times fast!)  It is extremely steep, and note that the stair we are standing in front of comes up to our knees.  The former residents of Teotihuacan must have had quads of steel!

Eric looking sharp in front of the Temple of the Sun.

 

Ancient bird painting, marvel of the past.

Person who decided 3" wedge sandals were perfect temple climbing shoe, marvel of the present.

Team Mexico Day 2: Pyramids

In spite of the pouring rain, we hired a van and two guides (really one guide and one driver, but it was sort of a 2-for-1 deal), and set out for the pyramids of the Sun and Moon at Teotihuacan. As with all guided tours in Latin America, our first stop was a "good friend's" store where we could "wait out the rain". We received a brief presentation on the 1000+ uses for the agave plant, followed by three shots of tequila, mezcal and some kind of fermented "cactus juice". Sufficiently liquored up, our merry band of tourists was set free to shop. Once we had purchased enough 100% genuine cactus-hooch and onyx statuettes, our guides "earned" their kick-backs and we completed our drive to the pyramids.

Our guest lecturer demonstrating how to make a needle and thread from a cactus.

From this one agave plant, you can make:
1.) Booze!
2.) Parchment paper!
3.) Poison darts!
4.) Designer fabrics!
5.) Y mas!

An offering to the gods...?

Our destination at last!

I was going to get this piercing too, but I thought it might be a bit too much...

I heart skele-puns!

Pyramid of the Sun

A bit steep!
Our bleach-blond guide didn't take her stiletto heels up these babies!

Autumn and the ladies of Mexico!

Party at the peak!

View from the top...Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Moon.

Wee!

Spiky!

Yep, we climbed it.
When you come to visit, we'll be waiting at the bottom for you!

Pyramid of the Moon

The pyramids weren't always just "ugly piles of rocks", they used to be painted!


View from the top...we climbed a lot of old shit on this visit!

Say "Hola"

So, it was time for a lunch break according to our guides, and they had a "great place" in mind. I however informed them that I had already picked out the place we were going. It's a really cool restaurant built in a cave! We could combine two passions in one meal: spelunking and great traditional Mexican/Aztec food! Our guides thought that the tripadvisor.com #1 rated / appears in every guidebook / 5 star dining experience that we had planned, wasn't quite right, and was, in fact, probably the worst, overpriced food that they had ever come across in their lives. Instead they suggested that we should dine at the 80 peso-all-you-can-eat buffet TRAILER around the corner....that was also owned by yet another "good friend." We insisted on our original choice, and were rewarded with one of the best meals of the trip. Our guides' entrepreneurial spirit could not be crushed, and they spent a major portion of the lunch break trying to squeeze a commission out of the staff at La Gruta, claiming that they had generously delivered 8 cash filled American pinatas right to the restaurant's cavernous doorstep.

Free mariachis included!

Back on track with carved jaguar heads!


Detail of carvings.
 Final glimpse of the pyramids.

Autumn in cactus-heaven!

Everyone napped on the way home, and we headed over to Polanco for dinner, and discovered some of the best sushi in Mexico City: Torobi!

A beautiful sashimi rose!

UPDATE: 9/10/2010, We returned to the restaurant a week later, and while the sushi was super-fresh and delicious again....we got some bad / raw potstickers and were unable to leave the house for the next two days!