Advertisement
Published: August 1st 2002
Edit Blog Post
Sometimes booking an organised tour to a tourist attraction can really be worthwhile.
Teotihuacan - huge pyramids on the outskirts of
Mexico City, we had booked a tour. The tour also took in the
Gaudaluape, the city's cathedral. The cathedral houses Mexico's version of the Turin Shroud - a painting that miraculously appeared on a cloth that was used to gather rose petals at the site of the cathedral. The painting/image was that of the Virgin Mary - surprising for a country as catholic as this. The guide showed us where - miracle upon miracle - images of saints had appeared within the already miraculous cloth. Try as I might I could not see any extra saints... though I could swear I saw a picture of a nudy lady - I wasn't the only one.
Teotihuacan is a city dating from well before christ, very little is known about it. We don't know who built it, who lived there, or how long it took. What we do know is that it took over 1000 years to build, the population suffered a great plague and that the Aztec's finished off the few people that were left.
Upon reaching the
site, the guide went into a spiel about the spiritual side of the site and how it had obviously all been painted red. Then everyone in the group had to hold hands so that we could feel the energy in the area, relax, close eyes for a few minutes... and then everyone had to hug everyone else. I felt like a great big hippy.
The pyramids are the third largest in the Americas. First we climbed "
The Pyramid of the Sun", the largest of the group. The top was incredibly crowded, at the very pinnacle, a group of tourists were all surrounding an area where there was some chanting, burning of incense, and some kind of offering going on. No human sacrifice, just some grain, fruit, and potatoes. The air was full of butterflies, I have know idea if these had been summoned by the new age activities on top of the pyramid or just generally congregate at the top of structure anyway, but they gave the whole experience a magical feeling.
The other pyramids contained some really impressive architecture, nice gargoyles, and some great designs. We didn't get the chance to enter any of them.
I'd
Hippies
Ali and Robbie spent the day with Boghen and Shane. Shane is from Melbourne, and also plays guitar, likes linux, and is travelling down to Guatemala, or maybe Cuba... it depends on things.
Back at the zocalo, Boghen and I went to get food. After food, we tried to leave the restaurant, the weather had other ideas. A huge lightening storm was over the city. After waiting about 30mins to leave we decided to just run back to the hostel. Running across the Zocalo in the middle of a lightening storm, dodging VW bug taxis, drenched to the skin in seconds is one thing I will never forget.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.254s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 31; qc: 123; dbt: 0.1455s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb