Mexico City - a tale of tacos and pyramids

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let me preface today by saying that I am a great backpacker... can do without hot water for at least 2 hours/ can cope with dirty sheets (take my own clean ones!) and can carry my back pack for at least 200 metres!

however...Mexico city was the scene for our romantic fourth anniversary (awwww!) so we showed up and Dave whisked me on off in a very expensive (safe) taxi to the Sheraton in the middle of town... i walked into the hotel room and cried! it was sooo beautiful... flowers on the table from Dave.. a heart made from towels on the bed (a little strange but hey!) and best of all clean sheets and a huge bed!

You would think that this would be the most romantic anniversary ever... however I woke in the morning to find that I was sharing my bed with a hot water bottle... i am sure that if i had a thermometer it would be showing at least a temp of 45 degrees but since i didn't have one my imagination went into overdrive and i was sure that Dave was dying! anyway...lots of panadol and an entire day of sleep and Dave was feeling more like himself... i on the other hand was thanking God that i got to spend the whole day in the beautiful hotel room rather than being dragged around a city with a mad man on a mission to "see" as many old buildings and ruined temples as humanly possible!!

Anyway... we then got spoiled rotten by some friends of ours who live in Mexico...some of you might know them... Rudolfo and Andrea Peregrina!! They treated us to fabulous Mexican food which is amazing and well worth travelling to Mexico for!!

Catherine got sick of typing, so I've taken over...

Incidentally a word on Mexican food. You know those 'Old El Paso' packs that we get back in Australia?? They are complete rubbish. Had suspected this previously, but am pleased to confirm it. Did you know that the original taco does not involve a hard shell? We were taken to eat tacos, I must have eaten about 10, they were absolutely delicious!!
The bad news is that I don't think we'll ever be able to eat Mexican food anywhere back home in Sydney. So we'll have to come back here I guess 😊

OK enough about food. The main reason we had come to Mexico City was to see Teotihuacan (pronounced teyo-ti-wa-kan) - built by the Toltecs (predecessors to the Aztecs) and is the site of several pyramids, including the world's third largest pyramid!! (The first is in Egypt, and the second largest is also in Mexico). Now my dear readers, you are probably wondering why we are talking about pyramids in Mexico. Surely those are the domain of all things Egypt? Well, Mexico does have pyramids, but since we don't get as many films made about Mexico, you probably have never heard of them. (shamefully I know that most of you us get our education from Hollywood)

So we headed out to Teotihuacan. Took the public bus, got there with no mishaps, feeling quite pleased with ourselves. (if you read the lonely planet, they make out that Mexico City is full of armed thugs looking for hapless tourists to murder in the most dramatic way while simultaneously relieving them of their worldly possessions). Were quite amazed at the large site, spanning several km, full of ancient ruins. Were not so amazed at the fact that we had to walk it all. I mean come on, these guys should take a cue from Disneyland which has little trains that you can hop on.

Gosh, you're probably thinking that we're incredibly lazy, and well, you'd be right.

So we walked all over the site. Thankfully Mexico City weather was good to us, and it wasn't too hot yet (we cleverly had chosen to do all our walking early in the day before the tourists and the sun got to us). Tell you what, those Toltecs were pretty clever! The pyramids were awesome! I can't believe how organised they were to have built such a huge city, serving something like 80000 people. And they all went to church (or the equivalent) - can you imagine organising that event every time they had to do a sacrifice?? Which by the way, was quite often. Apparently the Aztecs used to sacrifice something like 20000 people per year to their god Huitzilopochtli (the hummingbird god). so ok, we can take two things away from that:
- yuck, can't believe they sacrificed 20000 people per year. That's 2.28 people per hour. Feel sorry for the 0.28 guy that had to span adjacent hours.
- all this for a hummingbird god??

But overall, it was great to see the pyramids. Now, if the clever Toltecs had been clever enough to put this in a mountain scene, this would completely kick Macchu Pichu. However, it was in really boring desert flat lands, and as such, you can see why MP is still far more famous (and still the best thing we've seen yet!) But this is a definite number 2. (well for me anyway, Catherine was pretty unconvinced about the whole thing!)

fun was had by all however and Catherine got ice cream and I got lots of pretty pictures so all was well!!

we ventured back into the city on the subway this time... the Mexico city subway is the third most busy subway in the world after japan and Moscow which meant that even on a Saturday afternoon you had to wait four trains before you actually got onto one... however we soon discovered the secret to claustrophobia on the subway was being a foot taller than everyone else... at least all of the people only came up to our armpits... bad news for them i am afraid since we haven't found a laundromat in 3 weeks! Or maybe good news for us, I'm not sure 😊

we wandered around the city a little... lots of nice colonial buildings although they are sinking! ok... so here is a story for you... The entire city has been built on top of a lake and therefore is slowly sinking into that lake.... There is this monument that was actually built with its foundation upon the lake bottom. So every year, as the rest of the city sinks, this monument stays at the same level - ergo it gets taller every year. They actually have to add new steps to it every year... the problem is that there was no such thing as a civil engineer at the time to plan the city ..... no environmental protection reports or actually any planning at all! basically the Aztecs saw an eagle eating a snake on a rock, and took this as an omen that they should build their city at the location, and 1000 years later, people are still here!!

We were a bit unfortunate with the weather - everything was one big white haze while we were there. There is a decent amount of pollution in the city as you would expect. In fact, if you want a breath of fresh air, the best thing to do is to go open a window and stick your head into a building.

One more thing before we go - Mexicans are somewhat entrepreneurial in their own way, and have come up with some ingenious, if not somewhat distasteful ways to make extra cash.

1. Able to stand on your head? Have got thick skin? Don't mind a bit of blood? If so, then you too can be a railway acrobat. Basically, these guys board train carriages, tell you their story in a loud voice, then they sit on the floor, unfurl a large cloth on the floor, cover it with broken glass. Then they stand on their head, with their back facing the glass, and then, at an opportune time, let themselves fall on the broken glass. And repeat until people give you money just to make you go away.

2. Lots of patience? Live in proximity to crowded areas where parking is very difficult? Have easy access to lots of cans? Then you too can be an unofficial parking attendant. These people basically put cans on the street next to premium parking spaces on the road (where you could have parked anyway!). So now that they've blocked the spot, you can't park there unless they are there to get rid of the obstacle. When you rock up, they move the can, and help you to park you car. And when you get out, you get to pay them for the privilege. Smart.

I think that the second option is one I would like to try in Sydney. Wonder how many seconds I would last 😊

OK my friends, that's all we have to say about Mexico! We definitely will come back - both to catch up with our dear friends, and also to see the rest of the country. We definitely caught a very very tiny glimpse here.

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Photos

Temple of the Moon
As viewed from the top of the Temple of the sun (the other pyramid!)

Some big church whose name we have forgotten
OK, when you're in South America, you see lots and lots of churches. So by the time we got here, we were well and truly over them. However, this is quite an impressive building. Less impressive was the fact that they were having a massive street party and hence wrecked all our photos :)

Sinking building
This is the Bellas Artes, which is a georgeous centre of arts. More to the point, it's also sinking! Something like 3 or 4 metres in the last 80 years!
I should add that the photo makes it look even more dramatic - rest assured that the reason everything is sloping is because Dave has one leg shorter than the other

Tacos in Mexico City
Looks a bit like a doner kebab huh?

The Angel of Independence
This is the monument that we alluded to in the blog. Every couple of years more steps are added to conceal the fact that the city is sinking!

Comments

[anonymous]

you are ok to hang out with...
You guys, just to tell you what a great time we had with you here in the City. I am glad you did learn some stuff haha! Keep enjoying your trip. love, Rodolfo and Andrea - Rodolfo Peregrina

[anonymous]

Montezumas
Is the place for real Mexican in Sydney - at least it is in Melbourne, and there are few restaurants in Sydney. We'll have to go some time! - Mark Aufflick

[Marco Sandoval]

Mexico is not in South America
Hi there, well I only wanted to say that México is not in South America, actually it is in North America with USA and Canada. ( your comment was..."OK, when you're in South America, you see lots and lots of churches".) Second thing, that church which name you have forgotten is the Mexico's Cathedral, is the biggest cathedral in all America, and also the most important church in this country, so now you know it. Thanks!

[luis]

a couple other things...
yeap, agree with marco, and also, not the whole city is sinking, and they are way on their way to stop that from happening. Never believe anything americans say about mexico, the whole hard shell taco culture is actually called tex-mex food, and it was born, you guessed it, in texas. Another thing is that we don't regularly use ground beef to make tacos. Last thing is that the city of teotihuacan, was actually built not exactly by the toltecs. The aztecs came to place themselves over there and renamed themselves mexicas, and they did scuffle a lot with the toltecs until they finally overpowered them and got a whole "empire" thing going... Nice to see you got a kick out of mexico, its cool when people go back with better ideas than only "its polluted!, its dangerous" and that sorta stuff...

[BR]

Big Church
The Big Church doesn't have a specific name, but it's well known as Mexico's Cathedral... There's also a big church "La Villa" that I recommend you to go. Is not a beautiful building, but inside is the image of "La Virgen de Guadalupe" which is famous around the world..