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Published: February 22nd 2010
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The one with the Pyramidds, The Ruins and the Museums The very first thing i do when i get to mexico is get taken too what is aparently the best taco place in mexico city by the hostel owner and to be honest even now i really wouldnt argue with him they were lovely and i even managed to show up angel the guy who owns the hostel by eating alot of habineros one of the hottest chilis in the world. the first full day in mexico city and i walked along insurgenses which is the longest avenue in latin america and the the reforma street which has statues and roundabouts all along it begginng with the last aztec ruler who fought against the spanish. on the way i got a little shock in seeing people line up to get thier flu shots outside a subway station. people are talking to me in spanish even if they speak english which was tripping me out because i have never looked nmore american in my life.
On the way to the museum theres a huge park which is alright and has a zoo and stuff in but the first
time i went there was to see the history museum which was actually really good could have spent ages there nerding over ancient artifacts especially the sun stone which aparently isnt the aztec calender afterall. it has everything from early human life which everyone has seen before and doesnt really care about here its all about mixtecs aztecs tolmecs and every other civilisation which occupied mesoamerica. still dealing with crazy jetlag after the biggest flight of the whole trip i didnt make it there until the afternoon and i got talking to some mexican dude so didnt get a huge amount of time there. by the time i left i was starving so got myself some street quesadillas which eaten with your hands and stuff is pritty messy but gotta do it liek a mexican and it was really filling. Even with awefull spanish im managing to get by and buy stuff and order street food just about, they do thier best to help you but its not always easy in fact i think it might just be the hardest place language wise so far.
Our Lady Guadalupe Included in the tour to the pyramids was
a stop at lady guadalupe churchs at which millions upon millions of pilgrims from all over mexico visit every year almost to the point she is being worshiped more than conventianal christianity itself as she was seen to help and then convert most of the indigenous poeple and ofcourse she saw mary on top of the mountian which is actaully a cool looking church in contrast to the ugly tacky new building which aparently holds 60,000 people sometimes. got to see some mariachi, traveling musitians which was cool but couldnt take a photo because the camera was dead which meant a quick stop at theshop miles away to get some more and be back in time which cleaned me right out of cash.
Teotihuacan first of all there are wayy too many vouls in the name to be able to say it aloud which made booking a way to get to the place hard enough. on the way to the pyramids you leave mexico citys affluence and hit the mountain side which is covered in houses almost favella shanty town looking. the pyramids themselves are awesome and huge, some of the biggest and earliest in mexico,
the pyramid of the moon is the smaller of the two, the avenue of the dead leads to the collosal pyramid of the sun, all names given by the conquering aztecs over the so called peacefull peoples who lived before although there are signs of sacrifice in some chambers. climbing u pthe steep steps to the first level of the smaller one was hard enough but getting to the top of the pyramid of the sun was crazy and scary as hell as the wind blew and ofcourse health and safety doesnt exisit in mexico but the views were so cool 360 panarama of awesomeness it was nice just to sit up there and take it in for a bit and take a breather before heading back down. the last and smallest pyramid was actually the most ijmpressive as it was hidden away the facade didnt get destroyed and it actually looks like youd expect and aztec type building to have looked its really cool with serpent heads and carvings up the steps, didnt spend long there though because it was bloody freezing!
Temple Mayor a couple days later i went to the temple mayor which
is a temple ruins in the middle of mexico city surrounded by churches and attached to a museum it was pritty cool to have a little walk round the structure which was changed by several ancient generations but had eagles heads and big snakes which were still partially painted, passed an hour or two reading as many signs as were in english as i could find and the views on the zocalo were pritty good too. the museum next to it is pritty crap other than the wall of skulls and a little thing about the musical instruments i pretend to understand spanish and watched.
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