November 21, 2013 The Teuchitlán Pyramids

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Today we were really up early. We had to be at a pick up location at 7:45am for a day trip we had booked to the Teuchitlán Pyramids. Rosy, our tour guide arrived on time and we were nicely surprised to learn that we were a group of only 5 people and would travel in a very nice van rather than a bus.

The drive to Teuchitlán is about 1 ½ hours but we made a stop on the way at a little dairy farm. Here Rosy introduced us to Leche Caliente (Hot Milk). In her words, this is the Mexican equivalent to morning coffee at Starbucks. There is a table set up where you take a cup, add some cocoa and sugar, a little instant coffee and some alcohol if you wish. It was not even 9am yet so I passed on the alcohol. Next, we added the final ingredient, udderly fresh milk. This was the first time that we had ever had unpasteurized milk straight from the cow. Leche Caliente would not be a good habit to get into, the butter fat content of the milk would cause an unwanted weight gain in no time, but it was sure a nice drink.

We arrived at the Teuchitlán Pyramids and literally had the place to ourselves. Unwarned ahead of time, we had to climb a long way uphill to get to the round structures called Guachimontones.

These pyramids are different structures than Egyptian pyramids. These have interior chambers but they are not hollow. The Guachimontones are structured as platforms one on top of the other. The official discovery of this site was in the late 1960’s and the archeological exploration of this area only began in the 1990’s. The site dates back to at least 200BC and there is still a lot of area to be uncovered.

We spent a few hours there while Rosy, who had previously met with the archeologists who had discovered the site, shared the knowledge with us that they had shared with her.

There are ball playing fields (a hard ball hit only using their hips), sacrificial alters and artifacts that clearly depict two different civilizations that used the area but none actually lived on the site. The site was considered sacred. On the top of each of the pyramids a wooden pole was erected that the “birdman” wearing a mask and feathers would attach himself to with ropes and then soar or swoop around the pole.

It was an extremely interesting tour.

On our way home we stopped at the Monte Carlo restaurant that has a wonderful view of the water. In fact, it is built on the very edge of the lake. We had a white egret wandering in the restaurant and many white pelicans preening, floating and fishing in front of us while we ate. I hate to mention it but there were also a few cormorants diving and fishing as well.



A quick stop on our way home for a few groceries. No dinner, we were still full from lunch and since we were totally exhausted we went to bed early.

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Comments

[Kelly]

Fabulous shot
What a view!

[Kelly]

Starbucks?
Not sure I can picture my local barrista in this pic ;-)