Thursday, January 28, 2016

Mexico City days 4 & 5 Teotihuacan Pyramids

On Sunday, Valentina realized she could not go with us, as she is buried in school work, both as teacher and student.  But she was so sweet to make sure we got there.  The plan was Teotihuacan.  We had to go to the far end of the Metro, then get on the one hour bus to the Pyramids.  We were North of the city and in almost country side small towns.  The bus drops you off, then a taxi guy shows us a map and says the Avenue of the Dead is 4.5 km (2+ miles), he'll take us to the other end and then we walk back here where the bus picks up.  OK sounded good!  He took us by the shopping area first (hmm) but they had an interesting history lesson to give us on the ancient uses of the Maguey plant, a type of Agave, like a giant aloe plant.  They made paper from the skin of the plant and made a needle and thread from the center of the large leaf.
We were lucky that it was Sunday and being Mexican Nationals (or permanent residents) we got in the park for free.  
Tourists from every where around the world were there.  It is actually unknown who built this ancient city.  The Aztecs found it and claimed it, but it was estimated to be originally built in 100BC!  They believe over 100,000 people lived there in 250AD, the biggest city know for that early in civilization.  
The Pyramid of the Moon is at the Northern end of the Avenue of the Dead.  The Pyramid of the Sun is of course on the East side of the Avenue.  There are smaller pyramids and living quarters lining the sides of the path.  They had an amazing drainage and sewer system the the Europeans copied and took back.  The Sun pyramid takes 248 steps to get to the top and it raises 75 Meters (246 feet) high.
We waited for an hour in line just to climb the stairs.  We were almost at the front of our group to be let thru, so we had to keep up the pace going up the first set of steps to a landing area.  The altitude is about 8000 feet, so I was winded at the top, seeing as how I live on a boat at sea level!!  Once my heart rate slowed, we got in line to go to the top.  The view from there was forever.  Many people were raising their hands to the Sun as tho feeling the energy from Sun itself and sending it into the Temple of the Sun through their feet.  After enjoying the view, we stood in line to go down.  By the time we got to the bottom, our legs were like jello and our feet and legs were aching.  Looking up to the top, all those people just look like ants!
We had to keep walking to the end of the Avenue of the Dead to catch the bus back to the Metro and back to the apartment.  Exhausting, but totally worth it!
Monday was the big day.  We tried to catch a cab at 8am to make sure we got to the Embassy before our 10am appointment.  If we were late, we would have to come back a different day, which would be very costly and inconvenient.  The first Taxi guy said he did not know where it was and we should get out and find another taxi.  At least he was honest.  It was not until 8:30 by the time we got another taxi to stop for us.  By that time, I had it on my google maps and he knew just how to get there.  We took all back city streets and not on the slow major roads.  He dropped us off at 9:30 and got a nice tip!  The guard told us we had to have exact change for our fee, so we had to search the street to find change for a 500 peso note (about 30 dollars).  After asking several street vendors, a hotel and restaurant and no one had it, finally a well dressed man on the street had just the right change in his wallet.  We just made it back by 10am.  Then it was sit and wait our turn, as there was only one girl working taking applications. Often French are stuffy and hard to deal with, but thanks to having worked for Club Med, I knew how to deal with them.  We had her smiling and laughing because we were going to sail to Polynesia, not like all the others going to France.  We had every paper she asked for and she seemed pleased.  So we were done, now just the waiting for our passports to go to Tahiti with out us and come back with visas in them.    Takes one to two months, and we are exactly two months away from our planned departure date.  Fingers are crossed!!
After calming our nerves (mine anyway) at Starbucks coffee, we walked over to the Anthropology Museum, the other Must Do while in Mexico City.  The guard say, "sorry we are closed on Mondays"  What?!?!  Nooooo!  I was so disappointed not to get to see the Aztec Calendar Stone!  If I had know we would have only had that one hour when we were there on Friday, I would have paid the money, just to see it.  Waaaaah!  Ok getting over it, we are walking around and become entertained by the professional dog training school.  All sitting at first, then when he threw the ball they all ran after it and always brought it back.  A nice dressed man saw us come out of the museum with long faces and offered to take us to the only open museum on Monday's, Carlos Slim's art museum.  What the hell, what else to do.
Wow!  The statues, paintings and carvings were spectacular.  Some of it dating back to the 12th century.  I thought it was awfully nice of the richest man it the world to share his art collection with us.  Did I mention it is free to get in?
After words we walked probably another 2 miles to the closest Metro station down another amazing middle of the road park "sidewalk".

It was an awesome trip, but we are sure glad to be back at our quiet little boat in the bay of La Paz.
You know you are back in the country side when the burro and cart are the taxi.

Ruins Teotihuacan

short passageways

Check out the little rocks lining the big rocks in the construction

Plaza of the Moon

Pyramid of the Moon

Avenue of the Dead looking South

Mike by ram head

The Puma

Shelly and Mike with Pyramid of the Sun

Steps up Pyramid of the Sun

protruding rocks off side of pyramid

Pyramid of the Moon

Shelly with Pyramid of the Moon

Mike with newly discovered pyramids to the South

Mike on top of Pyramid of the Sun

People on the top praying the Sun

People look like tiny ants

Avenue of the Dead looking North

Entry to the Teotihuacan Park

Doggie Day care

The lake at the park (also closed on Mondays!)

The Castle (also closed)

Carlos Slim's art museum "Soumaya" named for his late wife

Shelly the Thinker

Top inside of the building

Bronze trumpeter 

Snail angel

Lovers by Rodan

more sexy art!

The Hand of God side one

The Hand of God side two

Hercules the archer

my favorite wrestler!

The hang over

took mostly photos of the paintings of sailboats

more sailboat paintings

The stormy night

Elephant tusk from 12th Century China

Details of the carving

More elephant tusk carvings

detailed work is amazing!

Dragons!

The last painting as you go out the door

What a great city to be a pedestrian! 

Mexico City day 3 Templo Major

We were so happy Valentina could join us on Saturday.  She is a high school teacher and going to graduate school at night, so she is a busy girl!  We took a bus to a Metro station and ended up right in the center of the city.  We came out by Catedral Metropolitana and the Zocolo with a huge Mexican Flag.  The ostentatious Cathedral was built right on top of the Aztec Pyramid Major, just as any culture takes over a conquered one.  The vaulted ceilings, giant organ, holy water and golden shrine were over the top.  But I guess that goes with having so many people, you have to have a big enough Cathedral to hold them all. (21 million)

The Templar Major was the center of the Universe for the Aztecs.  It was said it was where North met South and East met West in their world.  The museum built walkways thru the temple so you can walk thru the remnants of the pyramid itself.  Once in the museum the two big show pieces are the stones of the woman and man.  The stone of the woman is missing a part they believe may have had jewels on it.  She is sticking her tongue out and has ear rings on.  The cool part of the story of the man stone is, that Valentina's maternal grandfather was head of the electrical company team, that found it while digging under the street near the Zocolo back in the 1970s.  The stone is displayed with colored lights so you can see each part of the carving.  The rest of the artifacts were just as interesting with incredible craftsmanship of the art works.

We walked along the crowded streets looking for a place to eat.  Along the way we saw Batman, the Transformers and a punk rock dude in the crowd who had the best mohawk I have ever seen.  We looked inside the Theater of Arts building, but they had no bathrooms.  So across the street at Sears we found some and got an incredible view of the Arts building in the sunset.  Another amazing day in the big city!
Metropolitan Cathedral

Holy Water

the Organ

The Golden Alter

rays of sunlight thru the windows

Jesus Christ

Templar Major Snake head wall

Major Snake

Snake head

Jaguar head

Stone statues leaning on the steps of the Temple

Chacmool, sacrifice statue

Templar Major with Metropolitan Cathedral in background

One Pyramid layer

Eagle head pyramid

carvings along bench seats still with coloring

more carvings

The wall of skulls

Bird Temple sacrifice platform

The original arched window of Mexico

Looking across the whole Temple

photo of woman stone

Woman Stone

Skull wall

Skull close ups

Aztec Spiral

One of many boxes found, thought to be filled with offerings for the gods

contents of a offering box

Model of how every ruler added a layer on to the temple 

Incredible Mosaic 

Bat God

The Jade Mask

Eagle Warror

Shelly behind Snake head

The Man Stone

The Man Stone with lights

Artifacts from the Temple

Jaguar symbol of self empowerment and confidence 

Snake bowl

Valentina and Mike by old buildings

Batman!

transformers performers

Best Mohawk hair doo ever!

Valentina, Shelly and Mike by the Palace of the Beautiful Arts

Inside the dome of the Art Palace

View of the Palace of the Bella Artes from the Sears building