Kyoo 115

MesoAmerica Day Two:

Monday, April 28, 2008

Mexico City, Mexico

After a refreshing nights sleep full of police sirens and loud music (we were smack dab in the middle of Mexico City after all) we started the tour strong at Teotihuacan. The name means "The Place Where Men Become Gods". Very little is known about the original inhabitants of Teotihuacan because they left no written records. Most of what is known comes from the Maya and their interactions with them. Teotihuacan was most powerful from about AD 400 to after AD 600. But I won't bore ya'll with history stuff. In no particular order, here's the pictures:

Just being goobers.

Lunching at a little cafe just outside of Teotihuacan.  This place had the coolest decorations and an old juke box playing all sorts of music for just fives pesos!  I also got to order food in Spanish for the first time.  "Quiero tacos, por favor."  I was quite pleased.

I was excited to see that the Turtles' influence had reached far south.  This was shortly before I got to the last flavor of my icecream cone:  Tequila.  No, I did not know I had ordered tequila icecream.  It looked like it had caramel swirled in it.  It was not caramel.  Imagine that you've just licked a cat's litter box.  That's pretty much what it tasted like.  Never again.

View from our hostel at night.  The cathedral's on the left and some other random buildings are to the right.  The Zocalo is straight ahead behind those trees.

A few of my tour buddies with a cactus at Teotihuacan.  I really did touch the cactus when no one was looking and spent a majority of the rest of my time there trying to pull out microscopic needles with my non-existent fingernails.  Bad move.  It didn't look like it had pokies!

Tuna!  The fruit of the cactus.  Or, the early stages of the fruit.  They make some sweet icecream out of this stuff.

Art.  And I thought I had big hips.

I may or may not have literally climbed part of the Pyramid of the Sun...

View from the top of the Pyramid of the Moon.  The Avenue of the Dead is off to the right more and the Pyramid of the Sun is in the center back.  The picture doesn't quite do it justice.  It's one of the biggest pyramids in the world.  The whole ruins site is quite large.

Steep stairs.  Hard climb.  Killer to go down.

A serpent head on the Temple of the Plumed Serpent.  I hate snakes.

Another view of Teotihuacan.  The Pyramid of the Sun is right in the middle and the Pyramid of the Moon is off to the left in the back.

Slinky time!  Once it got going it made it quite a ways.

I loved the detail that went into these buildings.  Notice the pattern of rocks between the rocks.  It looked so cool!

And that's it for day two.  Yes, there are still tons of pictures I couldn't post.  If I ever upload them to a photobucket I'll be sure to post the link.  Until then, enjoy what you can.

Have a great day :)