In the D.F. trip, we visited three significant places: the pyramids at Teotihuacán, the Basilica of Guadalupe, and the Cathedral at the Center of Mexico City.
Teotihuacán is a ruin behind which reveals a rich civilization. The city expanded in an area of 14 squared miles, traced as far back as 400 years before Christ and lasted until 750 AC. There is still evidence of a progressive urban planning through the systems of drainage and of the streets and avenues covering the city. In addition to that, residents and governmental places are organized in different areas. Avenue of the Dead is the main avenue that runs north-south. Along this avenue there were great temples where the main ceremonial events of their life occurred, as well as buildings of governmental-administrative functions, and residents of priests who took care of those great temples. Still remain today are the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Pyramid of the Sun is taller, while the steps of the Pyramid of the Moon are steeper, thus harder to climb up and down.
I wonder if this group of pyramids is one of the wonders of the world, but in my book it already is. Apparently, foreign tourists are not the only visitors of the city. It was a sunny day as any other day at the city but the breeze was just wonderful. However, I made a mistake not bringing a bottle of water with me. Between the different pyramids that we walked on that day, we must have covered at least 5 miles in the sheer sun. I haven’t talked about the climbing up and down the steep pyramids. It is a dessert, so the only kind of trees that survives is cactus, which gives no shade. I had to go look for water after climbing down from the 2nd pyramid.
The 2nd climb was of the Pyramid of the Sun. It had become difficult so much that we rested several times before reaching the top. But once reaching the top, there was a great feeling of accomplishment in addition to the great view of the whole ruined city.
Along the walks to the different pyramids, there were several people selling very cool souvenirs. If I had not been on a tight budget, I would have bought a lot of these stuffs to bring back to the US as gifts. They were selling a kind of whistle that could make the roaring sound of a mountain lion (or of a mountain cat, I’m not sure). It scared the heck out of me when one guy blew it very close to me, but only for the first time. It had become annoying toward the end of the visit because everybody was selling that whistle.
A little interesting coincidence was my meeting with some groups of boy/girl scouts along the way. They all wore uniform with the logo of Scout of Mexico. I approached several of them, scouts as well as scout masters, saluted them with the Scout sign while doing handshake by our left hands – a unique custom of the scout movement of the world. We all recognized each other to be members of a great international organization. We exchanged short conversations, telling each other where we were from then moved on (because I couldn’t handle longer conversation in Spanish, hehe). One thing I noticed was that there were a number of older kids or young men and women in those scout troops, whereas in the Boy Scouts / Girl Scouts of America, the scouts usually discontinue once they reach high school.
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