Teotihuacan

Had another lovely breakfast in our hotel. Culture is interesting. In Australia and the US young girls (and guys) wait on restaurant tables, and the senior men man the cash registers. Here in Mexico, it's mature men who wait on tables, and the girls who sit at the cash registers. In Jordan, it would be considered highly improper to let your daughter wait upon men so they are not even seen in restaurants.

Anyway, our hotel is in the 'spare parts' sector of the city. All shops selling similar things cluster together. One shop across the road sells hoses for washing machines, another sells glass jugs for blenders, another sells handles for kettles, and another sells just agitators for washing machines. If only we could find places like this at home when we needed them. "Nah mate, cheaper to buy a new one".

Got picked up after breakfast by our knowledgeable guide who assured us that the reason for the haze which stopped us being able to view the city was nothing to do with pollution, but rather because it had rained overnight. Cough cough wheeze wheeze.

Our first stop was the Shrine of the Lady of Guadalupe, and luckily we were early enough to beat the big crush. As the story goes, the Virgin Mary appeared to a poor peasant by the name of Juan Diego in 1521, and told him to build a church on the hill they were standing on. When the bishop refused to believe his story, Juan Diego asked Mary for a sign, and was given a cloak imprinted with the Virgin Mary's image to give to the bishop.

It's now the most visited catholic pilgrimage site in the world, holding 10,000 at a time. Millions visit each year, and the record attendance on her special feast day - December 12 - was set in 2009 - 6.1 million. Basically the city shuts down for the procession. There are actually three basilicas. A very old one, a fairly old one, and a lovely modern one. Basically, like the rest of Mexico City, the original two basilicas are gradually sinking into the mud below, and nobody knows how long they will last. When we went inside the second one, it was seriously down hill to get out again, so a modern one with decent foundations was required. And it's lovely.

Not only lovely, but cleverly thought out. They were holding one of the eight daily services when we arrived, full of young girls in frilly white dresses and boys in white suits celebrating their first communions. The famous cloak is on the altar wall behind the celebrating priest, but an underground passage, and automatic moving walkway, allow you to go underneath the altar and stare up at the cloak from below the floor while the service continues on merrily above you. Even the acoustics have been designed so that the voices of noisy tour guides can't be heard above. Just as well.

From there it was back on the road 50km out of the city to the Pyramids of Teotihuacan. At its zenith, perhaps in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Teotihuacan was the largest city in the Americas, making it at least the sixth largest city in the world.

The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, with major monuments continuously under construction until about 250 AD. The city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. It was in ruins before the Aztecs got there, but they were so impressed that they called it the Birthplace of the Gods - Teotihuacan.

Now I've been practicing all day, but I still can't say it like a Mexican. You have to try saying it while clicking and clucking in the back of your throat, and you'll get somewhere close.

The site is dominated by two large pyramids - the Pyramid of the Sun, and the Pyramid of the Moon, though we have been told that, strictly speaking, they are not pyramids in shape, as there are multiple levels, and they are not pyramids in function as there are no burial chambers beneath in the style of the Egyptian ones. Regardless, they are very impressive and a bugger to walk up, not made any easier by Mexico City's altitude.

Running the length of the site is the broad Avenue of the Dead, which is aligned to magnetic north, and no doubt to the angle of the Sun on auspicious days.

After walking up the Pyramid of the Sun, along the full length of the Avenue of the Dead, and checking out the Pyramid of the Moon, and the Ciuadela (the Citadel) which was probably the administrative centre of the city and the marketplace, we found our guide, and headed back towards the city.

Being Saturday, the markets were in full swing in the parks back in the city, and we spent an enjoyable afternoon wandering around soaking up the atmosphere.

Off to Cuba tomorrow.