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My final day in Mexico and the sun was hot and shining. I had a booked a tour to the sun and moon temples, Teotihuacan. Two couples, a Kiwi and a Columbian were on the tour with me and we all piled into a mini bus along with our chirpy (and very small) tour guide Pepe.
We first visited the ruins in the centre of the city. These had been levelled by the Spanish when they rebuilt the city. Next to these ruins a huge church stood, built with the stones from the destroyed temples. The church itself looked like a fortress and inside an eerie blue light from the small stain glass windows illuminated the white wash walls, whilst huge murals of figures lined the walls, their faces machine gunned into oblivion.
Surrounding this site was the bustling city and overlooking it exceptionally ugly,run down 60s residential tower blocks with many coloured satellite dishes growing out of the walls like technological fungi. I found it quite difficult to envision the splendour and vastness of the temples in amongst such squalor.
From there we headed an hour out to the temples. The kiwi couple, Caroline and Arran from Christchurch, were really chatty and friendly. They had been travelling for over two years and had spent the winter in Vancouver working on grouse mountain, the ski slope overlooking the city. Keen mountain bikers, they had decided to do a road trip round American visiting the bike parks in a camper van they had bought, frequently parking in Walmart carparks as it was free and many of the Walmarts are open 24/7 so there is always a loo on hand.
We were dropped off at a building just before the temples and given the history and many uses of the cactus plant. Apart from making tequila, pulque and mesquil the cactus meat can be used for cooking, the skin on the inside of the centre can be peeled off as a thin paper, the stringy fibres can be used for weaving and making wool and the tip can make into a needle. A useful plant all round. Then at 10.30 in the morning we got to try 6 shots, the three above plus some almond liqueur and a berry one, the significance on these drinks wasn't really clear but I'mnot one to turn back free booze! Our jocular new guide (Pepe had disappeared elsewhere for the moment) then took us through the different rocks of the area, onyx being the local one. Then a 'retail opportunity' in which I fell victim and purchased a small statue, the guide kept offering me massive heavy things ignoring my objections that I didn't have room in my bag, the weight allowance nor the want to haul it round south American with me.
After this we were reunited with Pepe who took us round the temples. We started with the dramatic walk up what would of been the main avenue of the city, again this is an archaeological site which has only recovered a fraction of the original city. As you get closer to the two temples, a series of five ponds, now all dried up, each a level lower than the next block the road. The would of been filled in the rainy season. On either side the remains of large residential houses. Some are well preserved, you can go down into one which is covered by a huge metal roof. Inside you can see holes in the wall where pipes with running water would of been, a corner with a funnel which was a shower and most amazing is the original paint used to create the intricate patterns and symbols that would of adorned all the house and temples. However, this time instead of bad 20th century architecture it is the means of preservation that prevented me from truly imagining what these places would of been.
This may be controversial but I sometimes think that instead of preventing these places from decaying further with steal covers, beams and metal walkways it would be better to rebuilt them (using as close as possible to the original materials and methods) to their former glory so you could truly appreciate and comprehend how vast and magical they were. The archaeologists of the 20s did try a little of the rebuilding but not sympathetically to the structures, instead they used a grey concrete looking mortar with orange sized rocks in lines along the gaps. This now gives the walls a strange polka dot appearance like a complicated join the dots game.
In the morning we climbed the sun temple. The steep stairs worked muscles that I hadn't used for a while but the view was worth it, all around you could see the hazy desert shimmering into the distance. These temples consistent of several pyramids built one on top of the other, each with a wider base and higher summit, the are flat at the top on which smaller square buildings would of sat with an entrance into the pyramids. Due to the layering method, almost perfectly preserved stone carved heads of leopards and snakes have been uncovered having been protected from the elements and war incased in a larger pyramid. They depict the ancient calendar, represented by animals and dots.
In the afternoon after a buffet lunch (we didn't really have much choice in getting due to there being no other eateries for miles) we headed back along the main avenue and this time to the moon temple pyramid sitting dramatically at the end of the long dusty avenue. Another steep climb, this time even harder due to lunch sitting heavily in our stomachs and we reached no quite the top, this was out of bounds. However the view was utterly magnificent. You could see all round the site and the tiny dots of people milling about either taking photos or trying to sell trinkets. You could understand how these man made structures could make a person at the top feel divine looking down at an ant sized civilisation. The kiwi couple and I sat up there until the scorching sun got too much and we returned to meet up with Pepe and the mini bus.
On the way back to the centre of the city we stopped at an area in which there sits several church varying in ages, sizes and degrees of subsidence. In Pepe's words, "this is the Disney land for catholics". Hundreds of stalls outside sold everything you could on imagine with the virgin Mary on it ; t- shirts, caps, backpacks, keyrings, seat covers... They are virgin mad in mexico anyway but this was unbelievable (maybe wrong chose of word considering it is all based on belief) The reason for all the churches was the appearance of mexico's first miracle which I gathered was the appearance of the virgin in a painting. No one knows who did it or where it came from or what they used to create it. I'm sure that with modern carbon dating and chemical analysis techniques as well as painting restoration methods this could be ascertained but I don't think church would be willing to hand to it over. Something like 1 million people a day come to see it during religious festivals (and give a donation i imagine) They have a conveyor belt you have to stand on to prevent people lurking and praying, holding up the millions of other visitors, its rather surreal slowly being wheeled past a small painting which so many hold such respect and belief in. We visited several more of the older churches, on which the subsidence was so bad that it looked like some surrealists painting from the outside!
Knackered from a long day but tremendously excited about seeing Doug the next day I packed my bag up, ready for the 4am start and the next leg of our adventure.
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