Yesterday we had a day off in Mexico, so Rene took a group of us to see the pyramids at Teotihuacan.
As we arrived some men started a fertility ritual, which involved them swinging around a pole on a rope. One of the guys was playing a drum and blowing a whistle whilst swinging around. You can see it in my video.
As we entered the main site there were loads of people selling trinkets, including little wooden devices that make the noise of a Jaguar growl when you blow into them. From that point on the visit was punctuated with kids making Jaguar noises and blowing whistles. 🙂
At the entrance there is a small pyramid with quite steep steps. I walked up those and felt a little out of breath, which made me wonder how I would cope with the big one. Walking down the steps was a little unnerving too.
I love the look of stepped pyramids! They look so organised and symmetrical. As you are walking around you start getting a feel for the scale of the site. We were walking between two of the pyramids and someone commented that we didn’t seem to be getting any closer. 🙂
When we got to the big pyramid (Pyramid of the Sun) I just went for it. The first layer had quite steep steps, which are harder to deal with when you have little stumpy legs like me. The next two layers had smaller steps, so they were much easier. I’m not gonna lie, I was out of breath, but it was not as bad as I was expecting considering how unfit I am at the moment. The view from the top was awesome. Photos and videos never do this stuff justice, but hopefully you will get some idea from the video I posted.
For the most part, walking down the big pyramid was OK because there was a guide rope to hold on to. At one point there were about 10 steps that were much steeper than I remembered on the way up and there was a queue for the guide rope. Some of the braver souls just walked down without the rope. I took the kids approach and just shuffled down over the edge on my ass, until I could grab onto the step behind me. 🙂
Just as we started to head back to the car the rain came. It has been an overcast day, but warm, so the cool rain was quite pleasant. I thought I had brought sun cream and bug spray, but I had brought two lots of bug spray. Because of my cap, my head and face didn’t burn much, but my forearms got roasted.
We drove back to the city, got some food, then it was back to the hotel to crash. I had to soak my arms in cold water to try and reduce the burning…
Many thanks to Rene for being a great host. We really haven’t had to organise anything during the Mexico leg of the trip because he has done everything for us!
Next stop Guatemala!
Cheers
Tim…
