Pyramid of the Sun
Two more must see sites in Mexico City are the Museo Nacional de Antropología and the pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan and fortunately we had the time and the inclination to go and have a look at both. The museum lived up to expectation and we spent a whole day there. It was a Sunday and very busy as Mexican citizens get free entry. Inexpensive, very interesting and the cafe was superb. What more could a girl want?
Stone of the Sun, Aztec Calendar Stone
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Interesting instrument
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The alarm was set on Monday morning to get to the Pyramids 48km from our hotel, before the heat and the crowds. We wanted to use public transport. It was quite difficult to decipher how to get there using the Lonely Planet but the Wiki Travel Guide was excellent. Most tourists go there on a pre arranged tour but we like to do things independently. We took the metro to Potrero then a local bus. The metro was great. Very jolly music at the stations and lots of different hawkers on the train. I bought a CD, and I'm listening to it now, but that's making me miss Mexico. We didn't need a headset, lollypops, chewing gum, a cook book or any other assorted merchandise. It was easy to navigate on the metro as each of the stations had pictures as well as their names, presumably for anyone who cannot read. A passer by offered help to find the correct bus stop in Potrero. Entertainment on the bus was provided by a guitarist who sang three different songs very well, but if his cough in between was anything to go by our donation should have gone towards a chest x-ray.
Mural at Independentes Metro Station, Roberta Flack playing in the back ground
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Serenaded on the bus
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Teotihuacan when translated, means the place where the gods were created. It was built between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D. and has huge monuments – in particular, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon, laid out alongside the Avenue of the Dead. The Pyramids would have had a temple on top back in the day but they certainly provided enough for us to climb them. If this city had not fallen into disuse the StairMaster would never have needed to be invented. There was also a good museum on site which fitted in nicely with what we had learnt at the Anthropological Museum on Sunday.
Panoramic photo taken from the Pyramid of the Moon. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl is on the right, Pyramid of the Sun on the left in the distance and the Avenue of the Dead through the middle.
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Intricate stone work, which had been meticulously restored
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The journey back to our part of the city was straightforward but only with the help of a Good Samaritan. There were many forms of transport around the city and as we had used taxis, the metro and the bus I wanted to complete the set and try the Metro Bus. This is a bendy bus network, providing a fast service through the city and has barriered entrances and a platform just like a train. The buses use their own lane and run on the major through roads. Unfortunately we didn't realise we needed a prepaid plastic card to get on. A guard told us the journey would cost 5 Pesos but we didn't want to get a card when we only going to do one journey. Up stepped Pedro, a fellow passenger who said we could pay him the money and he would swipe his card 3 times. We sat at the back and he chatted to Mike for the whole journey which took Mike's mind off feeling travel sick. It was a very bouncy ride, just like a fairground. Pedro got off the stop before us and raced away as I think we had made him late for work.
Which bus? A taxi driver tried to frighten us into travelling with him by saying it was too dangerous for us to be there but we were on a mission to find the Metrobus and there was no way we would fall for his fear tactics
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The Metrobus at station
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