When I was in college, I had a professor that did a bunch of field work in Northern Mexico, I want to say in Chihuahua, but it may have been one of the other states. Anyway, besides relating to us what most of the people there really wanted in life (clear title to their land), he alsa told us that in the bars there, you never order ‘ultimo’ for the last drink of the night, because that would be the last drink ever.
Now this was the same guy that came up with the coyote-pendejo spectrum, and placed himself at the bottom intentionally, so maybe take that with a grain of salt, but I do like the idea. The implication, on the last real day of the trip, that there will be another. These photos, appropriately, are from the second to last day of this trip. It was the last day of substance, for sure.
Teotihuacán is a complex of three large pyramids, and many smaller temples and sites of archeological importance. I won’t bore you with a history lesson, except to say that the folks that built them saw their whole civilization collapse. It was the 6th largest city in the world at its peak, more than just a religious center or burial monument like the ones in Egypt.
Anyway, all of that was a long time ago, and now it’s a place where you can visit and be awed and a little sad that it’s all gone. We took an uber to the main entrance, and immediately got sold a tour on quad bikes, which was actually a pretty decent way to get around. They took us to some fun little shops, I bought sophie a gift, then we parked the quads and walked into the actual preserve, where there are no motor vehicles for the tourists.
It’s a big place. I don’t know if the pyramids are larger than the ones at Giza, but the walk is definitely longer. We walked from the back gate to the Pyramid of the Moon, by way of the Pyramid of the Sun, and then to the temple at the other end of the compound, which you get to by crossing a dozen pre-columbian staircases, up and down, both ways. My travelling companions were both fine. Me, that hasn’t seen the inside of a gym nor had a season of travel and being out-of-doors in far too long, well, I was pretty wiped.
We spent too long, well, went around to see everything we wanted to see, and by the time we got back to the quads, the last place on the quad tour was closed. The dude took us to the bus stop, where we decided discretion is the better part of getting back to the hotel and ordered an uber again. While we waited I drank a liter of gatorade and then another half a liter of water. Little bit dehydrated. The ride home was pretty uneventful; good light, sunset. The sign that pointed to Cairo, maybe not mocking me, but for sure a sign of something.
