Weekend Escape: Teotihuacan

“Teotihuacan– Where man becomes God”

It’s been almost 4 week here Mexico City and I’m more than familiar to the streets, parks, walkways and malls here now. My Spanish vocabulary have remarkably doubled from 10 words to 20 words. J

Thus it’s time to move out the my limits and explore “real Mexico”, the one which all say is notorious, is dangerous and is colourful. So I chose a trip to Pyramids of Teotihuacan, which are some 60 odd Km from here.

My initial plan to be on this trip with Vipin was very tactfully ruined by my Bosses (I liked there managerial skill and learnt a lesson from it). Maybe I’m destined to walk alone. But then I was not all alone. There was a proper research and planning for it over a period of 2-3 days, numerous travel tips  and a special detailed insight from Elliot, thank you very much, Amigos. 

An early morning start and I was at “Terminal Autobuses del Norte” by 8 AM. It is a major Bus depot here in Mexico City to all north bound, especially for US. As I walked in, it was just like any other Indian Bus Depot. There were people from all straits of human breed here and that too in large head count. I stopped missing “my India” for a moment here. “Knowledge is Power”, whoever say so are so very true. If I was able to manage in a public bus depot with almost all written in Spanish and all looks curiously at you, as if I come here regularly, was only because of some very detailed blogs I read. It was a cakewalk there.

The bus made me feel from homely, they were no better our “Shivneri Buses”. J

To make you more comfortable there are hawkers, broken seats, conductors shouting for the places. I was more than comfortable now. As we left the city area and moved into outskirts, started the real Mexico. There are houses all on the ridges of hills, all painted in different colours. It looked like as if someone has put cubes of different sizes and colours on the hill. What was interesting to me was that there were many localities that had erected 8 odd feet high compound around them. It’s like a mini caged city. You can sense the security concerns here. As we moved further out, there were farmlands of cactus and maze. Countryside as always beautiful to pass by, irrespective of which part of globe you are in.

Almost exactly in an hour I was at the gates of Teotihuacan. As you move in, you can see two huge pyramids on your far left and huge central area, in front of you. As soon as you move into the central place you can’t avoid appreciating the architecture of the place. The symmetry and hugeness of the structure are worth commendable considering it was build some 1800 ago from today. The tour guide was continuously talking about the history of the place, it’s people and how they self destruct these technologically strong civilization. Men was and is his own biggest enemy. J

Next we forward towards to the Pyramid of Sun, crossing by Avenue of Death(Miccoatli). You would be surprised to know that they knew to deviate the water channel at that time too. In case you find it normal, mind you that this is hurricane zone and rains heavily when it rains. As we walked along “Avenue of Death”, I was told that I'm moving over the burial of some 15,000 odd people. J

Next is Pyramid of Sun, the third largest in the world. There are some 250+ step to summit and most of them are steep. When you reach the summit you can view as far up till Mexico City and it’s industrial belt. You can have a full panoramic view of the Teotihuacan valley. Interesting the tourist guide didn’t went up with us but have a 10 min speech for it below itself. There is cool breeze up there and you can relax applauding the hard-work and dedication to natural powers, people from those times have.  Next was Pyramid of Moon, it was smaller to the former but steeper than it. Only 50 steps made me lungs work in NFT mode. J

The view from here is worth all the effort. You can see the whole of Teotihuacan city in lined for you and the exact symmetry of all the structures there. I almost spend 30 Min up there just sitting and getting mesmerised by the imaginations of beauty of this place when it was on it’s fullest. Down back to gates you can buy some memorabilia and honk you bargaining skills too. J

I was back in the city by 3, so I thought to explore the city on foot. Now that I have broken all the travel advisory my company gave me, why not to do it fully. I started walking the opposite side of from where I moved into Bus depot. It a colourful city, there is no wall left without a graffiti. People stare at you as foreigner, but that logical. Some 1 hour of walking across lanes and by lanes of the city, I realised why it is a caged city. All house have huge metal gates and high-tech security systems. Even the road side grocery shop was caged. You had a hole to give the slip and money and the bag will be given out from a small gate on right down corner. That was something new to me. Parents lines up in front of the school and the teacher recognize them and call out the kids name on mike. The kid then runs out and the gate. You can easily spot people drugged and laying dead on the pathways.

By now I was tired, it must be some 12-14 Km on foot in a day. By till now I have seen all of Mexico City. It’s history, it present and it’s future, it’s best and it’s worst, from what they are proud of to what they want to hide. This trip is over now, I'm all set to be back home now, “travelogoically”.