Clearing Out the Memory Card - Teotihuacan, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and a Revisit to Pasillo de Humo (CDMX)

Well, the Missus keeps insisting that we had only one trip this year; our recent roadtrip. I reminded Her that we did two trips early in the year, San Francisco and Mexico City. I went ahead and started showing Her our photos. Honestly, I don't blame Her for thinking those trips didn't happen this year....January and February just seem so long ago now.

Anyway, while I was looking at some of my photos; I thought I'd better get me act together and start doing posts. I'm going to try to limit my verbiage from this point on and let you enjoy the photos, though I think I'm not going to be very successful.

Before our trip to CDMX, I contacted a Driver named Aaron Cruz that came highly recommended by a couple of the Missus's coworkers and heck is even the subject of this thread in TripAdvisor. Anyway, contacting and arranging was easy. And on the day of pick-up, I went out and quickly picked up some croissants from our favorite bakery down the street.

Aaron was on time and got us to Teotihuacan in no time at all. Both the Missus and I had read about this amazing UNESCO World Heritage Site and were excited about our visit. Needless to say; it delivered.

Entering from the Southwest entrance, the first thing you come upon is La Cuidadela (the Citadel), which is theorized to be the main square of the city.  Within the walls is the Templo de Quetzalcoatl ("Temple of the Feathered Serpent") which is said to be the last of the three pyramid built at Teotihuacan. There are six levels of the pyramid each of which is decorated with the sculptured heads of Fire and Feathered Serpents. Discoveries are still being made to this day around and under the temple.

The main street that lead past the Pyramid of the Sun and ends at the Pyramid of the Moon is called Calzada de los Muertos ("Avenue of the Dead") currently runs for about 2 kilometers and is thought to have been even longer during the height of Teotihuacan's existence.

There are what appears to be former dwellings and structures along the west side of the avenue and there's quite a bit to see here as well.

Right across the way is the very impressive Pirámide del Sol ("Pyramid of the Sun") which stands at 216 feet (65 1/2 meters) tall.

It's a fairly steep climb to the top, but totally worth it.

The views from the top are amazing.

We celebrated making it to the top by having our croissants...

While enjoying a wonderful view of Pirámide de la Luna ("Pyramid of the Moon").

You notice the photos of dogs above......they all seemed well behaved and really mellow. The most impressive dog was the one that was sleeping at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun! Man, to think this pooch climbed up all those steep stairs!

We headed back down and made our way to the Pyramid of the Moon. It's not just all huge structures at Teotihuacan. There are some interesting murals; like this one of a Puma.

And then we made it to the end of Avenue of the Dead.

And soon enough the Missus had me climbing up the Pyramid of the Moon; which for some reason seemed even steeper than the Pyramid of the Sun!

And the views from here were no less outstanding. The area in front of the pyramid is known as the "Plaza of the Moon" and the part of it with the central altar is known as the "Teotihuacan Cross".

After carefully working my way down the pyramid; we headed toward the Northwest Entrance where we'd be meeting Aaron and took some time to visit the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl to take in the wonderful carvings and bas-reliefs.

And soon enough; it was time to be on our way.

Aaron mentioned that we still had some time and recommended visiting the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. So naturally, we said "of course".

We parked on a side street; under the altar and headed up Calz de Guadalupe. There are actually two Basilica's here. The "Old" Basilica.

Which was finished in 1709. Because of unstable ground the church started sinking and; if look at it from an angle it is actually leaning.

Because of this; a "New" Basilica was completed in 1976, which looks very modern.

The Old Basilica was closed and went under repairs for many years and had just recently been reopened; so we got to check it out.

The entire complex called Villa de Guadalupe is composed of several churches, chapels and is where Juan Diego saw the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe (the Virgin Mary) on December 12th, 1531.

At the top of the hill is Capilla del Cerrito.

Along with other structures like "Las Velas del Marino", which from what I was told is an offering of gratitude for being saved from at shipwreck in the 18th century. It was rebuilt in the 20th Century.

There is much to see here; like La Ofrenda by Aurelio G.D. Mendoza.

And while exploring the various temples and churches, whether it's on an fault line and slowly separating from it's foundation; yet still standing upright due to "the will". Quite interesting to say the least.

Or perhaps the oldest church on this site, dating back to 1649...the Antigua Parroquia de Indios, it's all quite amazing to see. Faith plays out everyday here.

And then to end things off, we visited the "New Basilica" to end our visit here.

This was quite an amazing day and frankly we were bushed. Luckily, I had reservations at a place right down the street that we enjoyed on our previous visit, Pasillo de Humo. I'm not going into detail here, you can read my previous post. I will say, service was great and, at least for us, doing the appetizer thing might be the best way to go here.

And when picking from the Mezcal "trolley", my favorite is the "Ojo de Tigre".....

This was just as good as the last time we visited.

Pasillo de Humo
Av Nuevo León 107
06100 Cuauhtémoc, CDMX, Mexico

Comments

[kat]

what a great adventure:)

[Kirk]

This was definitely memorable Kat!

[Soo]

Wow! Cool pyramids!

[Kirk]

Teotihuacan is definitely worth a visit Soo!

[Junichi]

I just read about the Aztec skull tower that was discovered in Mexico City. Would love to see that one day.

[Kirk]

Hopefully soon Junichi! I think you'll really enjoy CDMX.