Friday, October 24, 2008

Colonial And Aztec


Today, October 23rd and after two days of driving, we spend our second night at Teotihuacán Trailer Park smack in down-town San Juan Teotihuacán, just 1.25 miles from the famous Aztec site.
Before we got here, we went to the very colonial mining town of Guanajuato, which we don’t recommend anyone blundering into in anything taller and wider than a van. We ended up hiring two young men on a motor scooter for 50 pesos and two Pepsis to guide us through this city so that we wouldn’t get lost or tear off low-hanging cables or gutters or worse.
The “problem” was that we read in the Church’s Mexican Camping book that Guanajuato had a big grocery store down-town, and we needed supplies. The store does exist, but getting there without guidance and finding a spot to park is, let’s say, adventurous.
But we got our groceries and wound our way out to Bugamville RV Park. Now that is a beautiful, relaxing, and tranquil site compared to the confusing bustle of the town; I could have spent a week there. The restrooms and showers are clean, everything works, and there is a nice little restaurant which is open all year.
The place is run by father and son Puente Morales, very pleasant fellows who speak good English. We were the only ones there in this open grassy park, and I used the opportunity to catch morning thermals with my electric glider.
Then we decided to take the north-eastern bypass route for Mexico City to Teotihuacán, as described in the Church’s book. The idea is to avoid big city traffic by never approaching even its perimeter. After hours of tope-infested (tope = speed bump) towns, massive road construction projects, and truck-choked roads, I do wonder if continuing on the freeway to the edge of Mexico City instead of the bypass would have been better.
Today we walked to the Teotihuacán pyramids. This is a truly impressive site. We climbed the big Sun pyramid, which offers great views of the entire area and the smog of Mexico City. It would have been fun to fly my Climmax Pro glider up there, but I doubt I could have gotten permission. We met a class of German exchange students from the Alexander von Humboldt Schule and one from nearby Nezahualcoyotl. We hope they will utilize our blog.
At a local creamery, we found this insane cheese. It’s all white and crumbly and it is heavenly with fresh avocados and tomatoes on white bread. We’re getting more of it before we leave, and we’ll make sure we know what it is and report back.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well looks like you missed your slopes chance in Zacatecas, with those radio sites on the hilltop........ and those hills look pretty clean.... might suggest to those tech school teachers in Sain Alto they offer a course in RC slopes....... plant a seed for the Southern SixPac.....

As for Guanajuato I missed that one, but Jane stayed with a family there, while studying Spanish for her trip to Chile..... fortunately she didn't have to go to the grocery store.... she even learned to like menudo while she was there.... and since, got me hooked on it...... good stuff.

You'll have to try the "zapatos", if you make it to the Zocalo, they were like a thick tortilla with grilled vegies.... they'd go good with that queso blanco....
and be on the lookout for loquats in the fruit markets.... I forget the spanish name for them, but they looked like clusters of big golden yellow grapes, they seem to be imports from Asia, during the colonial period, ......pretty tasty.......... they grow here, but too cold to fruit....

And yeah the pyramid at Teotihuacan looks made to order for slopes, except no top landings, definitely have to catch them there..... or a long hike to the plaza, nice grass strip though..... you sure those Aztecs didn't fly slopes???

later Jim

Juan N Cadavid said...

Hola!! desde Colombia hemos seguido todas las actualizacion de su blog donde los niños hacen seguimiento a su recorrido por diversas culturas.
Tenemos muchos niños esperando para hacerles muchas preguntas sobre sus constumbres (¿como celebran la navidad....si en los colegios todos los niños tienen computador...) y muchas mas!

Marcela and Dieter, ShredAir said...

Hola Niños de Juan N. Cadavid,
Hoy es 31 de octubre. Nos encontramos en el Hogar Infantil en Ocozocoautlan en Mexico. Hay un salón con computadoras y los niños estan leyendo sus mensajes.
Hoy os niños aqui están celebrando el Día de los Muertos. Esta mañnana fuimos al cementerio y esta noche van a hacer las ofrendas al Altar que decoraron anoche. En el Altar colocan las fotos de las familiares fallecidos y ofrendas como dulces caseros, tamales, refrescos, etc. Estaremos poniendo fotos despues de la celebración.
Feliz día de las Brujas!
Marcela y Dieter