Finally got off my ass and went to los templos del sol y la luna today. A trip that came with its own unique mixtures of complications and pleasure
it was nearly 10 when I woke up, so i already felt I was running behind. I went to my computer to try to figure out what the hell route I was going to take, fixed my coffee and made breakfast. I quickly discovered that the toilet wouldn’t flush, the sink wouldn’t run, and the shower only sputtered pathetically when I turned the knob. Well, the toilet would have the wait, I’d have to skip the morning shower, and brush my teeth with water from the garrafón. the benefit of all of this was that my morning routine took a lot less time than normal
walking out into the street I very quickly managed to miss the bus that I had intended to take. i walked/ran down several blocks trying to catch it, then gave up and tried to take the next one. well, it turns out that there are several buses that run along division del norte, and none of the several that passed me by were the ones that I needed to take. right at this moment, as maybe a bit of hopelessness was beginning to take hold, I saw a trolleybus with a flashing sign that read “centro norte”. I knew this was where I needed to go. So without hesitating I hopped on.
public transit in cdmx is crowded. it was crowded when I got on, and only filled up more as the journey progressed. it turns out that centro norte is the LAST stop on the trail, but after over an hour I finally arrived. As xilo promised yesterday, I was quickly able to find tickets to Teotihuacán. I had about 15 minutes, so I took some time to buy snacks and run to the bathroom. somehow time got away from me and I barely made it to the bus on time. But goddamn I did make it.
another hour in transit, but this hour a good bit more comfortable than the last. finally I made it to la zona arqueológica. as I was buying my ticket, I met Brett, a guy visiting from california. we made friends and decided to explore the site together.
the ruins are of an enormous city that once was. three large pirámides stand out from the landscape, each with its own surrounding site of smaller raised structures that may have been houses or offices in their day. the rest of the complex is comprised of what I would call little neighborhoods, little distinct groupings of buildings arranged in a rectangle. they looked like small city blocks or city centers, and I imagined that each would have been it’s own distinct neighborhood in it’s day.
there are a few of the older structures where you can enter and see some beautifully preserved murals. I love seeing the painted sculptures and murals whose pigments have survived for hundreds of years.
afterwards me and brett walked to a restaurant he found called la cueva. as the name implies, the restaurant is situated inside of a cave. the food was interesting.. I ordered I giant pork leg without necessarily meaning to, and our meal was accompanied by mariachi music and some kind of aztec ritual. brett paid for the meal since he had no cash and I had been covering for him
the walk back…well. First of all the ruins were closed, so we couldn’t cut back through the ruins to get back exactly to where the bus had dropped us off. also, it was getting dark which seemed to make brett a little nervous. If I would have been alone I might have been a little nervous too, but I felt pretty sure that we would find what we needed. we started off following directions from google to arrive at the bus route. I stopped a couple of times to confirm directions with people from the street and eventually we found the station. the bus arrived seconds later. it seemed like a small miracle.
Leave a Reply