DAY 3 -The ancient and awe-inspiring pyramids of Teotihuacan!
 
Today we decided to put the local transport to the test and head north out of the city to see the ancient and awe-inspiring pyramids of Teotihuacán! This area, also known as the 'Place of Gods' has some of the most remarkable relics of ancient civilisation in the world dating from 300BC - AD600, the builders of Teotihuacán still remain a mystery though . After a pretty naff nights sleep on my behalf due to the good ole 'new country deli belly illness' starting, I quite wearily got on the only tram that exists in the city to the north with Ads, where upon we found a lady that spoke abit of English and finally hopped aboard the right local bus to the ruins! I was pretty impressed by the Mexican transport compared to other alike asian countries we had visited, but there were hundreds of different bus companies so picking the right one was quite a task!!
 
Heading out of the city, I was quite taken aback at the amount of graffiti we saw on the buildings, a real shame but after about 30 minutes we were already out of the bustle heading towards the green hillsides and more open landscape. Instantly on getting on the bus, a Spanish guy got on and laid a pen/torch type thing on Ads lap and many others on the bus. Ranting in Spanish we had no idea what he was saying, but realised pretty soon not to touch it or else you had to buy it! Then once he had taken it back and got off, another one got on, this time Adam got a bag of crisps, chocolates etc .. laid on his lap, all his Christmas's had come at one I think, it was like pass the parcel...and so the presents continued along the way! The most random one though was when a guy with a guitar got on and for 20 minutes we were serenaded very loudly with Spanish music much to our amusement! Can you imagine that happening on National Express, they'd be thrown off quite quickly I expect!
 
Heading into the hills, it was remarkable to see how they had literally built entire towns into the steep slopes and in many cases an entire hillside and top was completely covered, the streets up them being incredibly steep, especially for most who had no transport and had to walk home everyday! Again the colours of the houses really stood out, as did the many corrugated iron shacks that existed along the roadside...
 
Eventually we arrived at the ruins and entered what was a pretty remarkable experience to say the least.... 3 large ancient pyramids marked the 4km length of what was known as the 'Avenue of Dead' and before us stood what could be likened to the pyramids of Egypt! The first main area was known as the 'Ciudadela', an ancient city that they believe once housed 60,000 but no one knows who or where the people that once existed here went ..... The main feature - 'The Temple of Quetzalcoatl' (the Plumed Serpent, Lord of Air and Wind to us!) was a beautiful partially restored pyramid which had huge carved heads of feathered serpents within the staircase....considering the age of all of the pyramids, the condition of them was impressive and it seemed very strange to be able to walk / climb such ancient temples, many westerners were praying also, it was all quite random at times.
 
Continuing along the Avenue of the Dead we passed many grassed plaza areas and unexcavated temples, the stonework really standing out to me consisted of intricate dotted stone work within the blocks and the precision of detail was just beautiful. Then to our right was the 'Pyramid of the Sun' a 64 m high, 213 sqm base which dominated the avenue and which was pretty breath-taking, especially when you climbed the 264 steep steps the top in this altitude! The vista all around us was impressive though and definitely was worth it! We sat at the top taking it all in, still not really believing that we were actually in Mexico completing yet another dream place in our world plan .....how will we ever work again!!
 
Finally we descended carefully and headed to the final pyramid which dominated the north of the avenue, 'The Pyramid of the Moon', climbing the steep steps to its first level, again with an amazing view all around us of what must have been a remarkable and huge city in its time, just staggering! On climbing down, we laughed at the sign into the ruins of a small palace on our left which said 'No High Heels', a problem I have never had thankfully!, then we headed back through the avenue looking at the many beautiful ancient crafts on sale. The locals were great though, they don't hassle you as much as they did in other countries thank god and were so polite, all adding to our first impressions of Mexico greatly.
 
Our local bus back was less luxurious than the last but the open windows and lack of air con did the trick for me if only the experience back on the tram into the city had been the same! We joined a long queue to get on it and as we were near the front, a Mexican lady politely showed us that we had to fill from the back ...aaah I don't sit at the back! Anyway I did it and watched in horror as the bus filled and filled and got completely rammed, nearly losing it once I managed to stay on thank god and got off with no muscle tone left in my legs at all at our stop! We decided it might be good to get me a coffee to 'come round' so to speak as I was in a Claustrophobic haze, but unfortunately our choice of café in what was known as 'Garibaldi Square' was not the ticket and warm dish water is the best way I can describe it! The colours of the buildings with the striking orange and green was cool though and around stood about 100 mariachis in traditional costume - tight silver trousers, pistols and sombrero's donned with guitars to serenade the many people that came to the square on an evening! We think this all started quite late though so unfortunately we saw no serenading, just men hanging around in costumes chatting and smoking, probably dreading another night of serenading competition!
 
Finally walking home was the best transport for me so we continued on feeling starving as the only problem with Mexico so far is that transport is 4-5 times more than other countries we have been to where food and accommodation is the same price, so unfortunately food has had to be cut slightly and by this point we were in desperate need of fodder! We thought it would be fun and more within budget to try a side street place full of locals which proved to be fantastic once we had sorted our Spanish out, otherwise we both nearly ate eyeballs in taco's, yuk!!! We watched as the cook worked hard cooking our beef sandwiches, using the same knife for raw and cooked meat and the veg, then placing it down a pipe to hold it up which I cannot see in anyway, how the pipe got cleaned....... Despite the food being really good I did wonder if it would end up being not so good an idea and unfortunately I was right! That night for me was spent on the loo with not a lot of sleep as the very loud Friday night Mexican city came alive keeping everyone and anything awake till the very early hours...