Day Trip to Teotihuacan: Pyramids to Libraries

I awoke on day 3 in Mexico City early and with a plan. Although there was still so much in the city I wanted to see, I decided to take a day trip to Teotihuacan and the pyramids. My parents had visited there in the early '70s and I remember seeing polaroids of them standing on the avenue of the dead. It always looked so dusty and exotic. I had to go.

My hostel offered to arrange a tour, which was ok price-wise and would have arranged all transportation, which sounded kind of appealing, but it was also going to a bunch of other sites I wasn't interested in, so I decided to go by public transportation. I'm glad I did. It was so easy and cheap and I was able to spend as much time as I wanted.

Here's what I did:
I took the metro to Terminal Central del Norte aka Autobuses del Norte on the yellow line (as previously mentioned, the metro system is great). I crossed the street and went to the bus station. It is very big and you will see it right away. Going inside, I turned left and walked to the end of the hall, to gate 8, the 2nd to last service counter where Autobuses Teotihuacan was selling tickets. The lady at the counter spoke English and I bought a round trip ticket to "Los Pyramides". It is very cheap - about  $6.50 CDN round trip. From there, around the corner is the row where the buses pull up. It is not obvious which exactly which bus stall is which, but the lady had told me which number it was and so I knew it was one of two buses. I just asked people and made sure I was in the right queue and sat behind some local people who were also going to the pyramids so I could just get off when they did. The seats were not assigned. One weird thing was that both going there and coming back, the police got on the bus and took pictures of everyone on the bus. No one was able to tell me why.

The bus was comfortable and took about one hour. As we approached the pyramids the sky was dotted with hot air balloons. I bought a ticket at the gate and entered. It is enormous, spread out. I realized right away that I was glad to not be on a tour, which usually only stay for an hour. There was a lot of walking to be done.

Briefly, Teotihuacan was a city created about 100BC by some unknown people. The names given to the site came from the Aztecs, who came later. The city lasted until about the 7th or 8th century, but it seems that a lot of it was destroyed around 550AD. There are lots of theories about who built it and why it was abandoned, but you'll have to look elsewhere for that. What I am here to tell you is that it is old and it is awesome.

I met a girl from Manilla and we walked together to the first small pyramid. You couldn't climb up this particular one, but there were still lots of stairs to get close to it, which was worthwhile to see the well-preserved carvings.  From there we walked down the Avenue of the Dead where I attempted to recreate my parents' polaroid.

From there, we walked to the Pyramid of the Sun. This is the big one. The third largest in the world. Climbing it seems mandatory. I wasn't thrilled about this. It is a lot of stairs. Steep ones. But it was actually fine and I stopped for a rest half way up and chatted with a couple from Toronto. I lost my companion from Manila early on, as she needed to keep a slower pace. At the top, I had a sense of satisfaction and great views of the site and the Pyramid of the Moon. Totally worth the climb.

I walked to the Pyramid of the Moon. It was getting hotter and I was pretty tired from the initial climbs, but I didn't come all this way to NOT climb the Pyramid of the Moon, so up I went. The Moon Pyramid is smaller, but was a harder climb because it was the second one. The views from there are also great.

After descending, I wandered around a bit more, but I was basically done. It was 11am. I was hot, sweaty, and slightly annoyed that there was nary an ice cream vendor in sight. I walked out of the nearest gate (the one closest to the Pyramid of the Moon) and crossed the street and within 5 minutes a bus pulled up, headed back to Mexico City. Apparently they come very frequently. Easy. I slept on the way back.

Because my trip to the Pyramids was just a morning affair, upon arriving back in the City I decided to explore some new areas. I took the metro to Chilpancingo and walked to Parque Mexico, which is a beautiful oasis. Green and flowery with people biking, running, and strolling. There are fountains and popcorn vendors. Just a lovely escape on a hot day.

From there I wandered the Condesa area and then up to the Zona Rosa area. These are really lovely areas with tree lined streets, fancier houses, and lots of inviting pubs and restaurants. I stopped for a bite to eat and then stumbled upon a crafts market, where I walked the aisles before walking to the Roma area. Everywhere I went, I kept finding arts and crafts markets. Not traditional Mexican souvenirs, but more like the sort of stuff you would see at a crafts market in Vancouver or Portland but with more tacos and tequila. There were bands playing and more charming parks with public art.

It was a great area and I could have spent more time, but the day was wearing on and I had a cigar lounge to find.  I walked back towards the Parq Mexico and right by there is a building of fancy food stalls, but on the third floor is the most inviting cigar lounge, Cigar Point.

I settled in there for about an hour and half, enjoying a couple of cubans from their humidor, after which I was energized for the walk and train back to the historic centre.  I spent the evening trying to stay awake. I went out for a walk to get something to eat and decided to have a couple of bean tacos that a man was selling from a bucket on the street. It was about 40 cents for two of them. Not great, but not bad. I think it was these tacos that led to what was about 12 hours of intense food poisoning. Who would have thought tacos from a bucket would be a bad idea?

This kind of killed off my plans for the next day. I wasn't feeling great, between my stomach troubles and my legs, which had seized up following all of my pyramid climbing the previous day. I had to leave for the airport at noon, but I took a brief trip by the metro to Biblioteca Vasconcelos, this massive library built in 2006. It has this interesting, open concept that makes the books look like they are floating. It is quite stunning and has interesting features like a whale skeleton art installation and outdoor patio reading rooms. It is gorgeous. I did get in trouble though for taking pictures. Weirdly, photos taken on a phone are fine, but camera photos are not. I explained that I did not have a phone, only my super cheap Canon cybershot (so it's not like I'm taking professional pictures), but the guard said no and proceeded to keep an eye on me.

The library is in kind of a lousy area but is totally worth a visit. It is a few steps from the Buena Vista metro stop on the grey line.

After that I had just enough time to pack up my stuff and take the metro to the airport. A little less than four days in Mexico City was amazing. I was able to see so much, but I am definitely going back. There is more to see, but I'll skip the bucket tacos next time.