So here is a description of my 11 days in Mexico....I'm sure this will take a couple of blog entries.
Day 1
My day started at 4:00 am for a 5:00 am arrival at the airport for my 7:00 am flight to Atlanta. We awoke to cold temperatures and snow. The drive to the airport was uneventful despite the snow and we boarded the plane on time. De-icing the plane delayed things about 20 minutes or so and we arrived in Atlanta at about 9:15.
Day 1
My day started at 4:00 am for a 5:00 am arrival at the airport for my 7:00 am flight to Atlanta. We awoke to cold temperatures and snow. The drive to the airport was uneventful despite the snow and we boarded the plane on time. De-icing the plane delayed things about 20 minutes or so and we arrived in Atlanta at about 9:15.
Problem.
Plane to Mexico City leaves at 9:45 in Concourse E. It is 9:25 and I am in Concourse A.
So we run across the airport hopping on the airport tram which I never realized how SLOWLY it moves....we arrived to our gate and final boarding is over. But WAIT!!! The attendants at the gate are waiting for us! YAY!!! We made it!!! Now off to Mexico City, right?
Well, not exactly. We get on the plane get all situated, ready to take off. Announcement. "We are experiencing some technical difficulties, it will be a few minutes before we can take off". OK fine, I want the plane functioning before we take off.
TICK TOCK TICK TOCK....one hour. TICK TOCK TICK TOCK 2 hours.
Yes, we are ready to take off now, they have fixed the plane! We pull away from the gate....it's almost time I am on my way to Mexico....hmmm, why did we stop. Must be a lot of traffic. TICK TOCK...45 minutes. A whole lot of traffic. Uh-oh....announcement.
"We apologize but we have found another problem with the plane, we have to go back to the gate". Lady 2 rows ahead of me freaks out about this being a government conspiracy. She intentionally trips the stewardess and basically goes nuts. Now we sit on the plane another hour before they decide to switch out planes. it is now close to 1:00 in the afternoon (plane was supposed to arrive in Mexico City at noon). Everyone is hungry....and cranky. The give us an $8 voucher for lunch and then tell us that we have 30 minutes to get lunch and make it to our new gate ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TERMINAL. $8 dollars does not go very far in the airport let me tell you.
We finally take off about 3:15 and arrive in Mexico City about 6:00. Fortunately, another couple in our tour was arriving near the same time so we were able to find a representative from the tour group. (We found out that we had been listed as a no show). So we finally made it to Mexico City got in the cab and off to the hotel we went.
We had dinner with our tour group (who were notably much older than my brother and I) and then met our tour director Carlos. Carlos provided us with the weather forecast for the week. Partly cloudy, then RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN the rest of the trip.
Things didn't seem to be starting too well.
Day 2
Now the travels begin. The weather was nice, about 65-70 degrees, partly cloudy. Our first trip was to Teotihuacan. This is an ancient Mexican city dating back to about 150 BC and flourishing until about 600 AD when much of it was destroyed by fire. By the time the Aztecs arrived, the city was nearly deserted.
Here we saw The Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest pyramid in the world. It stands 738 feet across and 258 feet high. I climbed 75% of the way up the pyramid. The high elevation (about 7000+ feet) and lack of time (I had to be back at the bus in less than 20 minutes when I reached my maximum height) forced me to make the descent back down. Climbing up was exhausting, in part due to the altitude but climbing down was quite frankly terrifying. The staircase is steep. and the steps of high. It was quite the challenge. My brother has a picture of me on the pyramid but I don't have it right now.Other things we saw at Teotihu
achan.....This is the Pyramid of the Moon located at the end of the Street of the Dead. At one time, each of the small structures along the path had a temple on top. The Pyramid of the Moon is not as tall as the Sun, but is located at slightly higher elevation making the peak nearly the same height. I didn't climb this one.
Not sure why I didn't take more pictures here. Will have to see what my brother got.
This is some of the carving inside the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. I know the little circle things on top represent water.So we left the site of the ruins and headed for the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico City.
This museum is rated as one of the top 5 museums in the world. I admit wholeheartedly that I am not a big fan of museums. I really prefer the outdoor areas for sightseeing. But that said the museum was pretty impressive.
My local tour guide "Jack" however droned on and on and on until I thought it would never end. So I amused myself by trying to read the descriptions of all of the artifacts in Spanish.
Here are a few pictures from the museum:
This is in the plaza area of the museum. It is an upside down fountain with water running from the roof. Probably very refreshing on a hot summer day. Yes this was my favorite part of the museum.
The pictures I took in the museum were very dark because no flash was allowed. This is one of the many statues I saw. This one is of Coatlicue, the goddess of fertility and childbirth. She is represented as a woman wearing a skirt of writhing snakes and a necklace made of human hearts, hands and skulls. Her feet and hands are adorned with claws (for digging graves) and her breasts are depicted as hanging flaccid from nursing. Coatlicue keeps on her chest the hands, hearts and skulls of her children so they can be purified in their mother's chest. The guide said that the Spaniards were so horrified by this image that they buried it and it was recovered again for more than a century.
This is a fountain in the main park of Mexico City in Chapultepec. We didn't actually go into the park which was somewhat disappointing.
We concluded the day by stopping by the National Palace to see the frescoes of Diego Rivera. Going to the palace was very interesting and there is quite a bit of political turmoil in Mexico right now. According to our guide, you never know when the doors will be open or closed. It all depends on how many demonstrators their are. The entrance is guarded by semi-automatic weapon toting soldiers in camouflage. Kind of an unsettling feeling going in. Pictures of the frescoes are not very good because once again no flashes allowed. But here are a couple pictures.
The pictures portray the history of Mexico from the time of the Aztecs through the Spanish exploration through to the wars in the 1800's. Mexico still seems somewhat bitter about their loss of the now SW USA. You can see better images of this art of the following website.Phew that was a long first day. We went back to the hotel where I had some broccoli for dinner (it was an all seafood meal..blech) and then to the gift store where I bought Cheetos and Diet Coke.
