Mexico

My dad's wife of only a few years just passed away a couple of weeks ago after battling cancer.  My heart aches for him and her family.  Loss is so hard.  They had the funeral within 24 hours of her passing.  My brother bought a plane ticket for the next week so I decided to go too.  We wanted to be with him to support him and to have a little fun with him.

  First we went to Teotihuacan.  It was amazing.  I have seen pictures of these huge pyramids since I was young and I always wanted to go.

It rained for the first hour or so.  I had a rain jacket but Jason got soaked.  We soldiered on, hiking up hundreds of steps to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.  Since it was raining pretty good, I hid my big camera under my shirt and only took a few pictures with my phone.

Looking up all those steep steps was daunting.

From the top of the pyramid of the sun looking toward the temple of quetzalcoatl:

Looking toward the pyramid of the moon:

A little concrete and red paint.

An original painting that is now protected from the weather:

 Pottery sherd, they were all over on the backsides of the pyramids.

Pool?

Most of the pyramids and buildings, both large and small that line the Avenida de los Muertos (the avenue of the dead) have been rebuilt.  The photo below shows reconstruction on the left and the natural dilapidated state on the right.

My limited background in archaeology made the rubble in the background more exciting to me.  This is an unrestored pyramid with vegetation growing all over it.  The steps at the bottom though are still intact and have concrete over them and a faint remainder of red paint.  And the steps on the far left of the picture are also covered in concrete.  Maybe every structure was covered in concrete and paint?

View from the pyramid of the moon looking down the Avenida de los Muertos.  Way down on the other end is the temple of Quetzalcoatl.

Looking down the very steep steps of the pyramid of the moon:

View of the pyramid of the sun from the pyramid of the moon:

From the top of the pyramid of the moon looking out over the surrounding area, there are tons of uncovered pyramids.

The steps of the pyramid of the moon:

Current excavations:

Inside a walled complex next to the pyramid of the moon.   The carvings are original, the red paint at the top has been restored.

The temple of the quetzalcoatl

Jason walked all the way down the Avenida de los Muertos and we drove around and parked at the other end.  He said there was some awesome stuff I missed so I had to run back and see it.  There were hundreds of walls and rooms, so amazing.

Most of this lower area has not been restored so the smaller pyramids look like piles of rocks with grass growing on top.

There are walls in between levels and the walls have these tunnels through them...Maybe drainage or maybe they were large pools?

Current excavation:

 There were rooms underneath too!  So cool!  I would love to be a part of that dig!

That evening we were beat!  We walked all over that huge ancient city.  We enjoyed dinner in a cave.  It was really neat and the food was very tasty.

I had a limade with carbonated water.  It was really good.

The next day Dad took us to his office in Toluca.  Unfortunately his co-workers were out so we didn't get to meet them.  Next we drove up the mountains to 10,500 feet to see the wintering monarch butterflies.  Dad rode a horse, the rest of us wanted to walk so we could take pictures.

It was a beautiful hike up to the butterflies but the elevation was so high we were panting.  After several minutes though, it felt like my lungs expanded to account for the elevation and it wasn't so bad.

Our guide showing us how to tell the difference between male and female:

 It was so amazing!  The pictures just don't do it justice.

We also got to see Popo spewing a little steam/smoke.

It was a great trip!  I loved spending time with my dad and my brother.  We had hours to chat in the car and we enjoyed some awesome sights together.  This is one of those experiences that I will always treasure.