We spent a day in Ciudad de Mexico, discovering the city and acclimating ourselves to the language and the food, before setting off on a road trip to explore the surrounding states. We stopped at half a dozen cities over 8 days and saw all kinds of scenery, from desertic landscapes to lush, dense forests.
From Ciudad de Mexico, we drove just over an hour to reach Teotihuacan to visit the pyramids. Teotihuacan is considered one of the most significant cites of Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian culture. It’s also suspected to be the biggest city in Latin America at its height, with a population of over 45’000.
The park itself was fascinating and the monuments were extremely well-preserved for a cite that had been left abandoned for over 1’500 years. The three main monuments remain: the temple of the sun, temple of the moon, and temple of the Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcóatl, as well as the original boulevard with ruins of old dwellings, markets, and administrative buildings on either side.
As we walked down the boulevard towards the pyramid of the moon, we couldn’t help but imagine what life was like in this very spot over a millennia ago, with people not dissimilar to ourselves walking down the same path, perhaps heading home after a long day of work, or towards one of the mercantile centers. At that point, it was also difficult not to imagine merchants over a millennia ago, setting their booths up on either side of the boulevard, advertising their goods with varying degrees of aggressivity, as we saw modern-day merchants doing.
The scenery itself would have made the visit worthwhile. From the perspective of someone wildly unfamiliar with Mexican fauna, it was a treat to meander around the grounds of the historical site, weaving our way through less popular (and less crowded) ruins, and absorbing the combination of desertic cacti, bright red dirt, and greenery.
By purchasing a ticket to enter the cite, visitors also gain access to the archeological museum, a must for understanding the evolution of the settlement and the culture of people who lived in the area for over 500 years.
Once visitors wrap up visiting the cite and have worked up a significant appetite, a road piled with restaurants and street food awaits them at basically every entrance of the cite.
All in all, a wonderful, wonderful experience. I’d recommend spending at least two hours walking around the ruins to be able to see all the monuments and spend enough time at the musem.
