Teotihuacan (and Guadalupe)

So I bought this tour today to go to the ruins of Teotihuacan, the largest pre-Hispanic empire. Before we got there we had a few stops tot make. The first one was the Plaza of Three Cultures. What cultures do you ask? That was my question. The first was the ancient Mexicas, the second was the Spanish conquest, and the third was "modern culture". Anyway the place was cool, much like the Templo Mayor from yesterday. I guess a big thing is Mexico was rebuilding temples on to of temples becuase this one had a bout seven layers too. Who knew that was such a cool thing to do? Anyway there were two really cool things about this sight. One was a Spanish Church built on the spot. What was interesting, was not that the Spanish built a church, but that the church was built with stones used in the building of the temple. Nice, even in teh sixteenth cnetury the Spanish were recycling! The Second interesting thing was that this was the sight of a 1968 student uprising against the government, just before the Olympics. Of course the government killed like 500 poepl but claimed no responsibilty...still nice to be at that sight. it is the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and the sight of the ruins of Tletelolco.


Next stop was the Basilica of Guadalupe. The reason this was so interesting for me is, well, I am not so sure. All I know, is that a priest at my former home parish of St Patricks`s had a parishioner who painted this rather large (and some would say guady) painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Who knew that she was the patron of the Americas, and that everyone in Meixco revered her as the most important vision of the Virgin and that people make pilgrimages to her Shrine? Who knew? Not me. As all very catholic sights, the churches, chapels, basilicas (even) are beautiful. It always blows my mind the stuff that is sold just outside of the chruch grounds...T-shirts with the vigins face, or other famous saints, statues, rosaries, etc. It was just too mcuh for me. More offensicve though was the many people set up to take your picture with a fake burro with a sombrero and blankets, inside the site...a little too much. I did take some picutres for my parents....

Finally we were off too Teotihuacan (the whole reason I signed up for the tour). You would pronounce that teo-tee-wa-can. We stopped at a place where they sold overpriced handicrafts, as well as fed us an overpriced lunch. that took an hour. Then we wne to the site. Pretty Amazing. Sadly most of it had been reconstructed and there weren´t too many original buildings. But cool to be somewhere that was built about 2000 years ago. One of the pyramids was the third largest in the world after Egypt...It was cool to be on the to, not going to lie about it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and took a bunch of pictures. I met some cool people and enjoyed several beers and dinner with them today.

Tomorrow, well I need to make a plan still...not exactly sure what I am going to do yet!