Neil our tour guide (yep you guessed it, he is not Mexican) gave us the official introductions, safety advice and a rough idea as to what lies ahead over the next three weeks, then he took us out for a traditional Mexican meal.
There was a whole assortment of goodies on the menu and every single one involved cheese! Thank goodness I am not dairy intolerant as cheese seems to be a staple part of Latin American food, along with the refried beans!
I ordered a veggie Burrito which came with all the expected vegetables including cactus! I tried it, I won't try it again!! I can't exactly describe what it tasted like, but needless to say I missed the refried beans to cover the taste!
After dinner, TC and I returned to the LatinoAmericano to appreciate the view by night 'sin' (meaning without - bit of Spanish for you there) the full on Altitude sickness, that seemed to have subsided.
It was an absolutely stunning view, seeing all the buildings lit up in the night sky, but it was also rather cold, so before too long we were rushing back to the hotel for a good nights sleep before getting on the coach at 6:50 the following morning.
I woke up before the six o'clock alarm with a nose bleed! Altitude sickness was back! And I hurried off to the bathroom before my room mate noticed and freaked out.
We met up with the rest of the group an hour later and climbed on board the coach then set of for the pyramids at Teotichucan (pronounced Teo-to-wakan), the largest of Mexicos archeological sites.
Neil had bought us a Rosco de Rey (remember the wreath shaped cake?), to sample later in the day. But he said if anyone was feeling a bit hungry earlier on, not to be shy and just ask for some. The coach set off and within 5 minutes TC was asking politely. (For such a petite person, she has the appetite of a giant, even before leaving for this trip she had sent me a list of restaurants she had researched in Mexico City).
Our tour guide for the day was a Mexican guy called Ricki, who's family are Indigenous Mexicans; his father and uncle being well known Shamans in the area.
He greeted us with a big smile and a couple of jokes then led us over to La Ciudadela - an enormous sunken square in the centre of the mass of pyramids. (Most of these pyramids are actually pyramids that have been found within pyramids, rebuilt every few hundred years).
We climbed the steps and looked at the ruins around us - out of respect one has to walk seven steps to the right, then seven steps to the left, therefore never actually turning your back on anyone).
Ricki explained the history of his people and the Aztec pyramids. He talked about the Mexican peoples attitiude to death and how it was a positive thing, birth, life then death when you finally travel up to paradise. There is no hell for sinners, but how you live your life will result in how long it takes to get to paradise.
In Mexico when someone dies, they party and celebrate for nine days. He looked at us and said "As the saying goes; Today is a good day to die", we stared at him with surprise and he smiled and said "well maybe not today".
We laughed and heaved a sigh of relief at knowing he was planning on finishing the tour rather than popping off to paradise and leaving us stranded?!
We walked further along the Causeway of the dead (Calzada de Los Muertos) towards the Pyramid of the Sun - a huge structure at 70m high and 245 steps to climb! Yes,that's what I said, 245 steps to climb! Ricki explained that as we climbed if we found our hearts beating fast as though they wanted to explode, not to worry, it was just from the high altitude. I don't know about the others, but my heart was already trying to rip itself free from my chest with just the thought of it, in fact I am so unfit that I am usually on the verge of collapse climbing the three flights of stairs back home!
I'd like to say that I saw it as a challenge and went and attempted it, but it was purely out of embarrassment at being the only pathetic weakling, that drove me up those steps! The first ten were ok, it was the other 235 that were hard and I think you should know in my defence that each step juts out at a 92 degree angle not your average 90 degrees!
I struggled, my poor heart struggled, my tired legs struggled and I was on the verge of giving up when I saw my little companion smiling down from the top and I thought its now time for my 'magic rope'! This is a technique that entertains my housemate Sandie no end back home, when of an evening I am too tired to get up out of the armchair, I hold out my arms and winch myself up with an invisible rope! Apparently it's not a normal thing to do? Maybe I picked it up from my time in drama school, or maybe I am just not normal, but either way it works and it certainly did whilst climbing up the side of Piramide del sol! ( I admit I may have got a few funny looks from other passing tourists).
I almost past out but I made it to the top!! ( the photo has been destroyed as I did actually look half dead in it, so I am afraid you will just have to take my word for it).
Next was a visit to the Pyramid of the Moon - I refused to climb this one - then we set off in the coach for Ricki's house where his cousin was preparing a typical Mexican lunch for all of us.
Ricki lives in a road where all his next door neighbours are his relatives! Well it's hardly surprising seeing as his grandfather had seven wives who each had at least three children!
The lunch was delicious, if not a bit spicy at times, though I did manage to avoid the cactus this time around. Then we were treated to a shot of home made Tequilla, made by his uncle. This was an unusually sweet kind without the traditional worm floating in it, but an assortment of nuts. I rather liked it, but had to refuse the second shot for fear that my lightweight drinking habits would result in me dancing on the tables wearing nothing but the brightly coloured table cloth and I really didn't know the group that well yet!
At the end of the meal we were invited to cut into a rather large Rosco de Rey (the wreath shaped cake), guess who got the little baby Jesus hidden inside? Me! The only Jewish person in the group - my parents would be so proud!
We left there filled to the brim with food and slightly high onTequilla - or maybe that was just me? And we set of for Puebla.
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