Teotiuacan and more!

This morning we ate a breakfast buffet in our hotel then headed off to the Plaza of the Three Cultures, where you can see structures from ancient Mexico (pre-Columbian ruins show here are partly coverd with a tarp), colonial times (the church) and modern Mexico (the high-rise apartments). Here's a view from our bus:

Next, we visited the Basilica of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico. It's the 3rd most visited shrine in the world! The first picture is of Rory and Maggie inside the basillica with the tilma (cloak) of Juan Diego in the background:

On the left is a view of the tilma from below on the moving sidewalks-yes, moving sidewalks inside a church!!! It allows the millions of visitors to see the image without allowing pilgrams to stop in front of it to pray. The sidewalks are one level below the altar in the main basillica, where there is lots of space for meditation. And on the right is Samantha on one of the four moving sidewalks, two going one way and two going the other way, looking up at the image.

I also talked my students into taking a typical tourist photo on the hillside overlooking the new basillica:

It was surprisingly easy! Unfortunately, there were only three regular-sized sombreros, so guess who got stuck with the kiddie-sized one! The hillside offers a beautiful walk up to the original church built here, with nice landscaping and a shaded archway over the steps . . .

. . . as well as some great views of the second and third/main basillica and the city beyond:

At the top of the hill, in front of the first church, was a nice overlook with a statue of St. Michael:

As we were leaving, we saw a small parade of local merchants on a pilgrimage to the church. (The relationship between the catholic church and businesses is a little different than in the U.S.) At the end of their procession, they released colorful balloons as you can see here with the second basillica and a statue of Pope John Paul II in the foreground in the photo on the left. On the right is a family having a picnic lunch of tacos at the basillica.

Our next stop was Teotihuacan. On the way there, we stopped for lunch in a small town and visited a workshop where a guy gave a brief demonstration of the uses of the century plant: it's point was used by the Aztecs to make a sewing needle, the skin was used by pre-columbian civilizations like paper to write their codices on, under the skin was a substance used to wash clothes, the liquid inside the plant was used to make pulque (a fermented drink) and the fibers were used to make cloth.

Our next stop and main destination was Teotihuacan First, we climbed the Pyramid of the Moon. In the photo on the left, Sam, Maggie and Rory pose on the Pyriamd of the Moon, with the Pyramid of the Sun in the background. Between the two pyramids is the Palace of the Jaguar. It's named this because of the murals in the central courtyard of the structure that feature jaguars. The picture below shows the three muskateers at that part of Teotihucan.

From there, we headed to the Pyramid of the Sun, the tallest pyramid at Teotihucan, and climbed it! This next photo shows Maggie on top of the Pyramid of the Sun with the Pyramid of the Moon in the background. (The picture above, from the Pyramid of the Moon is when they were on a platform at the top of the first set of stairs below the smaller two sets of stairs.)

After climbing down the Pyramid of the Sun (which was much easier than climbing up it!!!), we had a nice view of the Avenue of the Dead, which leads directly to the first pyramid we climbed.

While walking between the two pyramids, we passed a group of students on a field trip. We talked to their teacher and asked if we could listen to his presentation about a mural of a puma. He was very friendly and welcomed us to join their group. (See Maggie on the steps?) Come to find out, he lived in Belleville, Illinois for several months while a friend was stationed at Scott Air Force Base! (It's a small world!!! . . . but I wouldn't want to paint it!)

One of his students interviewed Maggie (on right).

Then they all wanted their picture taken with us. (below) I think everyone really enjoyed this opportunity to talk with high school students from a different country.

We finished the night by going to the Ballet Folklorico at the National Museum of Anthropology. Everyone in the group had excellent seats (row 5 or better)! It was 2 hours of high-energy song and dance tracing the history of musice in Mexico from pre-Columbian times to the present day. Here are two videos from that show:

The ballet ended as the dancers tossed serpentinas into the crowd, which Samantha especially seemed to enjoy!