Page 4 of 4
Mexico City, Mexico
Always an angel, never a god
We’re starting this last page of the Mexico City slideshow with an adventure, a day trip to Teotihuacan (pronounced tay·uh·tee·waa·kaan)
To get to Teotihuacan from my well located hotel in Mexico City required two subways, a regional bus out of the Autobuses del Norte Terminal and an awful lot of walking. The scale of the Teotihuacan is huge, and the only way to see it is to spend a lot of time walking around it, all at 7,500 feet above sea level.
Teotihuacan is spectacular but absolutely exhausting to visit. It is an ancient city that was built around the 200s, and no one knows really who lived there or what they called it. The Aztecs found it abandoned centuries later and named it Teotihuacan, meaning the place where gods were born, which makes sense. It may be difficult for Spanish conquistadors to pronounce Aztec names, but you have to give the Aztecs credit for naming things well.
The site features two large pyramids, among the largest in the world. One is the Pyramid of the Moon and the other is the Pyramid of the Sun, both names were again named by the Aztecs so no one knows what the people that we know nothing about actually called them. Pre-covid they used to let you walk right up all the big pyramids, but lately they have come to realize that was a terrible idea. The stairs are insanely deep, and even the smaller one that you can climb in front of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (again, not its original name) was difficult to climb at that elevation.
This part of Teotihuacan (which I can now spell and pronounce) isn’t actually at Teotihuacan but instead inside Mexico City’s terrific Anthropology Museum. And while the museum is filled with amazing priceless artifacts, this is not one of them. Instead its a replica of the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, but sometimes a close up replica is enough.
Before I went to Mexico City, I spent some time watching YouTube videos and reading up about things to do in the city. Many of the sources were in disagreement. Some said the city wasn’t safe, some said it was (I agree that it was). Some said to only take Ubers because they are so cheap, some said to only take the public transportation because it’s so good (I did both). Some said that a trip to Teotihuacan was essential. others said it wasn’t worth the time and trouble (I’m glad I went). But every single source agreed on one thing- the top, not to miss museum in the city was the Anthropology Museum and, for once, I agree with them all. The Anthropology Museum is a modern building in Chapultepec Park, and its collection was so deep and so impressive that it felt overwhelming at times.
Here are just two pieces from the Anthropology Museum collection, although they’re pretty important ones. First up is a statue of Chalchiuhtlicue (a word I will not try to pronounce, although unlike the awful conquistadors, I at least will not try and change it), the Aztec goddess of water. The second picture is the Piedra del Sol, the Aztec Stone of the Sun, which was found buried underneath the Metropolitan Cathedral back in 1790.
We’re nearing the end of this all too short slideshow, and what better place to end things than at Chapultepec Castle, North America’s only real castle (sorry Disney, White Castle and San Simeon) and, proving we’re in Mexico City, home to another museum and lots of murals. This one in particular is The Fall of Juan Escutia by Gabriel Flores, which memorializes the Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican American War. Specifically, as American forces (including a pre-civil war Grant and Lee) took over the castle, this young boy leaped to his death covered in a Mexican flag to avoid capture by the Americans. There are multiple monuments to this, but none quite as effective as this one hovering over the main stairs.
The museum and murals are interesting, as is the castle, but the real draw for me was the view. From the surprisingly busy entrance, there is a steady climb up a hill to the castle, and once there it feels like you’re somehow in the center of it all.
When you’re in Chapultepec Park, you don’t really notice the castle hovering above, or at least I didn’t. So when you get to the view, where the skyscrapers along Reforma feel close enough to touch, it’s kind of a shock as to exactly how good the view is.
Reforma is really a wonderful place to walk, with broad tree lined uninterrupted sidewalks along a busy street, occasionally broken up by large memorials or fountains or statues at traffic circles. I stayed on Reforma, walked sections of it during the day and night, and rode up in on the upper floor of a city double decker bus. Mexico City is really a city of contrasts, with density, highways, traffic, smog, and, at the same time, broad walkable shaded boulevards in both the densest parts of the city and in neighborhoods like Polanco and Coyoacan. I’m not certain I have been anywhere else quite like it, and that’s probably because there probably isn’t anywhere else that is.
I actually put a lot of thought into these slideshows, despite the rambling stream of conscious commentary and clearly out of order photos. And as part of that thought, I decided to end with this last image, an almost throwaway picture taken from the upper level of that double decker bus as it made its way up Reforma and past this, the Angel of the Revolution. One last view of Reforma, one last view of Mexico City. At least for now.
When you think of Mexico City, you might not think of Osaka and Seoul, but that’s exactly where this trip goes next. Get the full experience by continuing on with the Osaka and Seoul Slideshow.
