So Mexico is full of pyramids built by the ancient civilizations who lived here. A lot were built as places where sacrifices (people´s hearts) were made to the Gods to bring power, certain weather, luck in wars, etc... On Saturday, I went on an excursion to the puebla, Tepoztlan, which was only 40 minutes from Cuernavaca. This small village is made up of cobblestone streets and surrounded by massive mountains. The people indigenous to this area, believe the mountains to be sacred and often visited by UFO´s (?!) One particular restaurant where we dined had photos of what the people believe to be a UFO hovering over one of the mountains. On one mountain in particular, is nestled a pyramid. We were told that it is about an hour climb up the mountain to the pyramid. Three of us out of about 9 made it all the way up - whew!! Steep rocks and inclines...it was good exercise. The view at the top was maginificent. You could see the vast spread of the land. I thought that getting up the mountain was hard...but actually, coming down was much harder on the knees. After a good lunch of enchiladas we headed back to Cuernavaca. On the way, I saw roadkill for Mexico, a horse - very sad. I was asleep in bed by 7pm...
The next day, I awoke with aching calves, BUT that did not stop me from going on the next day´s excursion to Teotihuacan - home to one of the largest pyramids in the world. Once again, I climbed the steep steps to the top and took in the view of the remains of this ancient city. Anyone who is afraid of heights would not do well at the top of this pyramid or going down for that matter. There is no guard rail at the top or railing to hold onto to get down. And, as you look down, all you can focus on is planting your foot onto the short, steep step in front of you. Because if you look at the ground, it almost looks like a completely vertical drop - kinda scary. After the pyramid of the sun, I climbed the pyramid of the moon. I´m glad I did because the view of the other pyramid (the larger one) was amazing from atop this one.
All in all, it was a great weekend, full of seeing other cultures within Mexico, magnificent sites, and good exercise!
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The party house
El fuego
Chrissy and me
LeSales and the pony
Vanessa
the cake
the moon over the castle
Monique,
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great adventure. Sorry about the horse, though. I have an inspirational story to share with you:
"In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from North-western University.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee, inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing, and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant."
-Mary Knauer