Annie & Safe Go West

Day 5. We headed out of Mexico City for a tour of Pyramids of Teotihuacan about an hour away. The names of Aztec towns are designed to be unpronouncable, particularly after a skinful of Tequila or Mezcal, so a good trick is to break it down into little English snippets. For example, Teotihuacan … Toyota-Hair-Can!

We arrived very early at the pyramids and for some mystical or biological reason immediately needed to go to the loo. Unfortunately the toilets weren’t open yet however we were surrounded by a field of cacti and were tempted to (carefully) use them instead. It was then that Willi, from Belgium, mentioned that “Cactus” means “To Crap Between” in Flemish. It’s always always a pleasure to learn new words in any language.

Breakfast was from a trolly serving Tamal (savoury polenta) and thick hot chocolate, or more descriptively, hot thick chocolate. We then spent the morning touring the pyramids and hearing of ancient calendars and voluntary human sacrifices.

Teotihuacan

After a lunch of tacos followed by a sticky squishy sweet tamarind coated in a dusting of hot chilli powder, we caught the bus to Pueblo. Everyone was patted down before getting on the bus. The backpacks were also patted but not opened. Mexicans have a sixth sense and can “see” inside a bag by placing a hand on the outside. Safe “The Bandito” was singled out and patted down once more by a friendly Mexican. Perhaps that wasn’t such a surprise.

By the way, Happy Birthday Khalid!

a.k.a. The Hunt for the Green Back! … or Happy Birthday, Bob!

Day 4.  Today we join our “tour”.  What this means is that the basics of our itinerary are organised for us i.e. transport and accommodation.  Perfect for the lazy and/or disorganised … perfect for us!

We knew that we were due to make a not insubstantial payment in US$ on joining the tour … what we didn’t know was that this had to be in cash.  Ooops.  The next few hours were spent working out:

1. How we could physically get our hands on that many American Dollars miles away from the UK where the banks were now closed.
2. Do it in such a way that we don’t pay commission through our noses.

Waving a debit card at the lady at the bank didn’t work so we regrouped at Starbucks for a coffee and some inspiration courtesy of the internet.  Patti came up with some really helpful suggestions (thanks again Patti).  In the end a surprisingly obliging ATM allowed us to rob it by withdrawing six times the maximum amount.  As you might imagine, this took quite a while, and as the tower of Mexican pesos grew, the increasingly large queue of people waiting to use the ATM became more and more suspicious. We were expecting an armed traffic warden to come and arrest us!

A dodgy money vendor with a good peso-dollar rate finally solved our problem with enough time to spare to visit the murals of Diego Rivera in the Palacio Nacional where the President of Mexico hangs out.

That evening we met our tour guide, Suzy, and our tour compadres.  After Suzy gave us our orientation talk, we handed over our American Dollars with a dead-pan face as though we’d had them for two weeks rather than two hours.  Ooops again!  We didn’t appreciate that any dollars that were even slightly ripped or marked would be unacceptable as the locals simply won’t take them.  One by one each note, front and back, was carefully scrutinsed by Suzy, an experience that was oddly nerve-wracking.  Four of our notes were rejected.  It was like getting a D at school and having to go to the back of the class.  We’ll have to make up the difference later in the trip.

Unacceptable

Day 3. Safe has made a miraculous recovery from The Revenge.  Yesterday’s mole must have have done the trick, or perhaps he only had the Curse of the Camino Real (in-joke if you remember the spoof TV series Zorro and Son) and not The “Standard” Revenge.

Met a friendly Canadian at brekky and asked him if he knew Sherief.  Sherief, do you know him?  By the way, Happy Birthday, Sherief!  And Happy Birthday, Aseema!  We couldn’t find any cake, but here’s a photo of some teeth-itchigly sweet fruit soaked in syrup instead:

Birthday sweets

Today we reflected on “the little things” that we’ve observed in Mexico:

1. Why do the traffic wardens carry guns?
2. The city is incredibly clean.  Every corner you turn, someone is sweeping something.
3. The pedestrian crossings not only tell you how many seconds you have left to cross the road, but display a helpful animated character which shows you exactly how to do it.
4. There are 13 million people who live in Mexico City and half of them seem to be wearing military uniform and playing the Harmonipan on every street corner.   What does it mean?
5. It’s very easy to make songs and poetry rhyme in Spanish.

Day 2.  Annie screamed at 2am!  She was having a nightmare about being unable to speak while Safe was unable to stop typing on the computer.  It’s hard to imagine what it must mean.  Is this one of the symptoms of altitude sickness?

Three hours later, Safe woke up with a tummy rumble and succumbed to The Revenge of Montezuma.  Fair justice for desecration of the Quetzal Headdresss?  Or a lesson not to eat Street-Nacho on the first day?  Actually what was initially only a “Light Slap in the Face” of Montezuma did turn out to be full on Revenge when we reached the Gallery of Diego Rivera.

Factoid: Diego Rivera is one of Mexico’s most revered artists and has painted murals all over the world … not that Safe would know as he missed out on the gallery entirely.

Safe visiting the Gallery of Diego Rivera

We’ve seen some fantastic colonial architecture in the Centro Historico.  Even the post office where we posted Cathy’s belated Birthday card was a work of art to rival the Palacio De Bellas Artes where we found Zaki’s dream chandelier … I’m sure there’s room in the hallway for one of these, Didi?

The local post office. Not quite like Spring Gardens!

Zaki's present from Mexico

Today’s lunch was a real treat.  It’s called Mole, and although it does look like squashed rodent on a plate, it is in fact a Chicken Enchilada dribbled with melted chocolate and chilli.  We’ve yet to see whether there will be The Revenge of the Mole.

Mole

We went to the ballet! This isn’t something we normally do (though we do like the film, Billy Elliot), but this was an extravaganza of Mexican folklore dancing through the ages so we gave it a shot.

Who would have thunk that ballet could be performed with a lasso!