Mexico Day 2

By staying with Peter, we were both tourists and guests -- he took us around to the must-see tourist spots, but we also had a home to stay at, and someone to take us to nice non-touristy restaurants for dinner.

On Friday, Peter took us to the Pyramids of Teotihuacan. It was a sunny and fairly warm day, and it being a national holiday, the Pyramids were packed. We went up the Temple of Quetzcoatl, which is the little one by the Visitors' Center, as soon as we got there. Unfortunately, during that climb Kathy discovered that her shoes were not good for uneven climbing, so she didn't undertake any more pyramids. Peter and I next tackled the Temple of the Sun, which is the largest of the pyramids. Unfortunately, it was completely surrounded by people climbing it -- the actual climbing probably took around 10 minutes, but all told it took us a full hour with all the wait time included. We the hiked around some, and took in some non-pyramids. Finally, I climbed the Temple of the Moon, at the far end of the Avenue of the Dead. It gave me some spectacular views of the main street through the ancient city, the Avenue of the Dead. All told, I think we did ok handling the altitude, but the sun really wore us down.


View of the Avenue of the Dead from atop the Temple of the Moon

After hiking around the pyramids, we went back to Peter's and relaxed for a while, before Peter left (while we relaxed more) to pick up Maria Esther, his new fiance. When they returned, the four of us went to a Tapas place, with very good food and not-so-good beer. It was great meeting Maria Esther -- she seems like a really nice person, and we look forward to getting to know her better in the future.

And so the things we did that day made for a Good Friday.