The Road to Teotihuacan

The ride over the mountains and to the customer was brisk if uneventful. There was a flipped car in the other direction and we saw a great big snowcapped volcano. That was the height of my day!

The rest of the day went by in lulls and spurts. Mostly lulls. I won't divulge details of what happened between 8am and 5am. Yes ... that was a 21-hour shift, and based on the client's schedule on Thursday I decided there was no reason for me to go to Toluca. 

So I slept two hours and went sightseeing instead! 

The Sheraton has a concierge desk which hooked me up with the cheapest way to get to Teotihuacan: a tour bus. it would cost > $700MX to take a cab one way, so I paid $650MX (about $55) for the tour. Made sense to me ... add 10% tip, and even the entrance fees are covered.

First I had to take a taxi (free, paid for my the tourbus agency) from Santa Fe to the tourbus agency. But for some reason unknown to non-Spanish-speaking-people, the driver wanted me to get into another cab.... hmmm... no, I don't think so. At the moment I figured that they were trying to kidnap me, as the hotel and agency knows my original driver and can hold him accountable. But in retrospect, maybe my driver had a pre-arranged pickup. However .. in that case he should not have accepted the fare. So then I get to the agency, pay, and wait. In 15 minutes am loaded into a poeple-moving-van with nine other passengers:

• One mexican guy in the back with limited english skills
• Three girls from Amsterdam and Rotterdam who work for KLM and have a day in the city
• A family of three from München 
• A  woman from Denver and man from Amsterdam traveling together
• Plus the driver and the guide

In other words, an extensively traveled group. Most of our discussions during the day revolved around places we have been. In fact .. one of the KLM girls (the one from Rotterdam, IIRC) had spent over a month in Thailand and several weeks in Gautemala, so I picked her brain. However, I can't remember names, especially of places I haven't been and can't pronounce, so nothing beyond the following was retained:

• Thailand has lots of islands and is a fun place to visit
• Guatemala is a fascinating place too, but she didn't like Guatemala City

First stop on the tour were some ruins from the Aztec civilization and a lesson on how Mexico City is built on a lake (which was later drained after the Spanish clobbered the natives and built a bigger city).

In the middle of the city there are Aztec ruins.