Teotihuacan Pyramids & Guadalupe Shrine

New Years Day
We had an early start today to get out to the ‘Teotihuacan Pyramids’ an ancient city (100 BC to AD 650) north east of Mexico City. Described as a ‘Mesoamerican city’ it is a vast complex of pyramids that have been partially restored demonstrating the size and scale of the historic site (which lies only partially discovered). Interestingly if local residents find remains of ruins whilst building or extending their properties the government will give them half the value of the land/property and move them out. This has led to a ‘nothing to see here culture’, understandably!

It was a hot day and we did a lot of walking, Bert had the honour of being carried on Marks back but Elana walked it all, probably around 5km in all and up and down a lot of steps leading to the pyramids and along the ‘Avenue of the Dead’ which is 2km in itself and so-named as it is believed it was lined with tombs.

It was a really interesting insight into some different pyramids and a great morning spent getting to know a little history of Mexico. The pyramids themselves are built-up of layers from different eras, a bit like Matryoshka/Russian dolls.

After a spot of lunch, where various entertainers were paraded in front of us (mariachi bands, dancers etc) in exchange for tips (we ran out of loose change by the end of lunch) we headed back towards Mexico City. Our next stop was the Guadalupe Shrine, this is a really important shrine for Catholic pilgrims with over 20 million visitors a year. Approximately, 90% of Mexicans are catholic. There are several churches around a courtyard, we visited the ‘New Basicilla’ which was consecrated in 1976. It was built to house the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and allow more visitors to worship. The old Basilica was a lot smaller and had become unstable due to earthquakes (you could see the cracks in the wall and the building physically slumped to one side!). On entering the new basilica it was rammed (albeit our guide said it was quiet! There was a service underway, we were ushered to the rear of where the service was ongoing and made our was across a travellator, I realised after that this gives pilgrims the opportunity to worship (if that’s the right word) the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe without creating massive queues – forced encouragement to keep your prayers short and sweet! After a final tour of the courtyard admiring the externals of the other basilicas we headed back to our hotel.

Our guide pointed out the cable cars that link the hillside residential areas with the transit system closer to the city centre, this is a relatively new addition to the City. Pre-covid it could apparently take anywhere up to 4 hours to commute 20km and, much like our tube system, peak hours can be unpleasant on their transit system. Something we decided not to experience!Read more