Balloon Ride, Teotihuacán Pyramids & dinner

It was an early day with the alarm going off at 3:30. Our driver was scheduled to arrive at 4:10 and we were to be outside at 4:05. Jesus arrived promptly at 4:10 and we left to pickup two other passengers, Meghan and Lydia. There were recent grads of University of Milwaukee and both worked at marketing agencies. Traffic was light so our 30+ mile ride only took about 50 minutes.

We declined the photo package for the balloon ride but Jesus took a number of pictures as we waited for balloons to be inflated. Our balloon was Cometa. It was one of more than 50 to take off. The baskets held up to 16 people, I think we had 15 in ours. Our balloon took off just about the time the sun was rising and lasted about 40 minutes. We were generally only 100-200 feet up but we did get as high as 500 feet. Our flight path took us up around the pyramids and other ruins. Very interesting to see from above. Josh and I were in a compartment with Clark and Roxie. Josh named Clark "Ken", from the Barbie movie.

The landing was smooth and the was interesting to see how efficiently the ground crew worked. Once we were on the ground but still in the basket the pilot and ground crew lifted the basket right into the trailer that would haul it

After a van ride make to the starting point, we make our way to Teotihuca with an additional passenger. I don't recall her name (originally French) but she studied black holes from the mathematical perspective. The main structures were the Sun and Moon pyramids but there were lots of other ruins. We were allowed to climb the stairs partway up the Moon. We spent around 90 minutes walking around, trying to picture what life should have been like 1000 years ago here. The was the center of a city estimated to have a peak population of 100,000 - 150,000 people.

The ride back back took a little more than an hour. Once there, were headed off for some lunch. A couple of places we tried were closed so we ended up at El Tizoncito for El pastor tacos. Once back at the apartment, we all took a nap.

We had dinner reservations at Maximo at 6:30. Josh made it weeks ago. It is considered one of the finer shining experiences in Mexico City. It was about a 30 minute walk there. We arrived early but were seated almost immediately. We did the tasting menu (photo attached). There were a couple items provided in addition to what was listed. Definitely fantastic food. A couple times we had to ask a second time what we were eating or how to eat it. And we ate some samples without being sure what it was. It ended up being close to a 3 hour experience with a very attentive staff.

After walking back, we spent an hour on the balcony before heading to bed.Read more