A Tour of Mexico City, Teotihuacan Pyramids and Quito, Ecuador

Now that it was daylight on the plane and I was wide awake now, we just waited until we descended into Mexico City.  My friend Liz warned me that Mexico City was very polluted and smelled kinda like fart.  I told her I would keep that in mind when we got there.  She also gave me a bag of pesos so I could get her some Mexican candy (tamerind) while I was here.

From above the city was huge!  It just kept going and going.  You could see the smoggy air and as we got closer you could see all of the traffic.  It ranks second in the world in population and first in population density.  We were going to be around a butt ton of people and be in a butt load of traffic.  We made our final descent into the Benito Juarez Mexico City Airport.  We deplaned and went through customs.  In Mexico, everyone goes through customs regardless of staying in the airport for a connecting flight or are leaving the airport. I got my Mexico stamp on my passport and I was super excited.

We used the bathroom and got cleaned up a bit.  We all wished we would have packed a toothbrush and toothpaste inside our carryon's instead of our suitcases because our teeth felt really gross.  I splashed my face with some water just to feel somewhat clean after that long plane trip.  We were suppose to meet our tour at 9 that morning so we wandered around the airport for a bit.  I ate a Cliff bar and we exchanged money just in case we needed it on our tour.

Our dollar goes a long ways in Mexico, this is $30 in US money.  I found Liz her candy and stored it away in my back pack.

Mom and I went outside to get the airport cache, Pernocta MEX (GC1N1VT) and to just be away from inside the building for a minute.  We found the cache and found the Mexico sign.  It was already hot outside.

We headed back and found out Amy got a hold of the tour guys and found out we could do it an hour earlier.  We took them outside to see the Mexico sign and we headed up to the arrivals area.  A small tourist van pulled up and two guys got out.  They spoke very good English and told us to hop in.  I sat in the back.

We drove through Mexico City or Tenochtitlan as they told us the history.  They began by telling us that most of Mexico City was surrounded by a shallow lake called Lago de Texcoco.  The present day Mexico City is sinking at a rate of almost 12 inches a year which is why it is very prone to earthquakes such as the one in 1985 and the more recent one 2017.  At one point we got stuck in traffic and to this day I have no idea how we got into the traffic nor how we got out of it because it happened so fast.  Mexico traffic outdoes all the traffic I've ever been in and I've been to California.  I should have taken video of it because if you weren't there you weren't going to believe it.

We spent the next two hours walking around downtown and learning a lot about the Aztec Empire including the Templo Mayor.  We went to several buildings including a house made out of tiles, a beautiful post office that looks like it came from the Titanic, a bunch of Catholic churches and even a free museum.  Liz was right.  Mexico City does smell like fart.  We walked to the Plaza del Zocalo and enjoyed all the old buildings in the area including the National Palace, Metropolitan Cathedral and Old City Hall.

While wandering around mom and I grabbed an earthcache, Meteorites (GC7MQKX) which was near the communications museum.  We answered the necessary questions about the meteorites and got our pictures.

At this point of the day I was getting hungry and needed some food.  Our tour guide told us that the downtown tour was done but since we had some he asked us if we wanted to go out to the pyramids for an extra $20 a person.  We didn't hesitate and collectively all said yes.  We are getting a great deal for this Mexico experience and we get to see the pyramids!  We were super stoked!

We traveled through many dense and colorful communities to the north east of Mexico City towards Tiotihuacan.  I just couldn't believe how crammed these communities were with houses and people.  You would have to know the communities around you to know where one began and the other ended.

We passed many toll roads that we had to stop at and luckily we didn't have to pay for any of them.  I really didn't want to dig through my pesos to try and find some spare change.

As we got closer to the pyramids the surroundings got rural and sparse.  You could start to see the pyramids poking up out of the horizon.  This is so cool!  We drove around the east side of the pyramids to have lunch before we explored the ruins.  Our driver took us to La Cantrina because he said it was really good food for a decent price.  We got out (it was hot) and we all sat in the covered patio area among all the bright colors of the decorations and table cloths.

We looked at the menu as our host got us bottled Coke and water.  She also brought us chips and salsa to munch on.  Our tour guide suggested that we share the molcajetes mixto, which is a variety of protein (chicken, pork, beef and sausage) and veggies mixed with a very tasty broth with spices in it.  It was served with tortillas kinda like a fajita.  It was so good!

We all got out our pesos and thanked the staff for our visit.  We used the restroom and piled back into the tour van.  He took us to the entrance to the pyramids.  We parked near the gate, grabbed our packs with our water and cameras and headed towards the first pyramid, Pyramid of the Moon.  Our tour guide told us everything he could about Tiotihuacan and the pyramids.  Then we went and explored.

We walked over and climbed up to the top of Pyramid of the Moon.  It is a lot shorter than Pyramid of the Sun so it made it easy to climb up to the top.  From there, I got the necessary picture to log the virtual cache from up here, Pyramids Outside Mexico City (GCF807).  The view was fantastic from up here.  You could see the entire footprint of what used to be the city of Tiotihuacan.  Since our time was limited we walked over to Pyramid of the Sun and only walked up halfway.  The pyramid was huge!  I also did the virtual that was here too.  Pyramid of the Sun (GC1DDE) also wanted a picture to prove you were there.  Easy peasy.

We walked back down and met up with our tour guides.  It was hot and I needed to get in the tour van.  I knew my face and the tops of my shoulders were sunburnt.  I wasn't even out in the sun that long.  Yay, closer to the equator with elevation!  Our tour guides made one more stop at a local shaman who owned a gem/souvenir shop right outside the pyramids.  We went inside, found a couple things, listened to his story, had some real Mexican agave tequila and he showed us around his property.  He even gave mom and Amy a small gem to take home.

We started our way back to Mexico City to make it in time for our flight to Quito.  He took us a different way to try and avoid majority of the traffic.  We did hit some here and there but it wasn't as busy as it could have been.  He did tell us along the way that they tried expanding the airport (as he motioned to the left of us at an incomplete runway) but the public voted it down in an election.  So it just sits there after having about $5 billion dumped into it.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  We get out of the tour van and thank our guides for such a great time.  They responded with, our pleasure.  We went back inside, went back through security and customs and to gate 55 where we waited for a bit while we charged our phones and used the restroom.  At this point of the day I was getting tired.  Not sleeping very much as caught up with me.  We boarded and departed around 6:10 p.m.  I sat between two strangers, so did mom and Josh and Amy sat together with a stranger. We were now on our way to Quito, Ecuador.  It was a 4 hour 30 minute flight and we were losing another hour as we went east.  I watched the Lady Gaga movie, A Star is Born.  The left ear bud didn't work so it was hard to hear it.  About an hour into the flight, we were served food.  I received chicken, rice, salad, a roll and vanilla pudding.  After they came and got our garbage and the movie ended I relaxed a bit.

I slept most of the way to Quito because I was exhausted.  I have been up since Thursday morning at 6 a.m., went to work and then traveled to Mexico on about 2.5 hours of sleep.  I was so ready for a shower and a good night's sleep.  Occasionally, we hit a few pockets of turbulence which woke me up here and there.  We arrived in Quito and had to stand in a long line to go through customs.  It took less than an hour.  We saw a lot of people in line who were decked out in hiking garb with their pack on their back.  A lot of people came to hike the mountains such as Cotopaxi and Chimborazo.

We finally got through customs and security and went to the carousel to grab our insane luggage we brought with us.  The hotel we were staying at in Quito had some hired help to come get us in their vehicles.  We had one for all of our luggage and one for the passengers.  We paid them accordingly.  Josh rode with Irma in the van and the rest of us rode with Julio in the truck. It was roughly a 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel in Quito.  About half way there we had to stop because the van was way too over loaded with luggage.  Josh had to get out and hop in with us in the truck.

The landscape of Quito was very hilly and it took longer to drive somewhere because you had to drive around the mountains and hills.  The average elevation is about 9,350 feet above sea level and we were definitely feeling that since we all live at sea level or slightly above.  I sat in the back and could not wait to get to our hotel.  I was at the point where I was so tired I didn't care about anything.  We got to our hotel, Hotel Alquimia, just after one.  It was beautiful inside.  This is how I imagine most foreign hotels to look like.  We helped bring in our luggage and we got checked in.  Amy and Josh were on the street side of the hotel while mom and I weren't.

We thanked our hotel hosts, they told us when breakfast was and we headed to our rooms, mom and I were in room 10.  We briefly talked about what we wanted to do the next day.  We decided definitely on breakfast and maybe something close because we wanted to sleep in.  We decided stuff near the equator would be good for tomorrow.  I immediately got my stuff ready for a shower.  I got in, washed off all of my airplane filth, sweat and dirt.  They must have gotten lacquering the floor in our room because the floor smelled and was slippery.  We could not walk around in socks or bare feet.  It felt really nice to brush my teeth though.  I got my pajamas on and both mom and slept hard.

Next Adventure:  Quito, the Equator, Pululahua Crater and Mitad De Mundo