Mexico City Friday April 25th - The Basilica of our Lady of Quadalupe & Sun and Moon Pyramids

The today plan is to check out The Basilica of our Lady of Quadalupe (10 km north of Mex city) and the Sun and Moon pyramids about 50 km north east of Mexico City.
We briefly stopped at the Plaza De Las Tres Cultures to pick up a Colombian couple joining us on the tour.  In addition to being a convenient meeting spot, our guide, Sergio, explained that this precise location is associated with tragic circumstances shared by Mexico's three main cultures; the Aztec empire (1300's), Colonial empire (1500's), and the Mestizos (mixed breed) of today.  The first unfortunate circumstance is when the Spanish showed up and slaughtered thousands in a brutal war and millions more all in an effort to introduce Christianity to unwilling participants.  The second, in 1968 when the govt fired on 14000 unarmed students who we're protesting money being spent on the summer Olympics.  The third, an earthquake hit the area in 1985 killing 8000. 

Before we embarked on the first leg of our tour, we briefly stopped at the Catholic gift shop for the opportunity to purchase tacky Jesus statues, baby Jesus statues, toddler Jesus statues, and Mother Mary paraphernalia. 

Catholipitalism

Yeah, not what I had in mind, people.

Ok, look real close and you can see Guadalupe himself in Mary's eyeball

See the guy in her eyeball?  That means something.

Pope pens.

After demonstrating our religious devotion by way of holey trinket purchases, we had the distinct honor of getting that same crap holey purchases blessed by an honest to god priest.  Stationed next to the Basilica, a man in sun glasses and a baseball cap stood on a small stage, muttered something in Spanish and proceeded to splash water on anyone within a 10 ft radius.  The recipients walked away satisfied, including Katey and Lucia.  It was a real wtf moment.

The basilica itself is the second most important church in the world, according to many Catholics.  This holey location has an old basilica built in 1700, and a new one built in the 1970's.  Since Mexico City is built on a lake, the old church is slowly sinking, and you can feel the slope of the floor when you're inside.

 

The new church is massive and apparently has a foundation appropriate for this kind of earth.  Tons of people are walking in and out.  One particularly long line up is reserved for those who wish to get close to an embalmed pope laying in a glass box. 

Embalmed Pope.

Grown man crawling to church with family by his side

Recent customer of a crucified Jesus.

 Next was the sun and moon pyramids about an hour away.  But first! A quick stop at the local stone mason for a unique opportunity to pay exorbitant sums for polished stones.  Of course, if you pay cash they pass the tax evasion savings onto you.  Our English speaking stone salesman kept loading me up on free tequila, explaining what a "real man" is all about.  I was about to fall over by the time I staggered out of there.  Perhaps he was hoping I would collapse onto a shelf of stone masks, which would be the only way I would take out my wallet.
Lunch!  After explaining to Sergio that this tour included lunch, we ended up at a buffet which was surprisingly good.  The orange fanta was exquisite.  Since I was still a bit plastered from the recent sales pitch, I tried to have a conversation with the Columbian couple in our tour who knew about 5 English words.  We said hello quite a bit.  I think my new Colombian friend had a similar experience at the stone mason and was force fed tequila shots, so we were both in the mood to try and communicate.

To the pyramids!  I really liked this part of the tour.  Sergio was a great guide, and I could understand what he was telling me most of the time.  I've had "English speaking" guides before that made as much sense as the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show, but Sergio came as advertised.  The pyramids in question were part of an ancient city from 100 BCE to 650 AD and it's origins are still a mystery.  The Aztecs found it a thousand years later and called it Teotihuacan.  We climbed both pyramids, all steps equal 365. That must mean something.  Anyway, the view was nice and we got some great photo ops.

We got home around 5 and I chilled out with a familiar Starbucks.  We walked the streets later and ended up walking into one of the many restaurants.   I  gorged on yummy tacos, BBQ chicken and draft beer till we had our fill.  Another tour tomorrow, but not till 9am