We Came...We Saw

 

Our trip to Mexico City D.F. started out with a visit to the pyramids at Teotihuacan.  I've seen pictures of these things and there is no way to capture how awe-inspiring they are.  We climbed to the top of the biggest one, the Pyramid of the Sun and behind us you can see the Pyramid of the Moon.  

I have to admit that when we were standing at the bottom I was considering sitting on a bench and sipping mango juice instead of attempting all those steep steps.  But, thanks to the inspiration of my friend Laurie who taught me that pregnant ladies can still be tough I dragged my over-sized buns up every one of those stairs.  I also had a lot of encouragement from Brandon who was hauling Daisy as well as himself.  At this point I need to admit that Rocky, at 4 years old also made it to the top, but then again, she is one pretty awesome kid. 

 These pyramids are interesting because they would build one, and then build another on top of it, and then just keep adding layers.  This one wasn't as big as the others but one of the inner structures was visible and the details were awesome.  These show a couple of the faces of the famous feathered serpent God who is also known as Quetzalcoatl.

 This cactus shows the 'tuna' or prickly pear growing.

 Inside the pyramids in the digs that they have done underneath they have found all kinds of artifacts.  There were tons of offerings that they would have packed into little treasure boxes and lots of little clay idols, carved obsidian, pottery and everything that they felt was valuable. 
Although there really isn't very much known about the people who built these pyramids they do know that there were human sacrifices as part of their ceremonies.  That is what these are all about.  They were found like this wearing necklaces that are made out of human jaws.  You can still see the individual teeth.

 The city was actually huge and they are still digging out some of the areas.  It is extremely well preserved because it was all ready abandoned and buried before the Spanish came and before D.F. was populated.

 When we stopped to take a breather I was surprised at how many of the other tourists were taking pictures of Rocky and Daisy.  I think that once someone takes a picture that everyone else thinks they should have one too.  I really should have taken a picture of a random stranger taking a picture of my kids and that would have thrown everyone into a frenzy.

 All of the pyramids are surrounded by plazas because that is where the regular people would meet to worship.  The high priests were the only ones that were actually allowed to go to the top in the most holy place.  I can't help but wonder what those priests would have thought of all of us just kicking it up there and taking photos.

 These pyramids are interesting because I thought that they would be like the ones in Egypt that were made with big huge stones, but these were built with thousands and thousands of small rocks with little tiny rocks filling in the spaces.

 Rocky smooth talked Ryan, who she refers to as her "handsome friend," and was able to hitch a free ride. 

I was glad for any help because after 3 weeks of Mexican streets our umbrella stroller called it quits.  One of the wheels decided it had taken enough abuse and fell off.  It really gave its all and considering that it cost like 5 bucks I'm surprised that it made it as long as it did.