Teotihuacan!

Climb every staircase, go high and low
Visit ev'ry pyr'mid, to luna and to sol
Climb every staircase, take loads of pics
Walk the road of dead, 'til your day is done.

Okay, it's nowhere as catchy as Climb Every Mountain, but after spending 5 hours clambering all around Teotihuacan, you will likely be, too.

The day started with our arrival at 9am-ish, and we walked from gate 2 straight to the Pyramid of the Sun, and climbed up all its 265 steep steps; a Mesoamerican version of climbing the steps at Nikko; very exhausting. However, it was a good climb, and we were both tired but happy when we got back to ground level: those steps are steep!

We also wended our way to the pyramid of the sun and took some food while seated at its first level (the upper levels wew closed). From there, we noticed that the surrounding structures were all in various levels of reconstruction.

After climbing down from la piramide de la luna, we headed toward the museum of mural art, walking through the Jaguar courtyard - a collection of ruined buildings that most likely housed priests and their families.

The mural museum was very quiet (we were the only visitors there) and had many examples of murals that were recovered from the many nearby ruins.

After this, we went back to Teotuhuacan, walking all the way to the southern end of the ruined city, to the 'citadel' and the temple of quetzacoatl. This temple to the feathered serpent had actually had its quetzacoatl frontage covered over by a dais structure, although a large cut from of this later structure showed the retored face of the original pyramid.

From this point (5:30pm) we walked to the single eastern exit to go to the Gruta restaurant (the only option given in the Lonely Planet guide). We were approached by a female booster for another restaurant, and we ended up going there, instead, since it was much cheaper.

The people even gave us a lift back to our hotel after dinner!