Hell’s Half Acre

The DF bypass from Puebla takes you to just about the top of the world. I thought we were high up in Cholula/Puebla, but leaving town (and don’t ask me why it took us FIFTY minutes to find the road we needed - the signs and maps here in Mexico are really lacking - to be generous) we started heading up. And up. And up some more. We were on what seemed to be the longest truck caravan in the world. The freeway was chock full of semis and double trailer trucks grinding up grades and creeping downgrades or passing at terrifying speeds and absolute danger to all. At a couple points we actually came to a complete stop on the freeway due to the inability of some to handle the grade and the constant topes. If I never, for the rest of my life, EVER have to cross another tope again it will be too soon.

We finally came to a plateau area and it was hard to believe how high we were. There were still more volcano tops in the distance; we must have been at 10,000ft or so. We marvelled at the beauty (FROM AFAR - as the streets are TEENY TINY) of Tlaxcala and I was so relieved to have avoided the downtown streets. I have nightmares of getting stuck on those tiny streets. With little more than the Guia Roji for guidance we were easily able to find San Juan Teotihuacan and are parked in the middle of a tiny town - it must be the only one that our trailer can fit in.

Today we took a collectivo to the pyramids. We easily spent 5 hours at the site; wandering around the temples and climbing the Pyramid of the Sun. The weather continues to be overcast and cool - such an enormous change from the Yucatan. We think of our friends Katie and Bruce and Kevin and Joanne and wonder what weather they’re finding. The kids spent just about as much time touring the pyramids as they did bargaining with and purchasing from the overwhelming number of vendedores. We were also able to take in the museum which has a model representation of the city. Simply too amazing for words.

San Juan Teotihuacan is a lovely town. Tiny; no supermarkets, and picturesque and the boys are LOVING the fact that they can walk to the plaza and hit stores up for candy. The prices are lovely here also (except for the trailer park which wanted FIVE HUNDRED PESOS a NIGHT) and we had a wonderful lunch for 98 pesos. We’ve wandered the municipal market and the churches; there is a religious festival starting next week and the firecrackers are frighteningly loud. I am waiting to take town pictures for the morrow; hoping for blue skies.

I would LOVE to spend more time in this little town, but the trailer park is robbing us blind and I simply will not support their business. So tomorrow it is off to Queretaro and hopes of more reasonable rates. Or we’ll stay at a freaking Pemex.

I’ll have the boys tell me about the pyramids later and post their thoughts. I hope to post this from a different Internet Cafe; one that will allow me to download email. I don’t know why I worked so hard getting a Spell Check - I never have time to use it…