Magical ruins of Teotihuacan place of Gods

If I had to choose just one place in Mexico where I would go over and over again, it would be Teotihuacan ruins. I could talk about it for days and never get enough of it.

Why? I’ve NEVER felt so much energy, life force and simple magic anywhere else in this world. No wonder the Teotihuacan culture picked up this place as their home. Teo – the place of the Gods where men become Gods really lives to its name as that’s exactly how every visit to the ruins make me feel.

After visiting Tlatelolco ruins and also Guadalupe Shrine in Mexico City, we finally drove to Teotihuacan place of Gods, my heart dearest place.

First, we visited a shop with many artefacts that are made here which is also the place with the highest Government permission to make copies of the Anthropology Museum items. I visited the shop 2 years ago when first time in Mexico and loved it. I could spend hours looking at the beauty of all the items sold here. I so admire all the colourful statues, different versions of Aztec calendars and heads of the Gods.

I was surrounded by the obsidian volcanic stone which is used for many items. It is a black stone with kind of a green rainbow over it and it shines and changes colours on the sun. In the past it was used weapons, points of arrows, knives and also for a massage too. It gives a lot of energy and heals the body if you wear an amulet made of obsidiana. Personally I have an obsidian heart necklace.

In the shop we could also taste traditional alcoholic drinks, such as pulque which is an afrodisiac drink. ”You come two, and leave three” is the saying that goes with it. So if you want a baby, drink pulque! Pulque is made from agave plant leaves that produce sweet juice which is fermented. After 3 months when the plant dies, it can be used as ixtle fibre for clothing or hats. The heart of the plant is used as paper and what is left in the middle as a needle.

We also tasted alegria – very sweet Aztec cereal with peanuts and honey juice from agave.

Then we were ready to walk around Teotihuacan with our guide Mario explaining us the main facts from its history. Mario also took a bunch of photos of me, so grateful he was there!

It is said the area was inhabited since 100 BC and left empty around 750 AC. The tribe influenced other cultures in Mesoamerica including the Mayas all the way down to Costa Rica. In 375 AC they conquered other cities and made them pay a tribute to them, the Mayas too.

Until 150 AC both famous pyramids were built in Teotihuacan (just to compare with the city of Toltecs which was built in 600 AC). However, when they were covering the pyramids every few years, they had to cut the trees, and fire them up to burn the stone for the pyramids and thus all the trees in the area were damaged quickly.

And in 750 AC, as there were no trees and no rain, no agriculture could flourish in there which resulted in not enough food in Teotihuacan any more so the tribe was forced to leave the area.

Nowadays, we are not sure of the real name of the tribe, nor the city; we don’t know what language they used, basically we know very little about their culture. As we don’t know the names of their emperors either, it might be centre of a republic/a state but that’s just a guess.

Only when 600 years after, the Aztecs came from the North passing through the ruins, they called them Teotihuacan place of Gods as the wow pyramid architecture unknown to them appeared as if made by Gods.

It is very expensive to uncover the pyramids and we can still see some hills with the pyramids underneath the grass. There were around 2,000 temples in Teotihuacan so imagine how many centuries it is going to take to make them all open for public!

The stone of the pyramids was covered with clay, charcoal, white yeso plaster and then painted with red and yellow colour and covered with nopal juice to protect the colour. You could get the red colour smashing the egg of the cochinilla worm (the same colour is added to strawberry yogurts so you are basically eating an insect inside a yogurt!) and the yellow colour from cardo santo chicalote flower. We can still see some snakes, jaguars or flowers painted al fresco style with reddish colour when strolling around Teotihuacan. Mural de Puma with a yellow jaguar image is probably the one preserved the best.

We also walked the Avenue of the Dead – El Camino de la muerte – a wide street in between the pyramids going to the Pyramid of the Moon. It was the last street where the victims walked before they were sacrificed to Gods, hence the name.

The Pyramid of the Sun is 65 m tall and to get up there you have to climb 248 steps. The Pyramid of the Moon is ”just” 42 m tall with 157 less steps but they are bigger so the legs hurt more when climbing this one. Anyway, as I’ve made it my habit since my first time in Mexico, I climbed first the Moon pyramid and then the Sun pyramid and relaxed for a while on top of both of them.

There’s a lot of sellers with silver – but it’s alpaca version I learned on our Taxco tour before, not the 925 silver so be aware of it. Anyway, many souvenirs are really worth your money and will make for the unforgettable time at Teotihuacan.

After the tour, we had a buffet lunch at El Jaguar restaurant, one I knew from before already. There was a lot of fruit, salads and other delicious meals to choose from, also some cakes and hot meals like pasta. Live music and native dancing were accompanying our meals.

And then I even took some photos with Kin (in nahuatl it means Sun), the native dancer :)

I can only say that Teotihuacan is definitely one of the best archaeological sites in Mexico and one leaves with loads of energy for the next couple of days. And to prove you it is so magical I even saw a sun dog – rainbow around the Sun before we left. I remember my first time seeing a sun dog at Cholula pyramid back in 2011.

And photos from my first time at Teotihuacan:

On the way back to Mexico City the other tourists in my group were singing songs from different Latino countries which made for the happiest end of such a lovely tour to the magical Teotihuacan place of Gods.

*Reminder: You have to pay extra fee of 45 pesos for a video camera.

I took this tour to Teotihuacan place of Gods with Mayaland and booked it via GetYourGuide. Check out their websites for more information. All the opinions are my own.

***It took me more than 6 hours to write this post.

Posted in Mexico, North America, photo, press trip, pyramids, tips, travel Tags: Mexican ruins, Teotihuacan