Mexico City and Ruins

We finished our stay in Costa Rica in Puerto Viejo. Nearby the small Caribbean village of Mazanillo had palm-fringed, white sand beaches. We lazed around, we needed to after all the cycling we had done, and enjoyed loads of fresh fruit smoothies.

We arrived in Mexico and went straight to our hostel as we heard Mexico could be pretty dangerous (fake taxi drivers, muggings etc.), then went straight to the Museo Nacional de Antopologia – which had thousands of pre-hispanic pieces including massive Mayan heads and parts of Aztec buildings. Mexico City was amazing, full of green VW beetle taxis, skyscrapers and tunnel porn vendors!

We then went to Teotihucan, an ancient Aztec city containing the third largest pyramid in the world. It was planned in the first century and finished by AD 600 at which point it had already started to decline.

Cholula was next, a small town containing lots of churches built by the Spanish, including one on top of the second largest pyramid in the world, Piramide Tepanapa – although it was difficult to tell as it was almost entirely covered and looked like an unusual hill.

We then went to Palenque, an ancient Mayan city set in dense green jungle. The entire 15sq km of city was built without metal tools, pack animals or the wheel. You could walk though tunnels built into the buildings and see the elaborate decorations and bats living in the walls. One of the most amazing places I have ever been and only took a 12 hour bus journey to it and a 14 hour bus journey out the same day! Next stop Cancun…

For more photos see http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackhynes