This morning I jumped in a taxi for the short ride over to Teotihuacan. The ruins there are amazing. I entered in at gate 2 which is right next to the Pyramid of the Sun. Everything is laid out along the Avenue of the Dead so I don’t think I missed anything. I even climbed up the very steep steps to the top of both giant pyramids. It was still a little hazy but the views were incredible.

02/15 I’m definitely getting a t-shirt that says, “I rode my bike in Mexico City and survived!” For some crazy reason I wanted to subject myself to more abuse so I rode right into the center of the city to visit Centro Histórico.

After checking out many of the crowded, narrow streets, almost all of which were filled with vendors, I headed over to the cathedral and the National Palace. Wow. Both buildings were quite a sight. The Metropolitan Cathedral, the largest and oldest cathedral in the Americas, was just immense. It’s hard to imagine how a building dating back to 1573 could have been designed so perfectly. Recent history is putting the design of many of the older buildings to the test however. Neglect and damage resulting from the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that hit in 1985 resulted in damage to many of the buildings. According to some people, some of the older buildings are even in danger of collapse. The government has been dumping a lot of money into restoring the area so hopefully the changes will help.

A quick plate of tacos and I was off to my next destination–Teotihuacan, home of the 3rd largest pyramid in the world, the Pyramid of the Sun. I just found out tonight that the 2nd largest in the world, the Great Pyramid of Cholula, is close to my route so I’ll have to stop and visit that one too.

The 30 mile ride to get here was nuts. Mex-85 is an absolutely chaotic road. The problem are the buses, taxis and vans that compete for passengers standing at the side of the road. There are 4 travel lanes and no breakdown lane so the side of the road turns into a circus. In some spots there’ll be a dozen passenger vehicles jockeying for position. Riding in and out of this mess is a good test of ones riding ability. At one point I did get to ride on a toll road and fortunately the operator that literally came running toward me as I approached the toll booth just wanted to show me where to walk my bike past it.

The town closest to the ruins, Teotihuacan will be my home for 2 nights. I’ll take a taxi over in the morning and check it out.

GPX Track

02/14 I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day (or any other commercialized holiday) but now I like it a lot less. Little background first… in Mexico it’s taboo to hook up with your significant other before marriage. Since that’s completely unrealistic there are all these motels that cater to guys and girls looking for a place to get it on. So here I am riding my bike in the dark on the disaster that is the Mexico City road system trying to find a place and the few normal hotels I could find were full. I’ve been avoiding the sex motels but everything was full tonight so I got stuck in one.

I guess it’s not too bad. The motel room is like a normal room except for the mirrored headboard and full length mirror on the wall. There’s even room service available. Since it took me until 8pm to find a place I needed a beer (or 3). I opted to pay for a full night instead of the four, eight or twelve hour options they have available. There’s even a curtained off garage to park your car for some additional privacy. There’s no check-in desk either. You just pull up to a glass window that you can’t see into and conduct everything through (very loud) speakers and a slide out drawer like at a bank drive through. That made communication even harder for me because being able to see the person makes it a lot easier. There’s no hot water either which was the one thing I was hoping for more than anythig.

Mexico City sits smack dab in the middle of the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the world so you can imagine the traffic. I rode around for about 4 hours and it was like rush hour on every road. My GPS track tells the story I’m sure. And let me tell you about road conditions. The highway I rode into the city on (Mex-85) and virtually every other road was in the worst shape of anything I’ve seen in all of Mexico. There are massive potholes on every road, broken glass is very common, there are unmarked speedbumps everywhere, people park on the sidewalks or double-park, the sidewalks are in horrible shape and people drive like freaking maniacs.

The fact that I’m even alive is a miracle. I was used to people cruising through stop signs after a cursory slowdown but here they burn right through red lights. Lanes are almost meaningless. There’s also garbage all over the place which is also something I usually only see on the outskirts of towns.

I didn’t get to see the ruins at Teotihuacan and now the cab ride there is going to cost a fair bit since I had to ride so far. I’ll have to find a new motel (with intenet) and then try to go see it tomorrow or maybe Tuesday. What a pain. I can’t wait to get out of this city.

Update: I think I found part of my problem. For some reason I’d manually entered wrong coordinates for the ruins into my GPS. Oops. First time for everything I guess. I’m still about 35 miles away. I’ll head over tomorrow. I feel a little better at least now that I know where I’m going.

GPX Track