Teotihuacán

Teotihuacán is an ancient Mesoamerican city near CDMX, It's famous for its pyramids and precolumbian architecture. It's one of the must-dos if you're in Mexico City. The Teotihuacan culture was hundreds of years before the Aztec culture became dominant in Mesoamerica. 600 BCE the area was covered with villages, with population that was not so significant. However from 100 BCE to 750 CE, Teotihuacan evolved into a huge urban and administrative center with cultural influences throughout the broader Mesoamerica region. The two most significant buildings: Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built 1-4th century CE. The peak of the Teotihuacan culture was 350-650 CE when the city's population reached the 125000. In 450 CE the city covered an area of 30sqkm. We started the day early (relatively to our practices) and ended up being at the site around 10am. We figured that taking a Didi saves a really time in this case so we opted for this luxury both ways. Climbing is only possible up to half ways on the Pyramid of the Moon, but this is enough to give a fantastatic bird-eye view on what used to be the huge city.

Downtown houses:

The Feathered Serpant god and he green bird:

We optimized for sun and heat and decided the visit the museum at the very end. The collection includes interesting artifacts of the Teotihuacan culture and things related to burial of the dead.

Back in Mexico City!

Today we took the bus from Cuernavaca to CDMX. The trip was smooth, the bus was most comfortable. From Tasqueña station we took a Didi car to Roma Norte, one of the best neighborhoods of the city. Lots of expats and tourists live or stay here. Fancy shops and restaurants. The highlight of the day was Restaurant Rosetta, a 1-Michelin-Star restaurant which served us late-lunch-early-dinner (linner). A true one-of-a-kind experience which I'll remember for a long time.

Afterwards we picked up some pastries at the Rosetta Bakery right down the street:

More Cuernavaca

We decided to skip the archeological site of Xochicalco, and stayed in Cuernavaca instead. After a nice breakfast in a neighborhood cage, the first thing we did was to visit the Robert Brady museum. The guy was an artist and lived over 20 years in this house which he decorated with his 1200-piece art collection together with his own art. The house itself is also very impressive with an internal courtyard and a pool. But the way he designed his environment, fit colors, art to the inherent architecture of the building was the most interesting part.

Next we visited Jardin Borda, which is just around the corner. The garden with its pools was built in the 18th century. A quite getaway from the noisy streets of the city.

A small exhibit on the side was dedicated to Yolanda Quijano, who I never heard of. Quijano is a 96-year-old Mexican painter and sculptor, who was influenced by magican realism. Her motto "Everything is magic. Life without magic is not life.” was really expressed in her art on several levels:

Taxco to Cuernavaca

Since neither Didi not Uber are available in Taxco, the best one can do is either to flag a taxi or try to pre-arrange one, which is what we did. We communicated everything perfectly, no doubt, pickup at 10:30, at the exact location, everything was perfect, except that the car did not show up. 10 minutes after the agreed time we started pulling our suitcases, luckily downhills. At the end we found a taxi which took us to the bus station. From there we took the bus to Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca is a much larger city than Taxco. Our 110 sqm (ehm? yes!) apartment is located at a very central place, walking distance from the main square and also from the bus station. After settling in we went to exlpore the Zocalo area, markets and the cathedral-monastery compound.