Hola desde Ciudad de Mexico!

I've been trying to write something here for a few days now, but sleep and impromptu tequila sessions have defeated me each time. You can buy a 1 litre bottle of tequila here for about $6 Australian. Not that I am buying the stuff... I seem to just get swept up into these events.


.............Ascend the stairs...............

Today was spent climbing Pyramids at a very famous pre-Aztec city-complex about an hour north of Mexico city, known as Teotihaucan. It was built around 200 AD by a largely unknown people (way before the Aztecs), and supposedly had around 200,000 inhabitants at the zenith of its power (around the same amount as Rome at the time.) Even though it has been badly damaged or destroyed in some parts, you still cannot help but be awed by the mathematical, astronomical and aesthetic accomplishments of this site.




The vast courtyards in front of the Pyramids had been precisely constructed so as to have special acoustic properties. You can hear the most amazing sound reflections ricocheing off the opposing stone facades when you shout or clap your hands. (anyone who has studied accoustics would be impressed!) This site is famous for a solar alignment during the spring solstice, when the sun strikes the stairs of the larger sun pyramid and creates a play of light across the stairs which appears to the eyes like a serpent.


Human sacrifices to the gods were also de riguer here apparantly. It is a potent experience to walk up the very steps of the Pyramids where almost 2000 years ago, the (surely) unwilling subjects were dragged up the stairs kicking and screaming, to have the thoats slit on the temple alter aloft (The temples no longer remain on the top platforms) Supposedly, the drains that run down the sides were for letting the blood of the numerous sacrifies drip down and pool. The bloods runs through these channels almost like veins and arteries in a living structure. Blood and stone - organic and warm, monolithic and cold, intertwined in a complex pattern. Piles of broken bodies heaped up complete the apex of the pyramid as it reaches up to the baking sun and clear blue sky.



I imagine the whole thing would have been a rather macabre but amazing sight none the less! It´s difficult for me to try and understand the mentality of these people. How do you reconcile their richly symbolic and spiritual life, and the complex beauty of their art and architecture, with the horror of the temple ceremonies?
Then again, how will future societies judge us when they look back 2000 years from now? Under the thin sheen of modernity, how savage is our society?



My new British friend 'Reginald' accompanied me on this trip. We decided to take the metro out of the city limits and then get a bus to the site. This was a lot cheaper and heaps more fun than doing a tour. The subways here are pretty insane though. Hawkers jump on the train at every station selling everything from mix cd's to icereams. You can almost do your shopping on the way home from work! Today a guy ripped off his shirt and lay down on a pile of broken glass. I suppose its like an extreme form of busking. No one even bats an eyelid though - he gets some small coins and goes to the next carriage. The trip north on the bus takes you past thousands of squat, concrete houses that extend right up the steep faces of the mountains that flank the highway. These slumy areas around the city are home to millions of people, though some of them just look like the foundations of houses that have been bombed. This was the poorest housing I have ever seen in my short and priviliged life but apparantly its nothing compared to some other places.