Day Thirty - Mexico City, D.F. (July 26, 2010)

Our second full day in Mexico City was pretty historically-based, including visits to the Basilica of Guadalupe and the ancient ruins of Teotihuacán.


We started off by driving to the Basilica of Guadalupe, on our way out of the city. Alex gave me a quick 5-minute overview to the history of the site. Here’s what he explained of the legend…in 1531, a local indigenous man named Juan Diego saw an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. She instructed him to go back to his people, explain what he saw, and build a church in her honor. He went back, but the people did not believe him. He then saw the Virgin a second time and she placed rose petals in his cloak. When he returned to the people and opened his cloak, an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was impressed in the material. Now believing Juan Diego, the people built a church for her almost immediately.

The Basilica of Guadalupe is the church that the people built. The current site has more than one church, including the Old Basilica, the New Basilica, El Pocito Chapel, and more. Since the Old Basilica was build on weak ground, it started to sink (and is still leaning…very similar to the tower in Pisa) and a new building was constructed. Inside the New Basilica is Juan Diego’s shroud with the impression of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Here’s where the more modern touch comes in…to view the shroud, you stand on short moving sidewalks so that you can see it as often as you’d like and so that everyone keeps moving. I did it once and then headed over to the shop where I bought a candle for Uncle Stash and lit it outside the church. I know he would’ve loved to hear about my visit to the Basilica, so I’m glad I could do something in his memory.

Upon leaving the Basilica, we headed to the ancient Aztec ruins of Teotihuacán. The site was built close to the year 0 and was used by the Aztecs during their reign. The city is HUGE and likely once had more than 200,000 inhabitants. A long “street” called the Avenue of the Dead leads up to a large pyramid known as the Pyramid of the Moon. An even bigger pyramid called the Pyramid of the Sun is nearby. There are many small pyramids and buildings scattered throughout the city, as well as grass-covered hills, which were likely pyramids in their day. I went to the top of the Moon pyramid and had a great view over Teotihuacán, with Mexico City in the distance. This is definitely a place to visit and one I will certainly return to in the future. Hey, I’ve gotta climb the Sun Pyramid one day…

To finish off the day, we ate lunch in an underground cave! How cool!