A Year Older In Teotihuacan

Today was a good day, a very good day that made my birthday all the more special. I had made plans to celebrate my 36th birthday in the famous pyramids of Teotihuacan and I was not disappointed at all.

Teotihuacan is considered one of the world's greatest archeological sites and is located about 50 km/31 miles from Mexico City. It was an ancient city that was built hundreds of years ago, pre the Aztecs and no one knows who exactly built the city and the structures (pyramids) that are still in existence today. The Aztecs actually came upon the city when it had been in existence for more than 1000 years. They were so awed by the construction that they believed that it was the site of the beginning of the world and it became a holy city for them, they actually incorporated it into their religion.

Teotihuacan had fallen by the time the Aztecs came across it and it's not precisely known why or what happened exactly. Now you understand with that historical background why I was so fascinated and interested in visiting the site and spending my special day there. PS: There is so much history so I just skimmed over the information as a brief summary of Teotihuacan.

I booked a tour with these folks and I was not disappointed at all. We left in the morning because the tour would take a whole day so we needed to start early. The guide was super entertaining and kept the group within the tour laughing through out, actually everyone in the group ended up befriending each other and I met some really fun folks. I took lots of pictures so I hope you enjoy the ones I will share with you.

At the entrance to the pyramids. What you see behind me is the sun temple which is the biggest structure.

Met these two gentlemen who had flown in from Guadalajara to check out a rolling stone's concert in Mexico city. The guy in blue was also celebrating his birthday today so we sort of bonded over that. They were really cool and told me that if I ever visit Mexico again I should check out Guadalajara because it's very beautiful and that I shouldn't worry about lodgings because they would welcome me with open arms..........my husband will definitely be included and welcome.

Met these four Slovenian guys who were also pretty cool and funny. They told me they were traveling around Mexico city before heading to Florida to travel around the state in a rented car. They have a friend from Slovenia who plays for Miami Heat and they were also going to check out his game, they told me his name but I can't remember it because I don't watch sports so I really don't know who is who.

Approaching the sun temple.

This is the view from the sun temple. The climb was actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

Going down was actually a bit more trickier because the steps were really steep and it felt like you could easily slip and tumble down.

These girls were too sweet, they chatted me up and were so excited that I was a tourist visiting Mexico so they wanted a photo with me. I think they were on a school trip.

 Next to the sun temple is the moon temple which is a bit smaller.

After the tour we went to have lunch and since I had mentioned it was my birthday the guide was so sweet, he went and talked to the folks working at the restaurant and I got a sweet surprise. We (the other guy from Guadalajara and I) were presented with birthday cakes and a mariachi band came to sing for us.

We had a delicious lunch full of Mexican delicacies and being that it was a buffet I was able to sample different dishes.

That's it folks, I had such a lovely day and really enjoyed myself. I feel great and I am super happy! Happy 36th Birthday to me. It's almost midnight and I am really tired so there will be no random thoughts of the day, all I want to do is sleep so let me get right to it.

Sites Around Mexico City

Today was a day well spent, Ana who is my hostess took me a tour of downtown to check out some of the sites and learn some history. The weather is really good right now so walking around was very comfortable as there was no unbearable heat to contend with. Where I am staying is not too far from downtown so getting there took less than 15 minutes using the metro.

Today the metro was free because the city is encouraging more people to use public transport instead of their cars to cut down on pollution, this incentive attracted so many commuters so you should have seen how packed the metros were! to make matters worse it was hot inside so that combination of heat and too many bodies squeezed together was not fun at all. 

Downtown Mexico city is very vibrant with people everywhere, music at some random corners, vendors galore selling all kinds of things, restaurants and lots of shopping. I love it! we walked around as Ana pointed out different buildings and what they are, we went to one of the Aztec temples for a tour and learned some history about the Aztecs which really reminded me of what I learned about the Incas in Peru. Very fascinating indeed.

An ancient Aztec temple that was uncovered in the city.

There are so many museums within the city so for anyone who fancies museums and such, they would be in heaven here. Some of use can only bear an hour or so before we call it quits but I did learn some fascinating history about the Aztecs from the museum we went to. PS: I still fail to understand why museums never allow flashes when taking pics, anyone care to enlighten me?

We decided to take a "hop on, hop off" bus to see more sites. It felt good sitting down for a while after all the walking we did.

The building below used to be the house of a former president, the details on it are very beautiful it was hard to capture it in pictures but I tried.

Closer look

That's it folks, I will be celebrating my birthday in a few hours time so I will keep you posted on that.  In the meantime I need to be in bed because tomorrow I will have a very long day.

Random Thoughts of The Day:

I really like the barrio I am staying at currently, its so cute and colorful and very tranquil plus its not too far from downtown if I need to go enjoy the hustle and bustle of city life.

Most people assumed I was going to be staying in a resort of visiting Cancun when I mentioned I was going to Mexico so I got strange looks when I said that I was actually just visiting Mexico city for now. I am not that big on resorts, but then again I have never stayed in one to begin with although I wouldn't mind staying in one. As much as white sandy beaches look very beautiful in pictures I am just not a beach person as I have mentioned before. I really like cities, colonial towns, history & culture, nature (just not the beach) you get my point.

"Aren't you afraid of narcos?" that was the common question I got prior to my trip. Nope! I did a lot of research prior to my trip plus there are certain well known areas which are no go zones otherwise, I am pretty safe and very happy actually. I am staying with a very nice family and I feel at home.

This morning I went to a local market with Ana's mum to buy some stuff. We stopped at this one store to buy something and the guy asked me where I am from. I told him I am Kenyan and the first thing he asks is, "isn't Kenya dangerous? aren't kids starving?" I was taken aback but I bounced back quick and asked him, "isn't Mexico dangerous with all the narcos and violence?" he didn't get it at first but I kept looking at him smiling till he finally got it. Stereotypes.........unfortunately the negative ones are the ones that are highlighted the most creating misconceptions. For the record, Kenya is a very beautiful country so check it out if you can, don't believe the hype.

The food.........this is just the beginning but I have to say I love Mexican food and there are so many varieties but I am determined to sample as much as I can.

And The Winner Is.............

Mexico!!!!!! I will be spending my birthday in Mexico.

For the longest time I have wanted to visit Mexico but for some reason never got round to it despite its very close proximity to the US. I think sometimes we tend to take what we have close by for granted and that was the problem with me. I always figured Mexico is close by so I could always visit anytime and that's why I kept procastinating.

My trip was uneventful although for a minute there I thought I was going to miss my connecting flight to Mexico city. I only had 30 minutes to get to the assigned gate and you should have seen me running through the airport like a mad woman, I was determined to make it and I sure did but it was such a close call.

The flight was pretty short and we landed in two hours. It was a late night flight so the airport was pretty empty and passing through immigration was a breeze! that's one of the advantages of late night flights. From the airport I got a taxi and ended up at my host's house in less than 20 minutes. I will be staying with the family of a friend of a friend.......talk about connections. Anyway, the family seems really nice and friendly and have welcomed me into their home with open arms which I think is really sweet of them.

This was a welcome note from the little girl in the house, I heard she was very excited to learn I would be staying with them and she wanted to give me a special welcome so she left this note on my pillow. I arrived late at night so she was asleep by the time I got to the house.

I will be staying in Mexico city and will keep you updated on my adventures. The internet is really slow where I am but I will try to make the best out of it. Thats it folks, watch out for the next update.

It's That Time of The Year Again

My birthday is in 3 days time and in keeping with this tradition, I am heading off to a place I have never been before as a birthday treat to myself. Way to make getting older exciting, right? When I was deciding on where I would like to spend my birthday I had a few countries in mind and it was hard picking which one to visit. It would have been great to visit all of them but you know, I have this thing called a job so taking off for an extended period of time is not an option at this point.

My top choices were: Guatemala, Mexico and Bolivia (I still regret not visiting when I was in Peru but one day I will make it there). I weighed the pros and cons of each location but the main factor that was working against me was time. So what do you do when you have limited time on your hands yet each country you want to visit has so much to offer? okay, I'm I the only one who thinks right about now that my dilemma just sounded so silly? heck! I should have been just happy that I have the opportunity to visit at least one of the countries.  Anyway, yes! the decision has been made and I picked the country but you will not know which one it is until tomorrow when I travel.

I will give you some hints though: It's a Spanish speaking country, duh! not much of a hint there. It has so much history and you can still see the evidence of the great works of its past civilization....okay, enough with the lame hints you will know my choice tomorrow.

It's midnight and I am busy doing last minute packing and stressing myself out. Seriously the worst part about traveling for me is the packing, I think I have checked my passport 20 times just to ensure it's in my bag and I will not forget it..........checking it again right now. I have 5 hours till I have to wake up to go to work in the morning as I travel in the evening and I know it's going to be a super crazy busy day so that combined with little sleep will just be torture. I took a little break to update this blog but now I have to finish what I need to do and get some sleep so I bid adios, until tomorrow.

Quilotoa Take Two Part 2

Hola! so if anyone was reading about my trip to Quilotoa, this is where I left off so let's continue shall we? when we arrived to Quilotoa it was cloudy and it appeared as if it was going to rain but that wasn't going to stop us from going down the crater and back up. I was a bit nervous at first because I remembered how much I struggled the first time I had toured Quilotoa but this time round going down wasn't as challenging as I remembered. There were slippery spots because of loose earth and our thighs were trembling by the time we got to the bottom but it was fun and the lovely surroundings made it all worth it.

The trail down doesn't look steep or long but trust me, it looks tamer in pictures than in reality.

We made it to the bottom of the crater and enjoyed the surroundings even though it had started drizzling.

I don't know what kind of hostel this is but I would not want to spend a night in there, there were several tents pitched around the area so I suppose some people camp out in the crater.

We thought the drizzle was going to pass but unfortunately it started raining heavily and we had to start our climb up quick before the path became really muddy. The first time I was at Quilotoa I went up on a horse but this time round I decided to challenge myself physically and go up by foot.

I am not lying when I mention how tough it was climbing up. First of all we were at high altitude and there was no sufficient air so breathing was a problem, the path was steep at some places so you really had to exert yourself and the fact that it was raining didn't make things easier. I was panting like crazy  and I wasn't the only one. Just imagine gasping for air and feeling like you can't get enough so you pant even harder trying to suck in as much oxygen as you possibly can..........yeah, that was how it felt. It got to a point my very lovely husband even carried me on his back before he got too tired himself, I could have easily taken a horse up but I was determined to make it on my own.

There was an Argentinian girl in the tour group who got so exhausted and sick that she just stopped and couldn't move any further she almost cried saying she wanted a horse to help her get back up but all the horses had already been taken and there were none available. My husband being the lovely gentleman that he is decided that we couldn't go further without helping the girl so him and this other Colombian guy got on each of her side and held her as we continued with the trek. In the end she felt better and we all bonded within the group as we made the best out of a difficult situation and managed to share a few laughs along the way.

Finally we made it up to the top of the crater and you should have seen how happy and relieved everyone was, especially knowing lunch was to be served up next.

Exhausted but super happy

That's it folks after lunch we headed back to Quito and everyone just blacked out in the bus and slept through most of the ride. It was a day well spent if I must say so myself.

Random Thoughts of The Day:

It's been raining in Quito every day which makes for very cozy nights but during the day it sucks especially when you want to be out and about.

In Quito you will find communities of Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians and Venezuelans but each tend to keep to themselves, hang out among themselves and even eat at their own restaurants.

I had forgotten how much the sun burns in Quito especially in the afternoon when its the brightest, I have been walking around with a hat for protection. I wonder what the rate of skin cancer is over here.

At first traveling with my husband used to be tricky because we have different personalities and couldn't seem to agree on alot but now we have reached a point where our different personalities actually work in our favor as we compliment each other really well. Traveling together has become more fun and entertaining.