So Teotihuacan, that's one of those names that I've always found a bit intimidating. Generally I have referred to the ruins as "the ones with the long name beginning with T" and people know what I mean, or at least nod politely. Turns out it's pronounced T.O.T. wackan, or at least it is to my insensitive English ears. Keep it phonetic.
Ready for some learning? They're not Aztec ruins. They predate the Aztecs by most of a millennia. Also they aren't Mayan, the population was cosmopolitan, apparently. A mish mash of different cultures all living together and building pyramids. And those pyramids are big. The so-called Pyramid of the Sun (which is apparently more likely to be rain-themed) is the third largest pyramid in the world.
What else? I went to Cuernavaca to see the 500 year old castlechurch. Turns out if you are invading with religion, you need your buildings to be hardcore. None of that baroque altarpiece nonsense, just thick walls and crenellations. They have recently given it a do-over with agate windows and an Ikea pulpit. Funkiest church I've been in, in a while.
And Taxco. A picture-postcard knot of cobbled streets leading to another massive church. All the streets are stuffed with silversmiths, all of whom lure you in with free mezcal, which seems like a foolproof, if slightly sneaky, sales technique.
Back inside the mountain walls of CDMX and there are still boxes to tick: lucha libre. Turns out it's a real thing (well a real fake thing) and people go crazy for it. The matches we saw were mainly trio wrestling, with best of three bouts, which meant I had little to no idea what was going on for the most part. It was pretty spectacular, lots of colour, lots of leaping and more mini-estrellas than I was expecting. I'd finish with a luche libre chant, but the only thing I could really make out was "cervecas" and I'm not certain that that's a bona fide chant...
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