The Teotihuacan Pyramids are one of Mexico’s most famous landmarks. It’s a massive UNESCO-designated ancient archeological site known for its enormous pre-Hispanic structures and gruesome sacrifices.
Luckily for us, there’s an RV park right in the heart of Teotihuacan Town located a mere 45-minute walk from the site. We’ve been in town a few days watching the weather and today looks like the day! But first, a quick briefing for our little explorers.
We’ll actually take an Uber there and walk back if we’ve still got steam. It’s a sprawling site measuring around 1.5 miles long by 3/4 mile wide, so we want the boys to be fresh when we arrive.
Our Mexico-USA RV Journey 2024-25
We actually splurged for a guide this time around (an English-speaking one at that!), and were happy we did.
The boys are finally old enough to make it worth our while (at least Noe).
Noe absolutely loved every minute of it and had a million questions for guide. The guide was very passionate about the history and the structures, and I think the he liked having someone so young show so much interest.
The park has five gates. We were told that if we wanted to hire a guide, the best thing to do is enter through Gate 1, which also happens to be the closest gate to town.
The other advantage of starting here is that you see the smaller, lesser-known structures first, saving the Pyramid of the Moon and most impressive cluster as the grand finale.
Fresh out of the gate, the first structure we come upon is the Templo de Quetzalcóatl, also known as the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. This is one of the earliest surviving structures, dating back about 2,000 years.
There is a smaller structure that you have to ascend first (above) to see the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, below.
From the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, we got our first clear view of the Temple of the Sun, and the Temple of the Moon beyond.
The city of Teotihuacan dates back to 100 BCE and flourished until its decline began around 800 CE.
The Temple of the Sun was built about 200 years after the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, when the center of the city was moved to what is now known as the Avenue of the Dead.
From here, it’s a long stroll to the Temple of the Sun (about a mile total). Fortunately, it’s rainy season, which means cooler temperatures than what Teotihuacan often gets. But no rain this morning!
Noe got a kick out of exploring the ancient storm drains.
The East Plaza houses an interesting collection of municipal buildings. But we were eager to head on to the Big Enchilada.
Independence Day is just around the corner. In addition to touring one of the world’s top archeological sites today, we were also treated to a number of practice runs for a big air show in a few days. Helicopters, vintage aircraft, and Mexico’s version of the Blue Angels.
The Pyramid of the Sun is the largest structure in the park and the second largest pyramid in the Western Hemisphere after the Great Pyramid of Cholula.
Not so long ago, you could climb to the top of the pyramid (Lori got to do this when she visited almost 15 years ago). But that all changed during Covid. It’s not clear if or when they’ll open it back up. For now, we can only admire it from below.
Avenida de los Muertos (Avenue of the Dead). These days, it’s a popular place for hawkers to set up. It’s also the busiest part of the park.
The Avenue of the Dead culminates in a grand plaza watched over by the Pyramid of the Moon.
The walls of the Palace of Quetzalpapálotl were restored to show off its vivid painted murals and stone carvings.
When we had seen all that we could see in the archeological site, we moved on to the Museum, which is larger and more impressive than we were expecting.
The scale model and view of the Pyramid of the Sun were a highlight.
A full day of walking and exploring made us hungry. Fortunately, there are several options near the museum—the most famous being the aptly named La Gruta.
La Gruta’s got a long history and popularity all its own. We can’t think of too many other places we’ve dined in a massive underground grotto.
Prices are a bit high as you might expect, but we were able to find some reasonably-priced snacks, which were excellent.
It would be a superb place to celebrate an anniversary or something along those lines…if you happen to be in the area.
After refueling, we decided we were going to attempt the three-mile return trip to the RV park on foot. Crazy? Perhaps. But that meant we got to go back through the park, which the boys were very excited about.
It was a long walk back, but not too bad. In all, we covered just under nine miles walking today with the boys, which equates to about 25,000 steps.
When we do a big outing like our Teotihuacan tour, the boys are supposed to write in their journals about what they learned as part of their “Road School”.
We expected Noe to write his usual handful of sentences. We weren’t expecting TWO FULL PAGES. He literally summarized everything the guide said (taken from Noe’s own handwritten notes he took during the tour) probably better than I would have.
This, from a guy who just started writing full sentences in English five months ago. We were very impressed.
