Guachimontones, Teuchitlan, and Zapopan

 Thursday, April 4, 2024 (more photos later)

It was a brilliant idea to take everyone's breakfast orders last night! After getting my shower and doing my yoga, and Laura going up to catch most of sunrise, we head downstairs and find about half the group already eating.  As each person arrives, the waiters bring our food and drinks.  I'm going light this morning in hopes of eating all my lunch!  And I've switched to tea in hopes of sleeping tonight!  The French toast is good and comes with a little fruit, which is a pleasant surprise.  People drift away as they finish and Alex and I are deep in conversation when Karen comes to get us!  We were afraid we would be the last people on the bus;  but we're not, so all is well.

And the green juice came shortly after!

There are lots of modern skyscrapers in the newer parts of the city.

Blue agave

Even the gas stations have lovely flowers!

And odd sinks

And seatless toilets - easier to keep clean!

All convenience stores look alike!

Ginger keeps us well stocked with water.

We're going, today, to see a completely different kind of ruins from they Mayan ones we have all visited before.  We arrive and meet our guide who asks if we're okay to walk about 100 meters.  He never mentions that it is all uphill! I'm relieved that I'm not the last person in the strangling group!

Guachimontones is actually contemporary with the Olmecs, which kind of destroys the old theory of the Olmecs being the original people in Meso America!  And they covered a vast territory! Their ceremonial structures are all round and look like layer cakes.  There is a hole going down from the top in which a post was fitted so that the priest, dressed as the wind god and depicted as either an eagle or a hawk, could "fly" during the ceremonies.  The largest reconstructed structure here is composed of four different layers, of which there are thirteen.

In order to drink alcohol in this culture you had to be 52 and they often lived to be 75 or 80!  One of the striking features of these ruins is the "shaft tomb".  The poor people were just buried in a corner of their houses; but the rich were buried in a shaft that was up to 22 meters deep.  At the bottom there were horizontal tunnels leading to large burial chambers in which the body was placed along with clay figures representing the gods and depicting various aspects of village life.  These figures are the way archeologist have reconstructed life here.

Encircling the circular pyramids were the houses of the rich who had the best view of the ceremonies.  The rest of the villagers often took part in circle dances around the pyramid.  The largest of the known pyramids cannot be reconstructed because most of the stones were plundered for other construction and Mexican law says that unless 80% of a structure is present, it can't be rebuilt.

Looks like it won't be crowded!

The slope isn't as gentle as you'd think!

These were foundations for houses

Someone is always cleaning up.

Our guide demonstrates the dance moves and also how to play the "games" on the ball court.  He actually participates in demonstration games and says that they lasted from sunrise to sunset with no rest stops.  Some games were played for settle grievances but others were actual wars.  The winner of those games was sacrificed because the gods had favored him and he was allowed to ascend to the level in which the creator gods lived.  In their religion, Heaven was at the bottom, earth in the middle, and the gods above.  If you were rich and powerful you were buried further down, closer to heaven.  The rest of the people where buried much closer to the surface, but even they were buried with some clay figures.

Never seen a round pyramid before!

Most of the people actually lived further down the mountainside, in the town by the lake.  They only came up for ceremonies or to go to the market, where everything was bartered, based on how long it took to make something.  There were"Grandfathers" who supervised the trading to keep everyone honest.  Those who were deemed dishonest could be killed!

Our guide is very proud of his obsidian bracelets, which he designed and makes himself.  There is a LOT of obsidian here, from the eruption of the Tequila Volcano near by.  Then we head to the museum to watch an interesting documentary and see some of the clay figures which have been recovered from the tombs.

We're off to lunch in Teuchitlan at the Monte Carlo restaurant, stopping along the way to drop off one of the men from the site.  The restaurant is open air and overlooks a lake which is completely covered with an invasive water plant.  But it is still quite pleasant and there's a breeze.  And the food is great! (For some reason the computer doesn't want to export these photos - patience is a virtue!)

After lunch we go to visit Our Lady of Zapopan.  She is also known as Our Lady of Expectation.  People used to come all the way from Mexico City to worship her.  It is said that praying to her in the 1950's ended the drought!  The Bishop in Mexico City had an exact replica made for his basilica so that people wouldn't have to go so far!

As we're leavingNorm joins us with his guitar but when he starts singing, an official asks him to stop.  We have half an hour free time to go to the market or wander about.  Ginger, Juan, Norm, and I get a cold drink.  Ginger and I have kahlua and it's delicious and refreshing!  I go off on my own for a bit and get back to our meeting spot right on time.

Norm has talked Juan into giving him a ride back to Guadalajara and Juan changes seats with Lisa.  Ginger and I swap and I get to chat with Laura all the way home! When we dismount Ginger says we will reconvene on the roof for sunset then go straight to dinner in the hotel.  We'll place breakfast orders again and leave straight from breakfast, so we need to bring our bags down with us.

Laura is going swimming with some of the crowd, but I'm staying in to blog.  She's back pretty quickly, though, because the water is too cold for comfort! I'm a little peeved because my computer has decided not to export some of the photos that I need for today!  I'll worry about that later.  Right now I need to wash my face and get ready for dinner!

So Laura and I decide to get a drink to take up to the roof for sunset.  Sounds simple, right? So we go downstairs and learn that the bar is somewhere below us but our waiter will bring our drinks.  It's going to be a while so I suggest that Laura go up and see the sunset and I'll bring them up.  The drinks and bill arrive and the waiter says he can't put them on our room, so I go back up and get a credit card, come back down, take a photo of them with the duck, and realize I might not have enough hands!  The guy is so cute and charming he smiles and motions for me to come with him.  He calls the elevator and pushes the number five button for me.  When I arrive there is still a lot of color - oh!  wait!  Where's my phone?  Of course it's back downstairs on the table where I collected the drinks.  Back down.  Back up.  There is still a smattering of color so all is not lost.  And Norm is playing his guitar and harmonica for the crowd.

Back downstairs for dinner.  The drinks take a while, the food even longer, but finally everyone is served and conversation ensues.  After dinner Ginger takes breakfast orders and we confirm the plans for the morning. It's been a really long day (over 15,000 steps) and everyone is ready to retreat to our rooms and make sure the beds still work!