Travel Weekly MEXICO CITY Fam Trip - 07/31/2015

And my wake up call came at 5am, just as I was pouring my first cup of coffee. It was nice of them to leave a wake up for me, though. Headed downstairs, got on the bus and hit the highway for Teotihuacan. When we got to the ballooning center they were just starting to inflate about a dozen balloons. Apparently, this is a real popular thing. I soon found out why. We loaded up 8 of us and took to the sky. You could see the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon in the distance. Our pilot took us pretty low over the town leading to the ruins. Then way up! I'm going to say 2000' or so. Sadly it was a little foggy, so the view was maybe not as spectacular as it would be on a clearer morning, but still. Fabulous. As we got to the pyramids, we dropped back down to a hundred feet or so above the Pyramid of the Sun, and then floated serenely over the whole site. Besides the Pyramids, there are ruins of the houses/temples/marketplaces/whatever. And a great view of how they controlled water flowing through with a series of diked terraces with gates to allow draining and filling. I thought it might be for agricultural purposes, but they assured me it was to bring in fresh water and let out waste water. Very cool. All in all, it was one of the neatest hours I've spent in a long time. After landing, we headed to the Hotel Villas Arqueológicas Teotihuacán for breakfast. Which was served al fresco in the courtyard overlooking the pool. By far the most serene setting of the trip (Mexico City is a lot of things, but quiet is not one of them). We did a quick tour of the hotel, which is definitely on my list of places to return, and then to the Teotihuacan site. There we were led by a very knowledgeable guide, who explained what was what. And I climbed the first half built pyramid. In my defense, it was quite hot and humid, so I took a pass on climbing the Pyramid of the Sun. I think only 6 or 7 of the 23 agents with me did that. But we did stroll the whole length of the site and then headed to lunch at La Gruta (the Grotto). Which is just that. A restaurant inside a cave. Very cool. The cave is mostly in to a hillside, so it's not far down below ground level. Maybe 30 feet. And there are a couple of natural skylights to illuminate the place (as well as a couple dozen candles on the wall at one end. Lunch there was AWESOME. No other word for it. A great tortilla soup, and then a combo plate with a taco, mole poblano, carne Tampiquena and a tamalito. All very tasty. And finished with a corn cake desert. yum. Oh, yeah...between the ruins and lunch we stopped at a silver factory/gift store. To be quite honest, not my favorite. Our host spend way too much time explaining the proper way to drink tequila, which is fine unless you don't drink tequila. And the prices in the store were borderline outrageous. But, yeah...the good with the bad. Anyway, so, after lunch we hit the road and got back to the City about 5:30. Took a bit of a break before heading to Villa Maria for dinner. Villa Maria's claim to fame is daiquiris and margaritas served in glasses the size of a Buick. I had them whip me up a virgin daiquiri and proceeded to give myself about 26 freeze heads in the course of the evening. One of our hosts from Travel Weekly Mexico, Cesar, was having his wedding anniversary, and instead of taking the night off, decided to bring his wife to the restaurant. Which was good of him, and her. Dinner at Villa Maria started with an appetizer of sope and quesadilla, and then a carne de res (steak) in a green chile/cilantro sauce. That was way tasty. Desert was some sweet, bready concoction that I am finding hard to describe. But it was good. And so back to the hotel and some much needed sleep. Again, some people made a half-hearted attempt to explore the nightlife, but most of us decided a 17 hour day was enough. I'll be back tomorrow with the scoop on Saturday's events. In the meantime, there is lots of video and still pics of the balloon ride, and all the good food on my page at wwfacebook.com/daveholmantravel. Feel free to check them out. And friend me, if you wish. Also, if you are already dying to go to Mexico City, drop me a line at daveholman@verizon.net or call 760.265.3687 Hasta Manana! http://youtu.be/jCT5Rip08pA