The South Riding RV Travels

22nd May 2009 - Tepotzotlan to Teotihuacán, México

Pepe's is a hotel in North Tepotzotlan which is well known by RVers. It has over 70 flat sites all fully serviced and is capable of handling the largest rigs. It is the primary site for visitors to Mexico City some 40 miles to the south. However it was empty because of the season and possibly the flu. Not totally true since we found a couple of Israelis with a motor home they had registered in Florida. We swapped notes and addresses.

On the way out we passed more topiary. It must take hours to maintain these. Now we made an even bigger mistake than yesterday. We opted to continue cross country rather than venturing into the complex motorway section to the south of here.

The problems originate with Mexico City being situated in a natural bowl and thus subject to atmospheric inversions. With the number of cars pumping out pollutants this creates a major atmospheric problem that now exists most of the time. The government has attempted to address this by restricting the use of cars in a ruling called Hoy No Circula. Basically this means you cannot drive your car on the designated day for the last digit on your number plate. This has now been increased to two days a week and vehicles not registered in Mexico City are not allowed between 0500hrs and 1100hrs every day. The police enforce this with fierce fines and you can be fined more than once a day. We found out the rules for our RV but we could not definitively establish the area to which this all applied. Hence my not wishing to go on the motorways.

But the back roads were horrendous and the 35 miles took us 3.5 hours. At one stage the road just didn't exist because of repairs and everything was directed across fields. The traffic was horrendous. We travelled very slowly and cars began overtaking us and this truck only to find other cars and trucks coming the other way!

Our maps were no good for this and we had found the route on the computer and were following it by GPS. Sadly the GPS told us we were off route more than we were on it - even when there were no side roads. We couldn't decide if the satellite positioning was not accurate enough or the maps were the problem. GPS is not all its cracked up to be.

However some of the villages were interesting and the decorations on the way out added to the ambience of the day.

Eventually we arrived at the Teotihuacan RV Campground and were welcomed by Mina, the owner who lives in an amazing A frame house on site. Again we were the only travellers. She said we were lucky because the rains were late this year. Last year it had rained from May to November. We told her we were used to that, being English.

The camp site is next to the church which rings its bells to announce the services. It looks beautiful on the outside but we never got to look inside.

I'm sure that Noddy drove a car just like this one but with the roof down. There are still thousands of old Beetles in Mexico. (And they still seem to love the Beatles too.)

We walked up into the town and found a small museum  with items from the pyramids close by.

This is just a sample of what we had come here to see. The detail is amazing considering that the civilisation had disappeared by 800AD.

They were very skilled at making moulds and castings. These were just a few examples. We will see more tomorrow.

In the foyer are several modern statues made from obsidian. This was widely used for tools and ornaments and we found a lot of artistic items on sale here.

The town centre was being torn apart for the installation of new drains (they needed them!). The statue is surrounded by pipe sections.

We asked for a map but were told the town only has four roads. It was a lie but not that far from the truth. This is the central plaza.

The bakeries produce some amazing goods but we were quite taken by this giant croissant. They make them just like the French do and they taste the same. They make good French bread as well.

We sat opposite the church and had a drink and an ice cream and caught this wedding while we were there. Getting married must still be in fashion here. I wonder how long the average marriage lasts here.