Teotihuacan, City of Gods*

Last weekend I was in Teotihuacan, which is a place east of Mexico City.


You can find the most ancient pyramids of Mexico there and the whole place is very impressing. There are three main pyramids which are:

1. La Pirámide del Sol (Pyramid of the Sun)
2. La Pirámide de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon)
3. La Pirámide de la Ciudadela (Pyramid of the Citadel)

The first has a hight of 63 metres. The second is about 40 metres high.

There are a number of smaller pyramids which all represent the planets. I found it very impressing that they know about our solar system already 300 BC (or a little later, around that year the constructions began).

The name Teotihuacan is of Aztec origin. The Teotihuacanas (name of the people that orignially lived in the city) lived already before the Aztecs but for a reason unknows they abandoned the city. Later the Aztecs found the city and believed it was the city of their gods. They also named the main street of the town "Avenue of the Dead" because they believed the small buildings along the street were the tombs of their former kings.

As you can see on the pictures the weather was very good and although I protected myself quite well from the sun, I ended with a little sunburn on a very strange place. The next day I had to wear my safety shoes which was painfull.

*There is no relation to the film "City of God" (Cidade de Deus) which I can recommend, however. People say it's similar in some parts of Mexico City.

You don't need a watch...

... when it starts to rain, it's 5pm

As Anne asked how the weather is over here, I don't want to hesitate answering her question, too.

If you are looking for a general description, you better look here. I couldn't explain it better. But for my experiences read on!

First, I should mention that figures don't mean anything to a Mexican. If you ask, for examle, how far is this or that place away, they look at you as if you asked for something impossible or as if your question was pure blasphemy. You can be happy if you get an answer like 15 minutes or 2 hours (the translation of which is in most cases 25 minutes and 3 hours and a half). But you never get to know a distance in kilometres.

It's the same with temperatures. You won't get an answer from a Mexican and I can't really give you an answer either because we neither have a termometer in front of our house nor at the office. However, I can tell you that I find it quite chilly in the morning; at least in a shirt with short sleaves. If you ask now why I wear a shirt with short sleaves then wait till I explain that around noon it's already very warm. And when I leave the office at about 5pm I guess it's 30° C or more.

Around this time of the year starts the rainy season (which lasts until October). That means it starts to rain in the afternoon or evening until around 10pm. Other people who got to know this already last year told me that often it starts raining at exactly 5pm.

In a way that's a bit annoying because that's when my free time starts. On the other hand, you can rely on that. One of the few things you can rely on in Mexico...

Special note (to those who are looking for the meaning of the picture again): There is no special relation between the pic and the text; I just think the sky looks really amazing.

What's expensive, what's cheap?

Svenja asked about prices here in Mexico. Here is the answer for you and for everybody else who's interested.

I think in general you can say that food and services are quite cheap. Everything that's imported or things that require a lot of technology are almost as expensive as/ more expensive than in Old Europe.

But judge for yourself. Here is my personal pricelist of things I recently buy. He he, just kidding! But at least it's a pricelist:

1. haircut - $40
2. car wash - $30
3. VW Jetta (remember in Europe this is Bora and vice versa) - $180 000
4. W-LAN card - $500
5. 250g of ham - $21
6. Nokia 1110 - $400 (incl. 500 text messages and $50 credit)
7. 400g of cheese - $26
8. 1 liter of petrol - $6
9. 1 hour internet café - $10
10. having your shoes polished $20

Important note: "$" does not stand for US dollar but for peso, the Mexican currency. At the moment 1 Euro = 14,4 pesos or 1 USD = 11,4 pesos.

Every place has its attraction...

...it just depends on the measurement.

I hope nobody from Cholula will read this post. Otherwise they'll kill me for the way I talk about their pyramide.

Maybe you remember the picture of Popocatépetl with the church in front. On that picture also was the greatest pyramide on earth!

You didn't see it? Well, it is underneath the hill with the church on top. Perhaps the next picture helps a bit to imagine a little better. But the real pyramide really is underneath the hill!

And if you always thought Cheop's Pyramide in Egypt was the greatest. Well, that depends on the measurement. Cheop's is the highest pyramide. The Cholula pyramide is the greatest in terms of volume and ground area.

Find the pyramide...

Mexican "football"

Those who thought this was about the match of the seleción mexicana last Friday were wrong. Does the match need any comments? ;-)

My contribution to this topic during the world championship is about the ancient ballgame. (Maybe I'll also write about recent Mexican football but first let's see how far they get in that match).

The ancient ballgame is the world's first team-sport. In pre-Hispanic times it was played in several variations all over Mesoamerica.

The ball was made of rubber and wighted several kilos. The players were only allowed to touch it with shoulders, elbows, hips, thights and knees. Those parts of the body were protected with leather protectors. However, when the game was over the players were bleeding everywhere because of the weight of the ball.

The ball was not allowed to touch the ground but the walls on each side of the field (sometimes they were sloping) could be used. The aim of the game varied depending on the region where it was played. In Xochicalco - where I was last weekend - the ball had to be thrown through a kind of rings on the walls (see picture: the two things on the ground used to be attached to the wall) while in other regions the aim was to move the ball to the other side of the field (similar to modern football).


In most cases the game had a religious meaning. Sometimes the ball represents the sun which has to make its way on the horizon and is not allowed to crash (fall on the ground). In other parts it was related to the fertilization of the ground somehow representing sun and rain.

After the game players were often sacrificed. And now the surprise: not the losers but the winners (at least that's the conclusion of some sources). It was an honour for the best team to be sacreficed because they believed that by this they gained a "better life" after death while "normal people" would have a "miserable next life". As our tour guide in El Tajin said: "Modern people will never really understand this thinking."

Further information

Nicki, king of Momoxpan

Some explanations first:

• Momoxpan is the part of Cholula (city next to Puebla) where I live here.
• Nicki is a dog.

People here say that I belonged to a family but since this family bought a new dog, he is living in the street. I don't know if that's true but fact is that Nicki is everybody's dog in Momoxpan. Therefore he is also called "king of Momoxpan". It's quite a wonder he is still alive because, for example he drinks from puddles and that water isn't clean at all. My housemates once gave him a piece of really hot meat and Nicki didn't appear for some days so they thought he was dead but no... still alive. Now we bought some dog's food for him and also give him water but Nicki just can't get enough. The other day he stole a whole bag of sugar from our house. And some weeks ago he stole a bag of toast. This dog is incredible!

Besides of that he is very calm and I've never heard him barking. Strange dog! But he's cool!

You have to know that here in Mexico don't have to register a dog and nobody would think about paying taxes for a dog like in Germany. Therefore there are a lot of dogs just living in the street. And some even live on the motorway on our way to the Volkswagen plant. You can imagine some of them don't live very long. Almost every second day you can see a dead dog there. The road we use is called periferico but some also say "perroferico" (perro = dog). How good Nicki is living in Momoxpan...

How to say... (without words)?

Today let me introduce the "strange" world of Mexican gestures to you. In many situations gestures are used. Sometimes it's because you can't understand each other like in the disco or between two drivers. And sometimes I guess Mexicans are just to lazy to open their mouth.

To say "yes", you open and close your index finger while the rest of the hand is closed. I don't know how to describe this in a better way therefore I add some pictures.



If you want to say "no", you show the back of your index finger and move your hand from one side to the other while the rest of the fingers is closed.




To say "thank you", you make this gesture. It took me some time to get used to that. Before, I had known this gesture only from German drivers where it definitly doesn't mean "thanks";-)


You make this gesture in order to say "sorry". I guess it represents a person falling to their knees.





And this means "gay". It is used by Mexicans, for example, when they talk about Ronaldinho (this really happened in a bar in Papantla).




Special note to Mr. Ronaldinho's lawyer: I didn't say Ronaldinho is gay.

666

Don't worry. I haven't become a satanist. The title of today's post is related to the belief of many Mexicans that today something very bad would happen. Like an earthquake or the breakout of a volcano (see post May 25). And that's just because of the date (06.06.2006) and the relation of the number with the devil. By the way, does anybody know where that comes from?
It's true that many Mexicans took this date very serious. I guess they have a somewhat special relation to supernatural things (and to death as well). Some people at Volkswagen didn't like the idea of having a meeting today because they thought it would have a bad outcome. And in similar ways quite a lot of people believed in some kind of effect.

As far as I can see nothing happened. And if there really was something at 06:06:06 in the morning: I still slept at that time of the day (or better NIGHT).