Mexico City, Part 2

Day 3

Saturday was truly our day of adventure! I had researched how to take the local bus to Teotihuacan, an ancient city with the third largest pyramid in the world. Knowing that it was going to be a full day, we wanted to start our day out with a great breakfast, so we headed back to the gf/df bakery. There happened to be a normal bakery next door to the gluten free one, so Ben bought his breakfast pastries there. It made me laugh to see him walk in with this flowery box! 

Then, we took another uber to the central bus station in Mexico City. Now that was a crazy place! Imagine an airport terminal, only this one is for buses: there were hundreds of taxi's lined up in front, hundred of buses of all different shapes, colors, and sizes and SO many people traveling all over North America. We found our ticket counter, our gate and our bus and left within 15 minutes of arriving at the bus station...thankful that it all "worked." All the boys were so excited to be riding on a bus! Oh, and let it also be noted that first thing this morning when I referred to Josh as my "baby," he informed me that he's no longer a baby, but a kid.

The bus ride was about an hour long, and it took us through "real" Mexico, not the rich suburbs or downtown centers that we have been experiencing. It was fascinating (and sad) to observe beautifully colored cement huts with corrugated metal roofs, hanging laundry, smaller than small square footage, all packed closely together. We saw (and smelled) a lot of garbage. We saw a lot of poverty.

Then the city slowly turned into more countryside, with rolling hills, then a small town, and then Teotihuacan and the pyramids.

Here's a short history lesson from what we've learned of Teotihuacan. The city dates back to around 100 BC and it is unknown who the inhabitants were and why they eventually deserted the city (600-800 years later). At it's peak, it's believed to have housed around 125,000 people. There are two enormous pyramids, as well as the ruins of a city. Our initial impressions were: first, the pyramids were even bigger than we could have imagined. Second, the haggling of the street vendors was something fierce. Each vendor had his own goods that he aggressively showed us why we needed to buy it immediately. The coolest souvenirs were various carved "calls," of jaguars, tigers, eagles, and owls. Later, we would be suckered into buying one for each of the kids. I say suckered, because between the pyramids and home, just about every appendage of those animal whistles broke off.

We decided to start our tour with the Pyramid of the Moon; although it is the smaller of the two pyramids and you can only climb half way up, it has a view of the whole valley from the platform that you reach. The stairs were incredibly steep and tall, but the kids did great. The view from the top was spectacular!

It's hard to describe how steep the stairs were, but hopefully these pictures help tell the story

Joshy went up most of this one by himself

The (bigger) Pyramid of the Sun is behind us as well as the ancient city

I'm pretty pleased with these family pictures. It's not every day you get to take a picture on a pyramid!

As we did the equally hard climb down (with Ben carrying Josh), I think that we all wondered how in the world we were going to climb the 248 steps of the Pyramid of the Sun.

We made an effort to take some cool artistic pictures of the boys "touching" the Pyramid of the Moon. I'm not sure that we succeeded.

Seth, Sam

We sauntered over to the pyramid, parked the stroller and decided to take it slow. Ben and I weren't sure that we'd be able to make it all the way up with Josh, but we just decided to take it one section of stairs at a time. As you can notice in the picture below, you are allowed to climb all the way to the top of this pyramid, and it is taller than the last one! The people on top look like ants.

The big boys at the bottom of the first staircase. Look at the incline of the pyramid shown by the people climbing the stairs behind them!

Josh did some of the climbing and Ben carried him some of the way. Bit by bit, we worked our way up, each time more and more amazed at the view.



We took periodic sitting breaks on the way up...we'd just plop down right on the side of the pyramid.

Sam

Does this give you a perspective of how big the pyramid is?

I love this next one!

And this one too!


In the end, we all made it all the way to the top--to the top of the 3rd largest pyramid in the world! That felt like a great family accomplishment!

And although Ben had to carry him a lot...

We were pretty darn proud of Josh for getting to the top with us! Let's just say that there weren't many three year olds up there (and maybe not as many crazy parents either).

Thankfully, we all made it down the steep decent as well. Those are some intense stairs!

By the time we got to the bottom, we were hot, tired, parched, and starting to get sunburned. But we did have to stop for one more family picture in front of the Pyramid of the Sun, the third largest pyramid in the world!


We didn't tarry much longer at the pyramids; we bought a few souvenirs, ate lunch, and caught the bus back to Mexico City. A funny memory is literally being chased down the street by representatives of at least five different restaurants, all shouting loudly at us to visit their restaurant. We were surrounded by them and they were all shoving menus in our faces. Ben thought it was hilarious, I thought it was embarrassing and awkward.

On the return bus ride we got the whole back row to ourselves. It may have been more bumpy, but Ben and I were happy not to have to have Josh on our laps (on the way there we only had 4 seats instead of 5). We snacked, rested, and Ben I wondered how the kids were still chattering away?! I think that he and I would have preferred a nap!

It was only around 4:30 in the afternoon when we arrived back at the bus station, and we all had just relaxed for an hour or so on the bus, so Ben and I decided to push for a bit more touring that evening (since it was our last full day and all). Next stop was an uber ride to Palacio de Bellas Artes, which is a beautiful building that houses an art museum in the historic district of Mexico City. It is also an enormous park/plaza connected to a pedestrian-only street. This was one of the craziest things that we did with the kids, as the entire place was packed with people. Ben estimated that there was at least 10,000 people in the immediate area. When we would cross the street, there was probably at least 200 people lined up on each corner, crossing one another's paths as you walked. It was pretty stressful keeping track of the twins, but they did awesome and took all the busyness in stride.

Isn't it just beautiful?

There were beautiful statues all around

Getting ready to cross the street!

Pedestrian only road

While in front of Palacio de Bellas Artes, we were stopped by a young man and a 10 year old boy. They were cousins and the older was having the younger practice his English with us. He did a interview with Ben and the boys and did a great job overcoming his shyness. It was a neat experience.

In this plaza there is also a 42-story skyscraper where you can take an elevator to the top observation tower. The view from the top was spectacular!

We could see all of Mexico City, and finally could even make out outlines of the mountains (the smog of the city is awful, so although it has mountains all around it, you could barely ever see them). It was pretty amazing to see the expansive city of 23 million people. We could also see a unique perspective of all the people within the plaza and all the cars driving around it. I'm really glad we made this little unplanned detour to the tower!

It's pretty cool that the boys got to see such a massive city

Looking down on the roof of the Palacio de Bellas Artes

Check out all the cars!

A picture from the outside observation deck of the tower. It was freezing (as you can see, there's a storm blowing in behind Ben and the boys).

Day 4

Our final day in Mexico City also happened to be Mother's Day. It was the first morning where we didn't needed to rush out of the hotel, so we cuddled, played and slowly ate breakfast in the room (we had bought extra pastries and fruit the day before). We only had a couple hours before needing to leave for the airport, so the only thing we did was visit an artisan street market. I wanted to be able to shop for presents for each of our moms for Mother's Day, as well as pick up some souvenirs for our family. It was a really fun outing! We arrived just as people were opening their shops, so we some of the few people wandering the corridors of the market. I loved all the colors, textures, and variety of goods. We found presents for the moms, a Christmas ornament, and even a small nativity set for our home.

Shopping at a market was a great present for me!

The shop where we bought Diane's present (a plate). I made Ben do all the negotiating...it makes me uncomfortable!

Honestly, by this time, we were all exhausted and ready to go home! Ben, Sam and Seth were all having a bit of diarrhea (maybe bad ice, food or something?) and we were just tired. It was a really busy 4 days. When our jet landed in Monterrey, we couldn't believe how great it felt to see the mountains of the city and some open spaces. Wherever you look in Mexico City, you only see gray cement, cars, people, and maybe a hint of overcast, smoggy sky. I guess it took us visiting a BIG city to realize how much we like Monterrey. It was the first time that all of us really felt like we were going "home" to our apartment here. It was a good feeling.  

A couple final thoughts about our Mexico City trip: first of all, Ben and I kept being reminded of our trips to Turkey and Europe (8+ years ago). This made us realize that we are finally traveling and adventuring again! How exciting! And this time with kids...even more crazy and special. The second note that I have to make is that the kids did absolutely amazing the whole trip. They  really surpass all expectations each time we make a trip like this. Sam and Seth walked and walked and walked with us--around 6 miles each day! All the boys adapted to rapidly getting in and out of uber cars, sitting in some of the worst traffic in the world, walking through thick crowds of people, and being in countless situations that they had never been in. It is a delight to expose them to places such as bus stations and plazas filled with people of a different culture. And we are so proud of them! And while we kind of felt like the Lord was throwing us into a trip like Mexico City before we thought we were "ready," we are thankful for His perfect timing as it helped us realize how much we value the city that He placed us in!

Mexico City, Part 1

Best picture of the trip:

Doesn't that just make you laugh?!

In order to get our visas finalized, Ben's company decided that it would be best (and most time effective) to do it at the immigration office in Mexico City. So, the company paid for flights and two nights of a hotel, and Ben and I decided to extend the trip by two more nights (we might as well if we're in Mexico City with our flight paid for!) We arrived into Mexico City on a Wednesday evening. It's only an hour and a half flight from Monterrey, so travel was quite easy. Traffic in Mexico City is renown for being horrible, but it only took us about 40 minutes to get to our hotel room. The room was a disappointment: the "suite" included two double beds (which Ben has to have an entire bed to lay diagonally on so that his feet don't hang over the edge), and a really flimsy pull out couch. Poor twins: Ben and I each took a bed and they got the pull-out couch mattress on the floor. Thankfully, we have this awesome blow-up mattress for Josh, so he was set.

Two double beds in this "suite"

The boys' make shift bedroom. They never complained.

Sweet Joshy loves his daddy

Day 1

Thursday morning we had to be up early to meet the lawyer who was working with us to finalize our visas. It was our understanding that this first day we would sign some papers and then head over to immigration to turn them in. However, all we had to do was sign, give the lawyer our passports, and then he took the papers for us. Therefore, we had the whole day to explore.

Let's just say, that it was not the best travel day we've ever had! Indications of bad luck were clear during breakfast. We ordered omelets from the hotel...and Seth's "sausage" omelette showed up with literally an uncut hotdog in it...yuck! Then, within five minutes of breakfast, Joshy knocked hot coffee onto my lap. This made me change from the pants that I was wearing into shorts...thus making me put my phone into a side pocket instead of a back pocket. (This is an important piece of information that will come into play later.) Still hungry from the lack-luster omelets at the hotel, we headed to a gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free bakery. It was amazing and decorated in a style that so reminded us of Portland. It was a very special place and we ended up eating breakfast there a couple days later as well. Then, somehow, I splashed my mocha from the bakery all over myself as I got into the uber car. Seriously, coffee spilled twice. Ugh. A bad omen for the day for sure.

Armed with full bellies, we headed to Mexico City's famous Chapultepec Park. It truly is a gorgeous place: an enormous tree-filled park, smack-dab in the middle of the city. The trees were wonderful, huge growth, and there is a great variety of types.

The pond in the middle

Lots of cool bark

Random beautiful Spanish building on the walk up to the castle.

We meandered uphill to the "castle" which was basically a palace for early European rulers, although a Mexican dictator did live there the late 1800s, early 1900s. The twins were a blast to tour the palace with, as they were totally interested in the history and the cool old furniture, carvings, chandeliers, ornate carriages, etc. Oh, and of course they loved any of the old guns. The palace also housed a history museum. Mexican history is sad, full of the Mexican people being conquered. There were beautiful, but sad paintings, depicting the Spanish conquistadors as they took over the land.

The outside of the castle

Statues of soldiers who died protecting the Mexican flag (it's a really famous story in Mexican history)

How amazing is this bathroom for being 200 years old? 

The view from the castle was spectacular...it also helped us grasp how enormous Chapultepec Park is

Looking down the "Paseo de Reforma," a famous road leading to the Statue of the Angel (pictures later)

This was one of my favorite paintings of the day.

Seth in one of the gardens

The gardens of the palace were amazing! (Sam, Josh, Seth)

Our next mission was the paddle boats on the lake in the middle of the park. I went off in search of sunblock first, to no avail (apparently we were the only gringo tourists that assumed there would be sunblock at road side stands). Hoping that we were not going to be burned to a crisp, we bought our tickets for the paddle boats. Seth and I were in one boat; Ben, Josh and Sam in the other. The boats were hard to steer and hard to paddle! It took Seth and I about 5 minutes just to get away from the docks. It was at about this time that I realized that my phone was not in my pocket. I knew that I had it when I went off in search of sunblock, but now it was no where to be found. It is not a great feeling to wonder where your cell phone is when you're over water. I was hopeful, however, that it was back in the backpack or stroller on the docks, and tried to enjoy the paddling as much as possible. The paddle boats were fun, especially for the kids. As I said before, they were pretty hard to paddle and we were all hot and tired after being done. I was also massively stressed.

Josh, Sam and Daddy

Seth

The peddles were too far away for Josh to reach

The next few hours are not fun to relate. Honestly, I had a bit of a break down as we searched and searched and searched for my phone to no avail. Searching for a lost phone is one thing, searching for a lost phone in a foreign country where you can't communicate well to others what you are looking for is quite another thing. Also I knew it was my pipeline to people at home, new friends just made in Mexico, a map or a translator at my fingertips, and the only way I could order uber cars. I felt isolated, stressed and just down right stupid for losing my phone. It was my lowest point so far in Mexico. Finally, we figured out how to use Ben's phone to do a "locator search" of my phone location. Unfortunately it showed that my phone was offline. Which means that it's probably at the bottom of the Chapultepec Lake.

Adios phone

We have found that there is no better place for us to regroup, re-hydrate and fill our bellies in Mexico than PF Changs. We stopped there for lunch, then headed back to the hotel, where Ben had some work phone calls, the kids had a rest, and I could emotionally get a hold of myself.

Our evening was filled with taking an uber to get something to eat. Really, that was about it, because let me tell you: the traffic in Mexico City is crazy! Most the time, we could have gotten somewhere almost as quickly walking as driving. Cars are packed on every inch of the road, bumper to bumper, motorcycles weaving in and out, an occasional bicyclist trying to get killed (in my opinion). Just crazy. And another funny thing we experienced every evening in the city: a thunderstorm would roll in right around quitting time (6 pm), so even if we wanted to walk to our dinner destination, it would be blustery and pouring. Anyways, we took an extremely long uber ride to a mall because Ben had found that there was a pizza place there with gluten free crust (we are really missing our gf pizza places in Portland!) We arrived at the mall, got our menu, pointed to the line item "gluten free crust" to place our order, only to have the owner tell us that they don't have it. Frustrated and hungry, we wandered the food court in search of anything that the boys and I could eat. Thankfully, we landed at an awesome Kansas City BBQ place, with the most amazing pulled pork and ribs, thus making the long uber ride well worth it!

Day 2

It was up and at 'em early again today as we needed to catch a ride to the immigration offices. We were told that we'd meet a lawyer of the company around 8:40, and the he would take us to a shop to get our ID photos taken. Little did we know that he would pass us off to one Mexican woman, who then would pass us off to another woman, both of whom were speed walking down the very busy sidewalk. Eventually we made it to the photo store, where they quickly took our pictures, printed them and cut them on the spot, all in about 10 minutes. Now that's efficiency! For some reason (maybe just tiredness and being overwhelmed) Josh did not want his picture taken. He dug in his heals and cried when it was time for his turn. Finally, at 9 am in the morning, I fed him Sour Patch Kids as a bribe to get him to take the darn picture. Good parenting there my friends.

In front of the picture "studio"

Check out how sad Josh looks in his picture

After the pictures, we waited in line for our turn with an immigration officer. Then we waited in chairs and then listened intently for our number (treinta y uno), When our turn came, we all headed to the counter as we had seen a couple of families do before us. Unfortunately, the immigration agent, as Ben would label her "Hilter's wife," was extremely rude to all of us and quickly spoke in Spanish, disgusted that we were all at the counter. So, the kids and I sat down and Ben did whatever was needed to stumble through a Spanish interview. It really wasn't a big deal, but honestly her attitude kind of made the whole situation feel a bit more stressful. After the interview, we had more waiting in chairs (in which we watched 20 Morman missionaries in suites check in to the line), until it was our turn to get fingerprinted. When we were fingerprinted in Portland, we used an electronic machine, which is clearly more accurate, time effective and cleaner. No so in good ol' Mexico: we all had to dip all 10 of our fingers in an ink pad for our prints. So, Hitler's wife, irritated when she felt Ben was going too slowly in dipping and stamping Josh's fingers, decided to take matters into her own hand and quickly tried to do Josh's second had. And of, course she smeared one of his last prints and had to start all over...ha! Great moment of irony for us! By the end of the printing, Josh's fingertips were doubly inky, Ben's arms were covered in ink, and all of us gringos...who already stick out like a sore thumb, were further marked by walking around the city with black fingertips. In the end, we did all we needed to do, and we received our temporary visas in the mail yesterday.

At the immigration office with blue fingers

With all our visa work done, it was time for more exploring. We headed back to Chapultepec Park, to visit the FREE zoo that it houses. Honestly, our expectations weren't too high...I mean, how good can a free zoo be? Well, it was amazing! I have never seen so many animals in one place. We saw SO many animals: every variety of big cat, so many different kinds of antelopes with various long and curly horns, pandas, camels, tons of monkeys, toucans, hippos, bears, hyenas, wolves, and finally about 40 different scary, disgusting and poisonous snakes. Best moment of the day was when we all heard a distant roaring and assumed that it was a recording on a speaker; however, we soon discovered that it was an actual tiger. And that tiger was right by the glass, right in front of our eyes. In the Portland zoo, we never get to see the tiger...he's always hiding in his cave, far away from view. And now we got to not only hear an actual tiger roar, we watched one rolling on the ground, and another drinking water and showing off his teeth to us. It was so amazing.   

 

 Camels are the weirdest animals!

 And the one hump variety

 A Lemur, like King Julian from Madagascar. The baby was running around like a spaz, then crawled up in it's moms' lap, nursed, and then crawled on her back for a ride. It was awesome!

 I found out that there are way too many poisonous snakes in the Monterrey area...creepy!

 First time seeing a hyena

 Perfect pose from a giraffe

The giraffes were awesome

 The real rhino wasn't out, but the kids were satisfied with this one

 One of many cool antelopes we saw 

 We were all excited to see the wolf

Panda and jaguar poses (Seth on Jaguar) 

 Toucans are so cool

 Jaguar (we saw a black one too, but it was sleeping)

 This one was pacing back and forth in front of the windows. It was awesome.

 White bengal tiger showing off

 A tiger's mouth!

 He's not roaring, just smacking his lips after getting a drink

 He was watching the orange tiger's activity

The tigers were our favorite at the zoo by far! We just couldn't believe how close we were to them!

That afternoon Ben had some more work to do, so we rested and hung out in the hotel room for a couple hours. Then we decided to walk down the Paseo de Reforma, a famous road that houses beautiful old and famous statues in the middle of round-a-bouts, and then has streets lined with new modern skyscrapers. It would have been an incredibly pleasant walk if it hadn't started raining (again), and if I would have grabbed all 3 of the kids' jackets instead of just two. Poor Seth ended up wearing Josh's size 4 jacket. He was a trooper about it.

Cool tower, cool fountain

Check out Seth's coat (or Josh's on Seth rather)

Angel statue mentioned earlier

Almost two hours of this evening were wasted getting me a new cell phone bought and activated. That was lame and difficult with three kids. Oh well. We were just thankful that there was someone in the store that spoke some English. Dinner was Chili's (you never know how tired you're going to get of Mexican food until you have to eat it every day, all day. It's really heavy and sometimes we just craved a salad!) It was to bed early that night, as the next day was a big day: the pyramids!