Photo of the Day – Deserted Ancient Pyramids – Teotihuacan – Mexico City

We arrived into Mexico City off of a redeye flight from San Francisco back in June. Still recovering from the short night of rest at 30,000 feet, we jumped into a car and headed 30 miles north of Mexico City to the famous Pyramids of Teotihuacan.

When we arrived we were excited to see that our car was the only one in the parking lot next to the entrance. For the next hour we walked around this archaeological masterpiece undisturbed as nobody else, including the large tourist buses, were up that early in the morning.

Crowds definitely have an impact on your experience when you visit ancient ruins. It is much easier for you to create images in your head of what life was like thousands of years ago in these parts when you aren’t distracted with other tourists everywhere you turn. When you have the opportunity, you should always aim to be the very first person to arrive in the morning at whatever site you are looking to explore.

Photo of the Day – A Weeping Hot Air Sunrise – Teotihuacan, Mexico

As we walked the perimeter of the Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacan, I was drawn away from the pyramid and toward this tree as its silhouette fascinated me against the new day. There were dozens of groups taking hot-air balloon rides over the Teotihucan area and I captured a few of them here as well. But at the end of it all, this photo really has little to nothing to do with Teotihuacan. It is simply a beautiful view.

Photo of the Day – Teotihuacan Trinket Man – Mexico City, Mexico

One constant across all of the famous tourist sites around the world are the people trying to sell cheap trinkets to the horde of visitors passing through. A few weeks back in Mexico City I walked past this friendly man while exploring the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids. For the cost of a simple thumbs up and a curious smile I got this guy to put on his best National Geographic pose and a deep stare down my long lens barrel. Perhaps the most interesting part of this picture to me is that this guy is so casually wearing a New England Patriots coat!

Photo of the Day – Temples of the Sun and Moon – Teotihuacan, Mexico

As most of you know, Brad and I are currently in Mexico City for the weekend. After a red-eye flight that arrived in Mexico City at 5:30AM, we were quickly taken directly from the airport to Teotihuacan. We were both certainly tired, but incredibly stoked to check-out AbsoluteVisit #64, Teotihuacan.

We arrived at the Teotihuacan Archaeological site around 7AM and other than 2 Japanese tourist that beat us there, we were literally the only other tourist at the site. We HIGHLY recommend getting there this early. Besides having the entire site to yourself, you won’t have a problem finding photo ops sans other tourists.

I will save the details for now, but for Brad and I, Teotihuacan lived up to and exceeded our expectations. My previous understanding of Teotihuacan was that it was a single pyramid, boy was I wrong! The complex is massive, contains multiple pyramids, and has yet to be fully excavated.

To show off the impressive size of Teotihuacan and hopefully give you some perspective, today’s photo comes from a Pyramid that is 1.25 miles (2 km) away from the Temple of the Sun (right-side) and the Temple of the Moon (left-side).