March 18, 2016
Miércoles, el 16 de marzo
Today we went on a beautiful hike. At the top of the mountain, there was an Aztec Temple, Tepotzteco. The hike was a little hard because it was really steep. They’re only some parts that had very small stairs for us to walk up; a lot of it was climbing of rocks. It was a really fun hike that required a lot of hard work, and we did a good job working together as a group to be sure everyone made it up. It was worth it though— the view from the top was gorgeous. It overlooks the whole town of Tepotzlan. We could see everything from there. At the top, we encountered some animals; they were a mixture between a raccoon and a squirrel - coatis. They were all very nice and cute. That was, of course, until they tried to tear Jahan’s backpack open to get food.
The hike down was a lot easier than the way up. All in all, it was a 5k with about 4000 feet of vertical!
There are differences between this hike and hikes in Colorado because of the climate. Here in Mexico, it is more humid and hotter than any hiking Colorado. There was also more tree coverage here than in Colorado. Further, this trail has more history than any other hiking in Colorado. The people of Tepotzlan established the pyramid and the trail over 800 years old. If I had to compare it with any hiking Colorado, then I would compare it to the incline only because of the steepness. The native cultures here did not build pyramids like the one we saw here!
After the hike, we went to a small market and ate quesadillas. They were very good. Miss Hafter ate something called an itacat, which is a triangular sandwich. The triangles are thick tortillas. When we finished eating, we went shopping for last-minute souvenirs and then went and got some delicious ice cream at Tepotznieves. Some of the flavors that we saw there were awesome - tuna (prickly pear), rose petal, and something called Eclipse which had chocolate and vanilla together. Keyton L. ‘18 particularly liked his banana ice cream.
It was a long day, but a fun way to wrap up our time in Mexico!
