El Tahin

Our trip to el tahin began with a nice drive out of mexico city that quickly turned from 5 hours to 8 after a thick cloud of fog filled the road for about 75% of the ride. when we finally got to the town, we crashed in the first hotel we could, a family run house with a gorgeous garden, and a funny little pen out back with geese and puppy. The puppy was so cute, but was persistently pestered by the geese, which was pretty funny. We woke up early the next morning, to get to the site right when it opened. It was a very good choice, as we had the place practically to ourselves. We started to walk around and then decided to get a guide, since nothing was really marked. Our guide knew everything! I nerdily took notes, and found out that this place was an amalgamation of several cultures, brought together as a trade center. The site was huge, with twenty something pyramids. And my very favorite, the pyramid of niches, has 365 windows for each day of the year. The setting was gorgeous too, with huge jungly mountains surrounding the impressive pyramids, and with a nice warm climate. When i could finally tear myself away from the place (mostly because i was hungry.. not because i wanted to leave) it was about two, and as we left, busses and busses of people arrived. out in the nick of time! We headed to Orizaba along the coastal road, which was gorgeous, passing the place where the spanish first landed (and its quite obvious why they stayed!), but the site that was there was already closed. About two hours before getting to my cousins house in Orizaba, the gear box on the car sputtered and popped and i was pretty sure we were going to be stuck. But, luckily my dad is very optimistic,(or maybe just couldnt hear as well as I?) and despite the terrible grinding sound, and the fact taht we could no longer enter 2nd or 5th gear, we slowly made our way to orizaba, arriving two hours late. whew.