Mesoamerica 2019 - Day Four, The Ruins of Guachimontones

You think you know the oldest civilization in Mexico but I am willing to bet you are wrong. Because that honor would belong to the Teuchitlan civilization which started hundreds year before Christ and whose largest city was Guachimontones, the ruins of which we visited today.

We made use of a guide/driver, Carlos Garcia, who was one of the nice and most thoughtful guides we've had. It's about an hour. This civilization is noted using concentric circles and circular pyramids as the foundation to devotional life.

I am going to apologize about the briefness of the text on this post. We are headed off to Cuba in the morning and it is already late.

Arriving on Site

There was a small museum with a great video introduction in English

Pictorial representation of what it looked like and some original figurines

Overview of the site

The largest of the pyramids

We climbed what will be the largest pyramid after it is excavated

Your supper guide was so thoughtful and helpful assisting Wife with the ascent and descent.

If you are in Guadalajara, he is someone you should definitely consider.

A smaller pyramid and some of the platforms of the side devotional buildings

Then we moved on to the town closest to the site 

Where there was a small but neat church from the 16th century with some cool bells

Inside the church was something I've never seen before

Paintings of modern miracles paid for and donated to the church by the people were saved.

Here are a couple of examples

The alter was very nice too

 Our Guide Carlos Garcia

 

Another unique aspect was some very high quality busts of people who had been martyred during the revolution at the beginning of the 20th century

Miscellaneous

We are in sugar cane country and the harvest is coming in

We had lunch at a restaurant by a lake

There were lots of birds whose pictures did not turn out well

But I did get a shot of a water snake!

For lunch I had a sea food cocktail which is very different from the US kind

It is really a meal with the seafood bathed in fish stock, tomato juice, onions and avocados

Wife had a dish of chicken and vegetables served in a hot molcajete

One last shot of a statue and fountain on our way back in to Guadalajara

We have really enjoyed our time here and are looking forward to the next step of adventure...

CUBA