Grew's News 3: First Day!

After a great sleep in our beautiful hostel room at the Mexico City Hostel, we had breakfast (on site and included in the cost of our room). There are many good hostels to choose from and ours was very clean and well run. Our room had two beds, a large private bath, beautiful ceramic tile floors, exposed beams and high ceilings. Our private room cost $600 pesos per night (for two). That is about $50 Canadian and as I mentioned, included breakfast. Very affordable.
The first full day in Mexico City was spent exploring the city centre. We toured the Templo Mayor historical site. This great temple, built by the Aztecs in the 14th and 15th centuries, was the heart of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. Like much of Aztec life, it was almost completely destroyed by the Spanish invaders but a chance discovery in 1978 led to the excavation of this great piece of history. The December 1980 edition of National Geographic has great articles about this landmark and of course, you can learn more on the web.
I hired a guide, outside the site, to walk us around the ruins and explain it to us. The temple is actually seven temples in one. Each one was superimposed on the one before. The original temple was built some time after 1325 by the Aztecs when they settled in the area. They built the temple on a spot where they had seen an eagle perched on a cactus eating a snake. This vision fulfilled a prophecy and directed the original peoples to choose this site. Each successive ruler, simply built a new temple over the top of the previous one. Over time the site got larger and larger. Excavations have revealed parts of the outer walls of each temple and one can literally walk back in time at this location. Amazing tour! The cost of admission was $65 pesos and that includes admission to the accompanying museum on site. The guide was extra, and of course, optional.