PYRAMIDS ARE FOR LOSERS

TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO: MARCH 6
Teotihuacan is one of those musts for visitors to Mexico City. The Pyramid of the Sun is the main attraction. The pyramid is 64 meters high and covers approximately the same area as the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Big deal.
An expressway runs directly from Mexico City to the archaeological sight. Take a bus. The excursion is painless. I am in Queretaro. Avenida Lopez connects the Queretaro-Mexico City expressway with the expressway to Teotihuacan. Avenida Lopez is a ninety minute ride. Riding Avenida Lopez on a baby Honda is for lunatics. Truck drivers try using me as an ice hockey puck.
So why am I risking my life? Pyramids are impressive rather than beautiful: mini-mountains built by man. They don't do it for me - particularly pyramids in Mexico and Central America. I have become too close in my travels to the first Spaniards. I imagine the pyramids through their eyes: heaps of skulls at the base, billions of flies, steps steeped in blood and flesh and defecation. Or did a horde of scrubbers work the steps? Did the cleaner scrubbing the top level earn extra? Only a few hundred steps to the summit, great job...
Those first Spaniards are condemned for destroying a culture.
A culture that vile merited destruction.
Yes, I know. I am politically incorrect. Please excuse me. I am an Old Blimp. I can't feel the romance.