Tula, etc

One day, out of the blue, I was invited by Alfonso's son, Alfonso Jr., to make an excursion to the archeological site of Tula with a couple his friends, Delfino and Inez. The site is located in the town of Tula de Allende about an hour and a half by bus north of CDMX.  Tula was a very important site in terms of it's wide influence as the capital of the Toltec empire.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tula_(Mesoamerican_site)  

On the walk to the ruins

 

Not well known to foreigners, it was very quiet there with only a few visitors (but lots of vendors).  Alfonso Jr and his friends go there often to do rituals and ceremonies and are into some sort of new age spiritualism. We were there for a couple of hours and the three of them, chiefly Delfino, spent the entire time haggling with vendors over the very high prices of what were obviously fake artifacts. Hmmm...... Be that as it may, it was an interesting place and the statues of the Toltec warriors atop the pyramid were impressive. 

 In the distance, the new deities: petroleum refineries

 

Alfonso Jr. 

After seeing the site we took a cab back to the town and had dinner in the market there.  That was an experience.  They chose one of the restaurants and first rice was offered accompanied by very nice, blue corn tortillas hot off the comal with some salsas and mediocre mole.  I ate a couple of tortillas with some rice and mole and thought that was it. I was full. The other three, especially Delfino, ate tortilla after tortilla with rice and beans and salsa and whatever else he could get his hands on. That was just for openers. Then came a main course, which I declined but the others tucked right into: big bowls of soup or mole with chicken and more rice and an endless stream of tortillas. Watching them, it reminded me of the gluttony scene in Monty Pyton's "Meaning of Life".  I thought they would explode. Then dessert (not a wafer thin mint):  fried bananas with a sweet syrup. 

A Nestle product so you know it can't be good.

 

By that time all I wanted to do was go home which we eventually did but not until Alfonso, a budding opera singer, demonstrated his vocal abilities when a busking guitarist came by.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV64HaLBEmY
 
Then it was Delfino haggling over the bill and jerking the poor, tired server around.  Embarrassing.

An interesting day all in all on many levels.  

Off to Cuba tomorrow.  Probably won't be any posts until after I get back to Mexico.  Not much internet available there from what I hear.