February 1st is a holiday in Mexico, so we went with some friends to see the ruins at Cacaxtla and Xochitecatla.
Cacaxtla wasn't even discovered until around 1975, and was excavated in the 1980's. It is both a palace and temple and was used by the Olmeca-Xicalanta people from around 700 to 900 AD. These are the same people who built the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Cholula. Many murals were found in these ruins, so a roof was built to protect them. This was fortunate for us because it began to rain while we were looking at the ruins, and it turned into a huge downpour!
There were wooden walkways for us to walk on.
There were some cool latice structures. We think this was rebuilt since most of the outer stucco is missing from the ruins.
There were paintings and murals throughout the ruins, but the largest one was a battle mural which ran along the wall at the back of this picture.
There was pexiglass in front of the mural to protect it.
Joseph and Daniel check it out.
In this scene you can see intestines spilling out and blood dripping from the wounds of the guy on the right. I thought it was a pretty gruesome painting to put in a palace. It must have been an important battle.
In the room on the right, the found boxes with holes in the front. They think that tropical birds were kept here, so their feathers could be used for headresses. There were also holes in the wall, where they surmise that poles were placed for the birds to sit on. It seemed to be completely enclosed except for a door, so the climate would have been pretty controled. I wonder if the birds had any light.
Another well-preserved paintng.
Josep is ready to go. When we were nearly finished viewing the site, a downpour started, and we waited it out all huddled together for warmth. So when it finally ended, and Karl decides to take one last look at the large mural, Joseph wonders if we'll ever get to eat lunch.
We ate lunch at this taco stand. Notice that the tortillas are made with blue corn.
We tried this fungus that grows on corn, and is cooked up like mushrooms.
Then we headed over to Xochitecatl. This site was primarily used for worship ceremonies. And there were several different structures here. The spiral pyramid seen in this picture dates back to 700 BC. Two other buildings that were built around the same time, were then reused around the same time as Cacaxtla (700 - 900 AD) and another structure was also built at that time. It appears that these buildings were still being used for ceremonies and worship at the time of Spanish colonization in the 1500's.
Here we are on top of one of the structures, with another one in the background. Our friends, Dani and David, are friends we met at church. Dani lived in Arizona for five years (high school and one year of college), so she is completely fluent in English, and always helps me out. She and David have been married about a year, and they are expecting their first child in July.
These two basins were in front of a structure called The Pyramid of the Flowers. We think the one that I am standing near looks like it would make a great hot tub! They are carved out of stone. They found lots of clay figurines of women, babies, and pregnant women with figurines of babies inside at this site. Also some bones of child sacrifices.
