We were looking for a one day trip from Mexico City with a short drive and remembered that local people recommended Tepoztlan. Surprisingly there is no well-organized information about that place on the Internet. After reading some articles I was not sure where we are going to end up but since all our other considered places were further away we decided to go anyway. It was such a great decision to visit this place as it became one of our top things to do in Mexico. It's only one hour drive by bus from the Southern terminal. The bus stop in Tepoztlan is 15 min walk from the city center. Taxi drivers offer to give a ride but it's a short easy walk downhill.
Tepoztlan is famous for the remains of El Tepozteco temple built on top of the nearby Tepozteco Mountain. It has a temple to Tepoztecatl - the Aztec god of the alcoholic beverage pulque. There is also a small pyramid built on the hill.
The first place that we wanted to visit in the center is the UNESCO World Heritage site - the former Convent of the Nativity dedicated to the Virgin of the same name, built between 1555 and 1580. To get there we had to go through Tepoztlan famous market.
The market:
Ex-convent of Dominico de la Natividad:
After a quick walk around the town, we decided to go visit the archeological zone with the pyramid. To get there you just need to walk through the whole city on its main street.
The city's main street:
Google maps estimate the pyramid to be 1 mi away from the city that requires 30 min walk. Unfortunately, this is not as easy. The pyramid is located on a high hill with a steep way up on uneven rock stairs or sometimes just rocks. Every time you think that it must be the end of the way when there's another steeper part ahead. It took us 40 min to get to the top with several brief stops. For comparison, it took us 18 min to run down (run, not walk). It's totally worth suffering this way as there are multiple nice surprises waiting there!
The way up to the pyramid:
The views from the top:
The pyramid:
The best part of this adventure is meeting the coatis! The coati is a member of the raccoon family and is a very curious animal as you can see from the pics and video below :)
