Cañada de la Virgen

One of the things on our list of must-dos in San Miguel de Allende was to visit Cañada de la Virgen – an archeological site about 25 km away.  I had read a lot about Professor Albert Coffee (often compared to Indiana Jones), who gives tours of the site, so I called him yesterday and he suggested a trip to the pyramids this morning.  Professor Coffee is not your average tour guide.  He is an archeologist with a degree in Mesoamerican Civilizations, is originally from Louisiana, and was one of the archeologists working on the site in 2004-2005.  He is bilingual, extremely knowledgeable, and he really kept it interesting for the kids with his talk of bloodletting and missing body parts.

Albert picked us up in el Jardin, in front of Starbucks.  Yes, there is a Starbucks here and though I prefer the moka from the cafe up the street, we did grab a quick Starbucks while we were waiting.  We piled into Albert’s Suburban and after a few minutes of getting to know each other, he started telling us about the area and what we would be seeing on the tour.  One thing I found really interesting was that when the dam was built to create the Ignacio Allende Reservoir, it raised the water higher than they had planned and it flooded some homes and colonial buildings.  The spire of a cathedral still sticks out of the water:

After we arrived at the new visitors’ center, Albert took care of our entry fee and we boarded a small bus to take us through private land to the site.  Once there, we broke off into our own little group and headed up the hill, with Albert sharing his passion about the site, the surrounding area, and the flora and fauna.  He told us about the customs of the people who resided and/or worshipped there, and gave detailed descriptions about what the archeologists found during their exploration of the site.  If I tried to recap his tour I would totally screw up the facts, so you’ll have to come to SMA to see it for yourself.  What amazed me most was the relationship of the pyramids on the site to the sun, moon, and planets, as well as the surrounding hills.  It’s amazing what they accomplished and how precisely the structures are oriented, without the use of today’s tools and computers to analyze the solar system. 

We walked up the ceremonial walkway, through the gardens, and past two smaller pyramids.  Then we climbed to the top of the largest pyramid, where we could see beautiful vistas of the surrounding area and an overhead view of the rest of the complex.  After walking back to the drop-off point and a short bus ride back to the visitors’ center, we saw a model of the Aztec settlement which has now become Mexico City, and then rode back to town with Albert pointing out restaurants and shops as we passed.  He was an amazing guide and I would highly recommend him for anyone interested in visiting la Cañada de la Virgen.  Here are some photos from our trip:

As usual, we also saw some critters during our walk:

It was an amazing day and definitely a highlight of our trip to SMA!  According to my UP band, I walked 13, 335 steps today!