Today I went to the town Teuchitlán round the back side of Mount Tequila with three architects - Ana Lucia, Sigifredo, Marko and of course our chauffeur. The mission today was for Ana Lucia and her team to see how the project of building a Visitor Centre at the archelogical site of Guachimontones was coming along. It needs to be completed by the end of the year when the Minister plans to open it.
While they met with the contractors I was taken on a tour of the ceremonial site of the first settlement systems with a civilised lifestyle in this area which is over over 2000 years old by the local lead Archaeologist Rodrigo who with his team have been working on the dig for over 9 years. The work they have done is very impressive even though he beleives they have only uncovered around 5% of what is there. They need over US$5M to really get some traction on the current site - this year they are working with around US$6000 as most of the money is going to Ana Lucia's project. It was really great to have a tour by someone so passionate about his work and who was happy to tell me all about it even after I explained when asked that I was not an archioligist.
Next we then went to the local square of Teuchitlán where we had to get papers signed to show we had been there, and this was followed up by the now becoming normal practice of having a very nice lunch (and Tequila) at Soky which is a local restaurant lieing on the edge of the nearby lake.
One bit of trivia Sigifredo played football for Mexico, playing again the English Team in 1994 (and losing) in front of a crowd of over 100,000 people - it is amazing who you meet when traveling.
The new Centre under construction
Rodrigo the passionate Archaeologist
The main sacrificial mound
The town square with Mt Tequila in the background
The Team have local food and drink at Soky
No comments:
Post a Comment