Last Day of 2021

Posted on December 31, 2021 by vanbraman

The year is drawing to a close, and I am thinking about the exciting places that I visited this year. The furthest from home that I wandered was to a warehouse in Milpitas which was about 50 miles away. I did make a trip to Modesto to get a COVID test and have been down to Patterson now that we are meeting in person on Sunday morning. However, most of my trips were to the grocery store, library and the office.

Central Valley, Tomato Harvest, Farming, food, tomato trucksIt was nice to see the tomato harvest underway during my Sunday morning drives.

livermore hills, snow, snow levels, winter stormAlso seeing the snow in the hills last Sunday.

United 787, KIX, Osaka Airport, Kansai Internation Airport, United AirlinesIt has now been more than two years since I have flown in an airplane, and I don’t see it happening anytime soon.

New Car, Ford Fusion, Plug-in hybrid, Blue Car, BlueyI am driving a bit more now, but still far less than I have in past years. My new car is over two years old and still has less than nine thousand miles. I only filled up with gas one time this year.

library, book, blossoms, beesI did make routine trips to the library. It was nice that they opened back up for browsing earlier this year. I did read a lot of books this year, but not as many as some years in the past. I also made good progress on some of my reading challenges. A little bit more focused reading this year.

calendars.com, calendar, 2021, ordering on-line, barns, eagles, book shelvesTomorrow is an important day, as it will be time to hang my calendars for 2022. I did not buy as many calendars this year, and will have to make a few tough decisions on which places to leave bare.

Now to think about some resolutions.

Steven

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Piramides in Mexico

Posted on December 30, 2021 by vanbraman

Tonight my thoughts have wandered to piramdes. You can tell by the spelling that they are not Egyptian pyramids.

On two of my visits to Mexico I have visited Teotihuacan where the great Mexican piramides are located.

Dominating the site is the Piramide del Sol.

Teotihuacan - Temple of the Sun - Mexican Piramides - Pyramids - Aztec - Mexico - Piramide del Sol

This piramide has a square base of 225 meters and a height of 65 meters.

I climbed to the top on my second trip, and it was a bit tough but rewarding.

At the top is a little silver spot that marks the center of the piramide. From there I had a great view

Teotihuacan - Temple of the Moon - Mexican Piramides - Pyramids - Aztec - Mexico - Piramide de la Luna

This is the Piramide de la Luna. This one is quite a bit smaller with a base that is 140m x 150m and a height of only 45.8 meters.

Here is the view from the first platform of the Piramide de la Luna.

Teotihuacan - Temple of the Moon - Mexican Piramides - Pyramids - Aztec - Mexico - Piramide de la Luna - Calzada de Los Muertos - Avenue of the Dead

Here we look down the principle avenue of the city of Teotihuacan. The avenue is known as Calzada de Los Muertos, or the Avenue of the Dead.

I also visited another piramide in Mexico.

Cuicuilico - Circular Pyramid - Round Pyramid - Equinox - Mesoamerican cultureCuicuilco is one of the oldest sites in the Valley of Mexico and was located on the southern shore of Lake Texcoco.

The highlight of Cuicuilco is a circular piramide. The ramp is aligned with the rising of the sun on the autumnal and vernal equinoxes.

Cuicuilco Pyramid - Round Pyramid - Top of pyramid - Worship place - fire godsFrom the top you could see some of the high rises on the south side of Mexico City. However, as close as it is to the city it is not visited much.

The site is of great archaeological importance, but because of the location it has been difficult to investigate fully.

Steven

For more about these two sites, follow these links:

The Piramides

Cuicuilco

 

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