Malinalco

This weekend, I went to a "Pueblo Magico" called Malinalco with two friends. Although I've never heard of it before, I'll almost never turn down an invitation to get out of the city for a day. (Not that I don't love this city, but the concrete jungle wears on you after awhile). We met at the bus station at Metro Observatorio, on the southwest side of the city, and caught a bus going west. After about 2 hours, we made a transfer, and rode in a combi (public transport van) for 30 minutes south to our destination. First arriving in Malinalco, we were really hungry, so we stopped by the market to grab a bite to eat before beginning our touristy business.

The market. On the left is where we got our tacos and quesadillas.

The grill where they cooked our blue-corn-tortilla quesadillas and tlacoyos.

 After filling our bellies, we started making our way to the archaeological site.

Ooh, a random church we passed!

Once we started on the stairs, we worked off our lunch quite quickly. It took maybe 30ish minutes to get up to the top of the hill, 400+ stairs; reading signs and stopping to climb trees along the way.

I got really excited about all the climable trees.

Another tree!!!

Stopping at about the halfway point--if I wasn't in the way it'd be a really nice view!

 After all the tree-climbing monkey-business (terrible pun), we arrived to the top of the hill.

The Aztec structure at the top of the hill, El Cuauhcalli.

The town of Malinalco as seen from the top of the hill.

For the most part, 500 years has left this place amazingly intact.

I really wanting to hike back into that crevice/cave, but it was "not permitted." Pesky rules.

The hike back down was really easy and took about 10 minutes, because we had no signs to cause us to stop and read. Before heading back to the bus, we rested and looked inside the 16th century church in the town center.

The inside of the church was pretty, and the original paint from the 16th century was all still there.

The church's courtyard had very detailed paintings on the inner walls and ceilings. 

The bus ride back to D.F. took about 3 hours because of traffic, but we made it back safe and sound. It was an awesome end to the weekend (bittersweet Sunday night feeling). But hey, it's only 5 more days until next weekend!