Amazing how things happen. We came all the way here to Cholula to take the “Interior” tour of the largest pyramid in the world…. Guess what? The Great Pyramid of Cholula’s tunnel was closed.

Known as Tlachihualtepetl (Nahuatl for “artificial mountain”), it is a huge complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the world’s largest monument and largest Pre-Columbian pyramid by volume. Now we have seen two of the three largest in the world. The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BCE through the 9th century CE, and was dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl. It has a base of 450 by 450 m (1476×1476 ft) and a height of 66 m (217 ft). According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is in fact the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world, with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million m³, even larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt which is about 2.5 million m³. However the Great Pyramid of Giza is higher at 138.8 m (455 feet) which means we will need to go to Egypt now. The Aztecs believed that Xelhua built the Great Pyramid of Cholula. Our stay was a bit more of work than of play.

Even though the city of Puebla is very beautiful, we were unable to really explore much because of the Baby Buddha. Most of the time it was parts runs and work. We were able to get the Jeep in order. Found out that the entire time we have had the Baby Buddha the yoke on the rear of the transfer case was never right. We had previously already broken 3 u-joints. Now with our new fix, we have no more vibration and no slop in the drive train. Here is what we had to do:

First we sent it to a shop to have it fixed so that we could play tourists. After 2 days we went back and of course nothing was done. They said it would cost 10,000 pesos to fix it. We drove it back to the park and I tore into it. Found out that the only real damage was the new hole under the driver’s seat where the driveshaft hit. I needed only a few parts to fix things. A bearing, race, oil seal, shims that look like washers, a yoke nut, u-joints, u-joint u-bolts, gear lube, muffler, tail pipe, and of course beer. We found a tranny/gear shop that got the some of the right parts after two tries, but still needed two important ones. A yoke nut and gear lube. We went to the Jeep dealer to get these. The same yoke nut is used on Jeeps up to 2006. They didn’t have one. Even if they did they wanted 300 peso for a stupid little nut. They also had the gear lube we needed. GL4. 320 pesos a quart… NO FRIGGEN WAY!!! We ended up finding a nut for free, and found a tractor supply store that carried the GL4 for 130 pesos a gallon. We bought two.

It’s amazing that there are still cars on the road and still being made that do require this special gear lube, yet we went to 50 stores and nobody carries it, most don’t even know what it is. I feel sorry for the ones who just put in regular gear lube which can do serious damage to yellow metals. Anyway, we now have a working Jeep with no more vibration at all. We will now remove the rear drive shaft while towing, just in case! We are happy.

We have also changed a few plans. I guess that’s the ex-cruisers in us. We originally planned on taking the emerald coast down (the gulf coast, or the east coast) but we are now making another detour and leaving in the morning for our 500 mile trip to Huatulco which is on THE PACIFIC side. South ….Opps! We are planning on visiting Oaxaca, Huatulco, Puerto Escondido, Tehuantepec, and then Palenque before hitting the Yucatan. Don’t ask why or how we came to this conclusion. Anyway, will post again from the next stop.