I only glimpsed some of Mexico City's worst poverty from a distance. The highway to Teotihuacan passes steep hills covered with hundreds and hundreds of tiny concrete block houses. Perez called the shantytowns cuidades perdidas , the lost cities, and said they are among the the poorest sections of the metropolitan area. Most people living on those hills have no water, electricity, sewerage, paved streets or schools. He said 15 years ago, the hills were empty.
Impoverished people come to the city hoping to find a better life.
He fears the lost cities will continue to spread until they surround nearby Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan was of the largest cities of the ancient world, with more than 250,000 inhabitants. Because everything is built on such a giant scale it's easy to understand why the Aztecs called it City of the Gods, at least 500 years after it was abandoned. The great pyramids of Teotihuacan seem to imitate conical volcanic hills that surround them. I spent about three hours in Teotihuacan before leaving for the airport to fly home.