From the oldest of times, the people of Mexico have considered it to be a sanctuary from the Apocalypse. Everyone has his or her own reasons for coming to Tepeyacac. Sometimes they come on personal quests of purification. Others come in groups, arranging themselves by residential area, profession or shared interests. Fantastic processions of singing women line up and march in unison toward their goal.
Faithful legions come on horseback from high in the mountains, thousands at a time.
The assembly of bird merchants is one of the most incredible sights and sounds you can imagine. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come each year, many of them walking and even crawling for many miles. The boulevard the pilgrims slowly traverse is called the Calzada de Guadalupe . It was once an Aztec causeway that led across the fertile lake from Tepeyacac to the ancient city of dreams, Mexico Tenochtitlan. Its architecture, like so many of the great works of ancient Mexico, was meticulously designed and crafted through a process of divine inspiration and hard science to create Heaven on Earth.