Well, this week there are two exciting experiences to report on. Each is exciting in its own way and each is an experience we will not soon forget.
On this past Friday morning our alarm was set for 5:30 AM!! Yikes, that's early no matter where in the world you are. The purpose of our getting up at that hour of the day was a trip to Teotihuacan which is located about 40 km northeast of Mexico City. Teotihuacan is an ancient Mexican native city that features two large pyramids - one called the Sun pyramid and the other the Moon pyramid. Teotihuacan is a major tourist attraction in Mexico and is featured in most if not all of the Mexican tourism books. It's a must see that Joan and I were able to see four years ago when we were here and we thought it was important for the kids see this place as well.
On this trip we were accompanying a grade five and six class from the Pan de Vida School on a field trip. For this trip one of the German volunteers, Mattias, accepted our invitation to join us for this adventure.
We were supposed to leave at 6 AM but as is often the case in Mexico the actual time of our departure was actually about 7 AM. Oh well, best to roll with it. On this day I often thought of the G.K. Chesterton quote which I included in our first blog, "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered."
They say getting there is half the fun on journeys such as this, but in this case, while getting there was more interesting than we had assumed it would be, it wasn't nearly half the fun we were going to have on this day.
It seems that Mexican government employees are as suspicious as employees of any other place. It seemed that despite the fact that we had a letter from the school stating that our children were part of the field trip, they refused to believe, without authorization from someone in command, that our children were part of Pan de Vida. I don't know what the problem might be. Why wouldn't three blonde children be part of Pan de Vida? Upon further reflection we did look out of place - our children don't have the school uniform of Pan de Vida and they are about 18 inches taller than the rest of the children. It did feel strange to be categorized because of the color of our skin and hair. But in the end enough of the right people vouched for us and we were able to get on with our tour.
Last time we were at Teotihuacan we parked near the pyramids. This time we parked at the opposite end of the city from the Moon Pyramid. It is a much bigger site than I remembered it being. We did a lot of walking that day. My GPS totalled that we walked over 4 1/2 miles on the day.
Eventually we arrived at the base of the Sun pyramid and given enough time all of us managed to climb to the top. Sure enough it looked exactly the same as it had four years ago when we were there. We were able to determine, via the GPS, that the Sun pyramid is 180 feet high. There were many steps to climb to the top and the steps had a large rise and narrow run to them - for people with such short legs they sure must have been willing to lift them a long ways to climb up the pyramid.
When we climbed down the Sun pyramid we found that the Pan de Vida students were not allowed to climb the pyramids because in the past students and young children in groups have climbed the pyramids, behaved like children and fallen and injured or killed themselves. As a result no students or unaccompanied children are allowed to climb the pyramids. Again, the irony of this struck me. Our children got in as part of the Pan de Vida group but were able to climb the pyramids because they looked like tourists.
After our adventure with the Sun pyramid it was time to find lunch. We came upon a hamburger stand near the moon pyramid and were able to order food for the family. After lunch the kids and I (Herb) decided that we couldn't go home talking about how we had climbed half of the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Four years ago Joan and I told everyone that we were too rushed to climb them both but this time that excuse wasn't going to cut it. So the four of us trudged up the Moon pyramid. Here the steps stop about 15 or 20 feet from the top. In total there were 111 steps that covered about 120-125 vertical feet of the 140 foot Moon pryamid. Again, for such short people they sure must not have minded lifting their legs a long way to climb to the top.
As you can see from the picture when the steps stop the remainder of the trek is rather rugged.
The view from the top of the Moon pyramid was just as spectacular as from the top of the Sun pyramid and from there we would see just how far we had to walk back to the parking lot.
Amid all of the sights and sounds of Teotihuacan probably the most enduring memory will not the the size and the accomplishment of the site. The most enduring memory will be the scores of peddlers selling the most annoying sounding flutes you have ever heard. If we had only heard one all day it might have sounded mildly pleasant, but after the 100th person offered to sell you a flute cheap - "almost free" was one of the sales pitches - and demonstrates the fact that it can only play four notes it becomes quite tiresome. We have made many jokes at the expense of the peddlars of Teotihuacan.
When we arrived back at the parking lot we piled into the vehicles and headed for home - we thought. We had been invited to Teotihuacan by a teacher and her husband and we told them that we would follow them because they probably knew the way better than we did. On the trip to Teotihuacan we travelled through some of suburban Mexico City and after asking directions a couple of times we arrived. While it was a little later than we had thought it would be, it turned out we didn't need as much time to tour Teotihuacan as we thought we would - a museum is barely tolerable for me when the descriptions are in English, but completely impossible when the descriptions are in Spanish.
We left Teotihuacan at 4 PM and those leading us decided that the way they knew best to get back to Queretaro started in downtown Mexico City. So while we followed them we drove right downtown in order to get onto the correct road so that we could go back out of Mexico City to Queretaro. They had driven this route before but on a Saturday or Sunday when it was no problem. However, this was Friday at 4 PM. Problem!! If Mexico City has a population of 30 million it seemed like about 10 million of them wanted to get out of the city on the same route as us on Friday. Consequently, we were in a traffic jam getting into downtown and out of downtown from about 4:30 PM till 9:00 PM. We have never experienced anything like it before in our lives.
Remember what Chesterton said? Well our adventures included a Mexico City version of increasing traffic flow. We could clearly see that at one time the street we were on had consisted of two lanes travelling in our direction. However, someone must have reasoned that most people drive small cars in Mexico and because of that they repainted the lines and now there were three lanes in the same amount of space. It all makes sense until some Canadian drives a Chevrolet Subdivision down that street. It is no small miracle that we didn't lose paint, squish somebody in a VW Beetle or both.
Yet another adventure included an uncontrolled intersection in downtown Mexico City where three lanes of traffice crossed in each direction. It looked sort of like somone weaving a mat with cars.
While in the heart of downtown we saw someone in the furthest left of three lanes of traffic make a right turn across two lanes of moving traffic and live to tell about it. I don't even think I heard anyone honk their horn at him/her.
When we hit the traffic jam proper the motorcycles driving between the lanes caused me no small amount of panic - but at least they all wore helmets. While the car traffic was stopped the motorcycles kept moving by driving between the lanes. Not only were there motorcylists to annoy and startel me but there were street peddlers selling food, beverages, phone cards (I'm not making this up) and trinkets to motorists who were stopped in the gridlock. If I had known this ahead of time I could have finished my Christmas shopping on the highway in Mexico City. The peddlars are amazingly discerning individuals, able to tell a motorist who is honking because he wants to buy something from a motorist honking because he is being squeezed in his lane. Not only could they discern the various honking but they could dodge cars and motorcycles while simultaneously hawking their wares and making change. Absolutely unbelieveable!
Then - yes there's more - we heard sirens! I was convinced there was no way an ambulance could get through this gridlock. I should have known better. This ambulance wove it's way through the traffic jam as cars squeezed from one lane to the next to make way. The ambulance driver wove across from one gap to another. He must have driven an extra 25% further than the actual distance to where he was going because of all the lateral travel through the gridlock. Again, no paint was lost, although I'm not sure how that happened or didn't happen.
When the first ambulance had passed us I again heard sirens and now a military looking ambulance was making his way through the gridlock and he passed us in an underpass sirens blaring, shouting in Spanish over his personal P.A. system for people to get out of the way. Now we could lose paint on either another car or the concrete wall of the underpass. I'm not sure what Chesterton had in mind but I don't think he ever drove in Mexico City during Rush Hour on a Friday.
The one piece of tranquility in this rather paniced event was that at one point Iooked into the next lane and there was a pick up truck loaded with Poinsettas. I then realized for about the 30th time that day that we were definitely not in Manitoba anymore.
We arrived back at Pan de Vida at 10 :30 PM exhausted and stunned at all that we had seen and experienced. Once we are fully recovered it will be a long time before we forget our trip to Teotihuacan.
This morning (Sunday) we wanted to go to a church we had helped with an outreach four years ago when we were here. The church is called Mount Sinai and when I asked people here for directions I was told that a group of girls here goes to the Mount Sinai church every week to help with Sunday School. We were assured it would be no problem for us to follow them and go with them to church. But this morning when I went to confirm the arrangements I found out that there is more than one Mount Sinai church in Queretaro and the group of girls from Pan de Vida go to the other one. But after some conferring we were told that one of the girls knew the way to the church and if we wanted she could come with us and show us the way.
We agreed but we didn't realize she speaks only a little less English than we speak Spanish. After several wrong turns and unplanned turn arounds we eventually found the Mount Sinai Church.
Mount Sinai Church is located in a very poor part of Queretaro. The pastor couple, Simeon and Heno, have faithfully served this church during the last four years and presumably for years before we first encountered them. They have slowly but surely built the building till it now is an enclosed space, walls completed to 3/4 height and a new tin roof. The dirt floor of the courtyard was being swept as we arrived and I assumed the dirt floor of the sanctuary had been swept earlier.God has provided for them.
The congregation this morning consisted of Simeon, Heno, their two sons, 8 or 9 neighborhood girls and one adult woman, plus our family. They were extremely glad to see us and we worshipped with them. I have not been as emotional during a worship service in our time in Queretaro as I was this morning in that little church in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Queretaro. For entirely different reasons than Teotihuacan and Mexico City we will not soon forget the Mount Sinai Church. I am so grateful that our children got to see this place where God's people faithfully serve and worship Him.
Well, that's the most memorable of this week. We wish you all a blessed 2nd Advent. May you remember what it is that matters most about this Christmas season.
On this past Friday morning our alarm was set for 5:30 AM!! Yikes, that's early no matter where in the world you are. The purpose of our getting up at that hour of the day was a trip to Teotihuacan which is located about 40 km northeast of Mexico City. Teotihuacan is an ancient Mexican native city that features two large pyramids - one called the Sun pyramid and the other the Moon pyramid. Teotihuacan is a major tourist attraction in Mexico and is featured in most if not all of the Mexican tourism books. It's a must see that Joan and I were able to see four years ago when we were here and we thought it was important for the kids see this place as well.
On this trip we were accompanying a grade five and six class from the Pan de Vida School on a field trip. For this trip one of the German volunteers, Mattias, accepted our invitation to join us for this adventure.
We were supposed to leave at 6 AM but as is often the case in Mexico the actual time of our departure was actually about 7 AM. Oh well, best to roll with it. On this day I often thought of the G.K. Chesterton quote which I included in our first blog, "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered."
They say getting there is half the fun on journeys such as this, but in this case, while getting there was more interesting than we had assumed it would be, it wasn't nearly half the fun we were going to have on this day.
It seems that Mexican government employees are as suspicious as employees of any other place. It seemed that despite the fact that we had a letter from the school stating that our children were part of the field trip, they refused to believe, without authorization from someone in command, that our children were part of Pan de Vida. I don't know what the problem might be. Why wouldn't three blonde children be part of Pan de Vida? Upon further reflection we did look out of place - our children don't have the school uniform of Pan de Vida and they are about 18 inches taller than the rest of the children. It did feel strange to be categorized because of the color of our skin and hair. But in the end enough of the right people vouched for us and we were able to get on with our tour.
Last time we were at Teotihuacan we parked near the pyramids. This time we parked at the opposite end of the city from the Moon Pyramid. It is a much bigger site than I remembered it being. We did a lot of walking that day. My GPS totalled that we walked over 4 1/2 miles on the day.
Eventually we arrived at the base of the Sun pyramid and given enough time all of us managed to climb to the top. Sure enough it looked exactly the same as it had four years ago when we were there. We were able to determine, via the GPS, that the Sun pyramid is 180 feet high. There were many steps to climb to the top and the steps had a large rise and narrow run to them - for people with such short legs they sure must have been willing to lift them a long ways to climb up the pyramid.
When we climbed down the Sun pyramid we found that the Pan de Vida students were not allowed to climb the pyramids because in the past students and young children in groups have climbed the pyramids, behaved like children and fallen and injured or killed themselves. As a result no students or unaccompanied children are allowed to climb the pyramids. Again, the irony of this struck me. Our children got in as part of the Pan de Vida group but were able to climb the pyramids because they looked like tourists.
After our adventure with the Sun pyramid it was time to find lunch. We came upon a hamburger stand near the moon pyramid and were able to order food for the family. After lunch the kids and I (Herb) decided that we couldn't go home talking about how we had climbed half of the pyramids at Teotihuacan. Four years ago Joan and I told everyone that we were too rushed to climb them both but this time that excuse wasn't going to cut it. So the four of us trudged up the Moon pyramid. Here the steps stop about 15 or 20 feet from the top. In total there were 111 steps that covered about 120-125 vertical feet of the 140 foot Moon pryamid. Again, for such short people they sure must not have minded lifting their legs a long way to climb to the top.
As you can see from the picture when the steps stop the remainder of the trek is rather rugged.
The view from the top of the Moon pyramid was just as spectacular as from the top of the Sun pyramid and from there we would see just how far we had to walk back to the parking lot.
Amid all of the sights and sounds of Teotihuacan probably the most enduring memory will not the the size and the accomplishment of the site. The most enduring memory will be the scores of peddlers selling the most annoying sounding flutes you have ever heard. If we had only heard one all day it might have sounded mildly pleasant, but after the 100th person offered to sell you a flute cheap - "almost free" was one of the sales pitches - and demonstrates the fact that it can only play four notes it becomes quite tiresome. We have made many jokes at the expense of the peddlars of Teotihuacan.
When we arrived back at the parking lot we piled into the vehicles and headed for home - we thought. We had been invited to Teotihuacan by a teacher and her husband and we told them that we would follow them because they probably knew the way better than we did. On the trip to Teotihuacan we travelled through some of suburban Mexico City and after asking directions a couple of times we arrived. While it was a little later than we had thought it would be, it turned out we didn't need as much time to tour Teotihuacan as we thought we would - a museum is barely tolerable for me when the descriptions are in English, but completely impossible when the descriptions are in Spanish.
We left Teotihuacan at 4 PM and those leading us decided that the way they knew best to get back to Queretaro started in downtown Mexico City. So while we followed them we drove right downtown in order to get onto the correct road so that we could go back out of Mexico City to Queretaro. They had driven this route before but on a Saturday or Sunday when it was no problem. However, this was Friday at 4 PM. Problem!! If Mexico City has a population of 30 million it seemed like about 10 million of them wanted to get out of the city on the same route as us on Friday. Consequently, we were in a traffic jam getting into downtown and out of downtown from about 4:30 PM till 9:00 PM. We have never experienced anything like it before in our lives.
Remember what Chesterton said? Well our adventures included a Mexico City version of increasing traffic flow. We could clearly see that at one time the street we were on had consisted of two lanes travelling in our direction. However, someone must have reasoned that most people drive small cars in Mexico and because of that they repainted the lines and now there were three lanes in the same amount of space. It all makes sense until some Canadian drives a Chevrolet Subdivision down that street. It is no small miracle that we didn't lose paint, squish somebody in a VW Beetle or both.
Yet another adventure included an uncontrolled intersection in downtown Mexico City where three lanes of traffice crossed in each direction. It looked sort of like somone weaving a mat with cars.
While in the heart of downtown we saw someone in the furthest left of three lanes of traffic make a right turn across two lanes of moving traffic and live to tell about it. I don't even think I heard anyone honk their horn at him/her.
When we hit the traffic jam proper the motorcycles driving between the lanes caused me no small amount of panic - but at least they all wore helmets. While the car traffic was stopped the motorcycles kept moving by driving between the lanes. Not only were there motorcylists to annoy and startel me but there were street peddlers selling food, beverages, phone cards (I'm not making this up) and trinkets to motorists who were stopped in the gridlock. If I had known this ahead of time I could have finished my Christmas shopping on the highway in Mexico City. The peddlars are amazingly discerning individuals, able to tell a motorist who is honking because he wants to buy something from a motorist honking because he is being squeezed in his lane. Not only could they discern the various honking but they could dodge cars and motorcycles while simultaneously hawking their wares and making change. Absolutely unbelieveable!
Then - yes there's more - we heard sirens! I was convinced there was no way an ambulance could get through this gridlock. I should have known better. This ambulance wove it's way through the traffic jam as cars squeezed from one lane to the next to make way. The ambulance driver wove across from one gap to another. He must have driven an extra 25% further than the actual distance to where he was going because of all the lateral travel through the gridlock. Again, no paint was lost, although I'm not sure how that happened or didn't happen.
When the first ambulance had passed us I again heard sirens and now a military looking ambulance was making his way through the gridlock and he passed us in an underpass sirens blaring, shouting in Spanish over his personal P.A. system for people to get out of the way. Now we could lose paint on either another car or the concrete wall of the underpass. I'm not sure what Chesterton had in mind but I don't think he ever drove in Mexico City during Rush Hour on a Friday.
The one piece of tranquility in this rather paniced event was that at one point Iooked into the next lane and there was a pick up truck loaded with Poinsettas. I then realized for about the 30th time that day that we were definitely not in Manitoba anymore.
We arrived back at Pan de Vida at 10 :30 PM exhausted and stunned at all that we had seen and experienced. Once we are fully recovered it will be a long time before we forget our trip to Teotihuacan.
This morning (Sunday) we wanted to go to a church we had helped with an outreach four years ago when we were here. The church is called Mount Sinai and when I asked people here for directions I was told that a group of girls here goes to the Mount Sinai church every week to help with Sunday School. We were assured it would be no problem for us to follow them and go with them to church. But this morning when I went to confirm the arrangements I found out that there is more than one Mount Sinai church in Queretaro and the group of girls from Pan de Vida go to the other one. But after some conferring we were told that one of the girls knew the way to the church and if we wanted she could come with us and show us the way.
We agreed but we didn't realize she speaks only a little less English than we speak Spanish. After several wrong turns and unplanned turn arounds we eventually found the Mount Sinai Church.
Mount Sinai Church is located in a very poor part of Queretaro. The pastor couple, Simeon and Heno, have faithfully served this church during the last four years and presumably for years before we first encountered them. They have slowly but surely built the building till it now is an enclosed space, walls completed to 3/4 height and a new tin roof. The dirt floor of the courtyard was being swept as we arrived and I assumed the dirt floor of the sanctuary had been swept earlier.God has provided for them.
The congregation this morning consisted of Simeon, Heno, their two sons, 8 or 9 neighborhood girls and one adult woman, plus our family. They were extremely glad to see us and we worshipped with them. I have not been as emotional during a worship service in our time in Queretaro as I was this morning in that little church in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Queretaro. For entirely different reasons than Teotihuacan and Mexico City we will not soon forget the Mount Sinai Church. I am so grateful that our children got to see this place where God's people faithfully serve and worship Him.
Well, that's the most memorable of this week. We wish you all a blessed 2nd Advent. May you remember what it is that matters most about this Christmas season.
posted by Franz Sabbatical Updates @ 7:51 PM
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