Mexico City Sights

The road trip with Rob and Lydia continues as we tour Mexico City. IT WAS A HUGE CITY but very beautiful.  It reminded us of New York.  We expected a dirty run down city. But it was well kept up and maintained.

Palace of Fine Arts

The "Tile House" is a popular landmark.







No  "#2"  in this bathroom - only Pipi as they put it ;-)

For all you grammar nuts out there, we got a kick out of this.





This guy looked like he was floating in mid air for hours. Look closely, nothing seems to be holding him up!  (Dane figured out his secret...)



An old-fashioned organ grinder playing some greats.

Its a good feeling to see our fellow Brothers and Sisters preaching everywhere we go.

A lot of modern Mexican art focuses on the themes below - the exploitation and mistreatment of the indigenous people.  And the ensuing independence movement.



As the postcard says this castle is in the middle of the city.



It's crazy to think all of this opulence was to house one family.

Look!  A bathtub in Mexico!



This was not a gag painting - apparently a realist



Now that's how a Starbucks should be!

Complete with indigenous street performers needing their Frappuccino fix.

Mexico City's Anthropological Museum. Artifacts from Mexico's different indigenous cultures.  It would have taken days too see it all - very extensive.
Below is a sacrificial alter - notice the trough?

The "Stone of the Sun" is a sacrificial alter - initially thought to be an Aztec calendar.  This has become a symbol of Mexico - frequently in art and souvenirs.

Replica of a grave site



This carving was over 20 feet tall - representing one of the agricultural gods.

This one is called "The Creator" - another one of their gods.

This made us think of the sling that was used by David against Goliath

Ancient ball games - where soccer originally came from.  Many things about it were very symbolic - it was part of sun worship.

They had to hit a rubber ball through these rings using their hips or forearms.  When the Europeans came they were amazed at their skill and precision.





A dinner with a view - for $4.  Ironically this was the cheapest taco place we could find.  I of course had to find the bathroom and when I went upstairs...




NEXT STOP: Xochimilco. It is connected by a series of canals, which are left from what was an extensive lake and canal system that connected most of the settlements together. It has been dubbed "The Venice of Mexico" and is preserved as a World Heritage Site.


Just like in our Mexican neighborhood we had vendors coming by - calling out what they were offering...

..."Elote" the guy says. (AKA corn with cheese, crema, lime, and spicy powder. Yum!)  Other vendors offered tamales, souveniers and drinks.

...and of course Mariachi bands to enliven the fiesta.







Yep this guy is being pulled by a horse ... on a highway.


A beautiful drive home ended our great road trip with Rob and Lydia.  The people we were going to stay with fell through but it gave us a chance to meet a very fun and hospitable couple - friends of Rob and Lydia's.  They let us crash on their couch and we got to hear some of their experiences of serving in Mexico.  As a bonus she taught me to make the best grilled sandwich I've ever had!

Thanks for joining us Rob and Lydia! We had a blast.

Love and miss you all. Another post will be up soon! We promise.

Agape,
Em and Dane

Guanajuato And Central America Branch Visit

Hello dear friends and family. We haven't updated in a while so we're a bit behind. This post highlights a trip we took with our good friends Rob and Lydia from our Congregation here in Manzanillo. After our English District (Now called "Regional") Convention in Guadalajara the four of us took a road trip to Mexico City and the Central American Bethel Branch. This is post 1 of 2.

Before we get into that Dane has been preaching in the Harbor Witnessing here in Manzanillo. Here is an experience from him:
I've really enjoyed the privilege of this form of ministry. The port here is the busiest by volume of commercial ships in all of Mexico. So there are always ships with people from around the world to preach to. Myself and another brother were talking with a Chinese man who thankfully spoke English (a requirement to be a worker on an international ship) as neither of us speak Chinese. He was the ship's cook and was on break so he had time on his hands to talk and was eager to see the literature in his own language. We showed him a few bible questions in the Truth Tract and when we answered the first one from the tract he had another, which just happened to be the next question on the front. He was so impressed that he wanted to place a piece of literature next to each plate of food for the crew to read.  He'll put more experiences in the next post.

Here we go!
Here we are packed into our 1995 Toyota Corolla ready for the road!
Our First stop: Guanajuato, Mexico
Established in the 1500's this Colonial town is rich with culture and romance. It was established as a booming mining town.


It's known for it's crazy narrow streets!

The view from our hotel room
This place had the best Mexican doughnuts we've had


We saw one of our little sisters at this door.










In these mines they found many different metals. For over 250 years, it produced about 30% of the world’s silver. Gold and many other minerals were found there too.
These are the tunnels the miners would have to work in - the shovel gives scale.  The working conditions for the slaves were tragic and brought about death at a very young age.







As we walked down about 500 steps it helped us appreciate Proverbs 2:4 - what it really took to seek silver!   



The city’s most famous tourist attraction is the Mummies of Guanajuato Museum which contains a collection of specimens that mummified naturally in the adjoining cemetery. Authorities began exhuming bodies in 1870, when a new law required residents to pay a tax for perpetual burial. If survivors didn't pay the tax, they exhumed the body. If the body was mummified, they stored it in a building above ground and people began paying to see them in the late 1800s. The burial tax was abolished in 1958. At first, the mummies were displayed in a poorly lit tunnel that visitors entered with a torch or candle. Visitors were allowed to touch the mummies with some even breaking off pieces for souvenirs or to verify the body was real.














Our Hotel (well, Hostel) that Rob and Lydia shared with us was located right above one of the most famous spots in Mexico, the Callejón del Beso (Alley of the Kiss). It has two balconies that nearly touch each other. The name comes from a legend of two young lovers who would sneak out of their adjoining homes and reach across the balconies to kiss.



All the tourists (including us) line up for their kissing picture.  Until late at night we would hear enthusiastic chanting of "Beso! Beso! Beso!" ("Kiss!Kiss!Kiss!")
This building was constructed from 1560-1565
And the guys are excited about the castle tour :-)



What to do next...

Rob and Lydia were the BEST travel partners.  We're all goofballs

The battle was EPIC!









NEXT STOP: Central American Bethel Branch.  The name of the branch had coincidentally been changed the day before - from the Mexico Branch.
As you can see Lydia loves anticipating our Spiritual Food.

In between us is the great couple - the Solanos. They hosted us in Mexico city. They were great!

Some fun statistics:
They have produced more than 40,000,000 Bible Teach books
They produce 8,000 books per hour (16,000/hr of the smaller books)




Since the work was so severely restricted in Mexico a Kingdom Hall construction program wasn't begun until about 1992.  A record number of 1,000 Kingdom Halls were dedicated in 10 years.   Here are some before and after pictures:

A lot of the writing is done at the New York branch but some of it is done here:


It was a privilege to meet Esther.  This bright, spunky sister was part of the fourth class of Gilead.

It was great to see the Geswaldis there. They were CO's for us in Manzanillo about 1 year ago. Now they are serving at Bethel and are heading up an Arabic Language group in Mexico City. Oh, and they don't know the language, so they are learning it too. Amazing.

Bethel Lunch!  Ruben's brother is at the head of the table.



Tour Group - On the right is Heather - she was a delightful and very informative tour guide.

Bethel was an amazing experience to see. How encouraging it was to see our Brotherhood working hard for Jehovah here in Mexico. We felt like family and were up-built and faith-strengthened.

NEXT STOP:  Teotihuacan Pyramids. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC. It was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population of 125,000 or more, making it at minimum the sixth largest city in the world at the time.








Part 2 is next. Mexico City highlights...