MEXICO CITY PART 1

Holy Cow! We have been in Mexico City for 3 days now and have been going like crazy! I'm going to write about this trip in 2 posts since there is so much to tell. We traveled all day on Friday (with a long layover in LA) and were happy to arrive at the Marriott Reforma about 9 in the PM. We ate dinner at one of the hotel restaurants and thoroughly enjoyed our first mexican meal. The kids were going crazy over the pico de gallo and the green chili sauce! SATURDAY

On Saturday we met up with the Casteneda family for some sightseeing. (Narcisso Casteneda was Rick's first comp in the missionfield.) These good people are the reason we are in Mexico in the first place. Narciso has been to our home in Grantsville and a few years ago we told him we would try to get to Mexico to meet his family. Here we are in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral...Gary, Kendra, me, Ruth, Narciso, and Ricardo (one of their sons). An interesting side note. Ricardo turns 18 in a couple of weeks and he has recieved his mission call to the Merida, Mexico mission. He leaves next month. YM in mexico can serve missions when they're 18! I did not know that.

Here's a shot of Kenni in front of the National Palace.

Right in the middle of downtown they have unearthed an old Incan ruin.
It is called the Templo Mayor. An electric company found this artifact back in 1978 when they were digging and that was when they discovered this huge place underneath the ground.
Cool Stuff!


After visiting the ruins we went through the Cathedral. It was very ornate inside. We got to climb the bell tower.
Here we are up on the roof of the Cathedral.

On our way to find some lunch (I think we walked 5 miles) we came upon this street mime. Here is having some fun with me:)

After lunch we drove over to the Coyoacan area of town. I swear this town is so huge that it takes FORever to get anywhere. After stopping for an ice cream cone we headed over to the market. We all found some fun stuff. Hats, headbands, crocheted slippers etc... Here's Kendra buying Brach a new wallet. She had fun buying stuff for his family.

After shopping we stopped for dinner. It was a fun place but it felt like we had been eating all day. After dinner we thought we would take a taxi home so Narciso would not have to drive us all the way back to the hotel. After trying to flag down a taxi for 25 minutes (not kidding....plus we had been going all day and were sooo tired) this VW taxi drove up and what could you do? We needed to get back and this was our only option. The passenger seat was not there so Gare, Ken and I sat in the backseat and Rick sat on the floor where the seat was supposed to be. We had a good time and made a fun memory. Have you ever been IN the backseat of a VW bug. Here we are crammed like sardines! (Gary's taking the pic:)

SUNDAY

Sunday was a wonderful day as well. After getting home late Saturday night we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:30 to get ready to catch our ride at 7:30 to get to church that started at 8:00. I will say this that sitting through 3 hours of meeting where you can't understand anything is pretty challenging. It gave me a new appreciation for missionaries and what they have to go through as they learn a new language. I will say that the RS sisters were so sweet to Ken and I. They were trying hard to include us in the lesson and kept saying things to us which totally made me more uncomfortable. I could NOT understand what they were trying to say to me and they just kept trying. Finally at the end they asked me to say the prayer (cute, huh?) I tried to go slow so they would know that I was ending but after I said, "Amen" Kendra was the only one who lifted her head....so I said Ahmen (like they do) and they all got the message:)

We enjoyed the afternoon back at the hotel (napping) and then we got to go to Narciso and Ruth's home for dinner. Here is Gare with the Casteneda's dog, Casey. He took a liking to Gary:)

Ruth made us a feast! She had been listening to the kids the day before talk about the different foods they liked and she wanted to treat us well. We started out with Corn Chowder as an appetizer (with chips, pico, and red and green salsa's) then she brought out tacos, tostadas, Nopales (cactus), quesadillas, potatoes, and flan for dessert. Plus she made fresh limonada for all of us! WOW! That meal was amazing!

Here we are doing dishes!

Rick and Narciso

MONDAY

So Monday we headed out of the city to the famous Teotihacan ruins. We spent about 31/2 hours there seeing the sights. Here are Gary and Kendra ready to walk down the Avenue of the Dead. It is a 2 KM walk to get to the Pyramid of the Moon which you can barely see at the very back of this picture.

We stopped at the Pyramid of the Sun. It is the biggest pyramid in the world (that is unearthed anyway). Rick counted 243 steps to the top. It was hard but man, what a view!

At the top there were a LOT of butterflies. We got one in this picture.

On our way back down. Ruth was smart and brought her umbrella. It was a very hot day!

We stopped for lunch in San Juan and got back to the hotel about 5:00 where we swam and had a relaxing evening. What a wonderful 3 days! and we have 4 more full days to go. WooHoo!