Wellsville

I know you have all been waiting for me to post some information to the blog regarding Mexico. Sorry it has taken so long, I have been kind of busy trying to get all of my work done. I will probably pay for this later tonight when I have to work at my hotel room to make up time for this blog post.

Mexico City has been great. The food has been good, but I am sick of it now and I still have another five days left. The traffic here is horrible, but that is to be expected with a city of 25 million people and most streets no larger than two lanes. I am glad I don't have to drive in this mess. The streets here have no organization to them whatsoever. Most streets are one way which makes it difficult to navigate, especially when they don't have any posted signs indicating it is a one way street. You only know by the direction of the parked cars. Also, the street signs are almost non-existent. I think when the city planners decided to draw up the street designs for the Mexico City, they handed a 3 year-old a piece of paper and pencil. Whatever was scribbled on the paper became the city.

We have been staying at the Nikko Hotel, which is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. It has really been nice to stay there. It has made live here easier.

I spent all of last week near the Church owned school of Benemerito de las Americas at the Church Distribution Center for Mexico(DC). We spent a lot of time commuting from the hotel the DC driving through some of the poorer parts of the city. It is unbelievable how spread out the city is. There are so many homes that look like they have were made out of sticks, mud and sheet metal. Many of the homes are just concrete and cinder block and appear to be works in process. People here really struggle to live and are doing all they can to provide for themselves and their families. Nearly ever stop light and street corner has young mothers and children trying to sell goods (prepaid phone cards, fruits and vegetables, snacks, etc.) to the stopped cars.

We spent most of the day on Saturday at Teotihuacan, which is a 45 minute drive to the northeast of Mexico City, and that is if you go in the morning. Go in the afternoon and the drive will be 3 times as long. Teotihuacan is an amazing plaze with the many pyramids. We scaled the Temple of the Moon and Sun and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. The temple of Quetzalcoatl was not near the height of the other two, but it was as steep. We were pretty worn out from climbing the pyramids at the end of the day. I managed to get a pretty nice sunburn on my legs arms and neck, despite having applied sunscreen.

If you ever go to Teotihuacan, learn now how to say "NO." From the moment we arrived until the moment we left we were hounded by salesman attempting to sell us goods and items made by local artisans. One guy tried selling me a wood carving of the Aztec Calendar for $1,200 pesos (about $120 us dollars), I offered him $100 pesos and then he responded with $100. At first I thought he meant $100 pesos and I was sold until he saw me pull a $100 peso bill and then in english told me $100 us dollars. At that point I was no longer interested. Then he wanted to know the most I would pay and I replied $200 pesos, and that made him angry. I guess a $200 peso offer for his work was quite the insult. He then came back at me with an $800 offer and that was as low as he would go. At which point his buddy joined in trying sell me some obsidian statues. I just kept walking and told them in spanish to leave me alone, that I wasn't interested anymore. Besides I was going to be there another 2 or 3 hours and I didn't feel like carrying the items with me all that time. I finally did end up buying 3 obsidian statues for $250 pesos (about $80 pesos each), which turned out to be a good deal as I later saw some of the same statues at an artesans market for $175 a piece. It was quite an experience, and I would love to do it again.

I have to go. Here are some photos. Enjoy.

P.S.
I Have tried twice to add pictures to this post but it isn't happening.