Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: A great time in caves and Taxco!

Saturday, June 13th

THOUGHT: "WHEN WE LOVE, WE ALWAYS STRIVE TO BECOME BETTER
THAN WE ARE. WHEN WE STRIVE TO BECOME BETTER THAN
WE ARE, EVERYTHING AROUND US BECOMES BETTER TOO!!"

I thought I had planned a pretty good Saturday adventure. We set out to see Ixtapan de la Sal a golf and water park resort in the mountains south of Toluca. We invited the Rices and the Smiths and Pococks and Anthonys to come a long. We left about 8 am and met up with the others at 10 at Ixtapan de la Sal. We didn't get to see the golf course and the water park looked like a blast. Could be a place to take the kids when or if they come. We then drove another 40 minutes to the Grutas (caverns) of Cacahuamilpa. These are listed as some of the largest in the world. We got in line with a large group for the 11 am tour. It lasted about 2 1/2 hours and we covered over 2 miles in a huge cave. It was spectacular but the walk was long. Half way in there was a bathroom, disguised to look like the rest of the cave. We then drove up a steep mountain to Taxco. Taxco at one time was the silver capital of Mexico. The silver mines are all shut down now but there are more silver shops than anywhere in the world. It is built on a steep mountain and the drive to the center square was really exciting. We found parking and tried to find a restaurant. A local tour guide led us to Del Angel Inn. Very quaint. I had hoped to find the restaurant I took Peg to on our honeymoon about 38 years ago but it was closed down. We purchased the requisite ear rings and silver ring (got my anniversary shopping done.) On the way back to Cuernavaca where we had planned on eating I got a call from the mission president's wife that she had a sister missionary whose mother was frantic after seeing her skype on mother's day - she thought her daughter was losing her hair. The sister was in Cuernavaca so I agreed to stop by and see if she really was going bald. This caused us a delay (Peg won't let me forget this) as we sent the others on to the restaurant and we arrived about 40 minutes later. Since you are all holding your breath - she wasn't bald - may have just been a bad hair day for her. We had one of the best meals I have had in Mexico at Las Mañanitas - a downtown hotel. We got there after they had put away most of the exotic birds that roam the grounds but did see some flamingos and Tucans. We left Cuernavaca for a 2 hour drive home at about nine - getting to the toll booth just outside of Mexico City about 5 after 10 (this is where I got in trouble) They had started the night time construction on the main freeway into Mexico city at 10 pm and had shut down all lanes. We sat there for over an hour until one lane opened up and we snailed it through to the Periferico (main freeway into town. We arrived at our hotel at 12:15 realizing that we hadn't done our laundry (Saturday night is laundry night). Oh well.

Driving to the caves
Beautiful countryside in Mexico!

More beautiful countryside

Main Fountain in Ixtapan de la sal

People going through garbage on garbage day!

Abandoned big home!

Typical home in town

Chicken restaurant alongside road outside of town.
Big brick oven full of chickens cooking!

Hard to imagine we are still in Mexico!

Almost to the caves.

Lake along the way!

Nice purple house!
All the houses are painted bright colors.

Cool tree with big roots growing out of mountainside!

Entrance to the cave!

Pic of inside of cave.
Most of my pics didn't turn out - too dark!

It was quite a hike - 1 1/4 mile in and 1 1/4 mile out!
Good friends to go with us!
L-R Smiths, us, Pococks, Rices, Anthonys

Signs tells about the cave.

Eternal springs outside the cave!

I am putting the Taxco pics on tomorrow!!!

Sunday, June 14th

THOUGHT: "WE CAN'T PREDICT ALL THE STRUGGLES AND STORMS IN LIFE,
NOT EVEN THE ONES JUST AROUND THE CORNER, BUT AS
PERSONS OF FAITH AND HOPE, WE KNOW BEYOND A SHADOW OF
ANY DOUBT THAT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST IS TRUE
AND THE BEST IS YET TO COME." L. Tom Perry.

We actually were early for church. There were wonderful talks and a recent convert helped to pass the sacrament with his son. There is always a great spirit there. It took me over 2 hours to do all my follow ups for the week on sick missionaries to prepare my report for Elder Schwitzer. One mission president's wife who I have just taught to use the church website where health problems are recorded entered 190 entries (she had been saving up.) Peg made me help her go through these - it is generally her job to review what the mission president's wives have recorded to make sure we don't miss a hospitalization or serious illness. This week it was seizures, ACL injuries, and only 4 missionaries went home for health problems (three weeks ago it was over 20.) We had dinner with the Griffins and Hackings - the Andersons were sick. On my to do list this week - our horn is not working and it is absolutely unsafe to drive in Mexico without a horn. It is required to sound your horn 1/20th of a second after the light turns green to make sure the person in front of you has not fallen asleep at the wheel.

First glimpse of Taxco
This information guy looks helpful!

There is Taxco built on the side of the mountain!

Small red heart on this mountain

Homes built right up the mountain

Interesting engineering

The roads are really steep

Selling wares on top of your car

Little cobble stone streets

This is a two way street - carefully passing

Selling wares on the cobble stone streets

Now here are some energetic basket sellers!

The big cathedral at the top on the city in the main square.

Narrow alley to get from parking (that was crazy in itself) to the main square

Main square of Taxco

Chalk outline of someone who died?

Beautiful restaurant - Del Angel Inn - also a hotel on the main square.

Our group of travelers - the Smiths, Pococks, Anthoneys, Rices and us.

Beautiful view out of the window of our restaurant

Same

Courtyard

Suck it in Stevens

Jesus, our guide - we asked him a question when we drove into the main square and he found us parking, took us through the alleyway to our restaurant, helped us find silver stores to buy some things and collected a nice tip - he was great