Mexican Moments with Greg and Peg: A field trip to Tula!

Wednesday, July 15 HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!!! 6 YEARS BIG TODAY!!!

I am sad to be missing Madi's birthday as well as all the other grandkids. I hope we are being of some good service here to make up for it!
We got up and got going this morning. We drove 2 hours north to a little town called Mixquiahuala.
Go ahead and pronounce that! It was a quaint little town. I liked it there. We had to check on a missionary that had some nerve issues and President Edgert was wondering if we needed to send him home! Greg has had great practice sending missionaries home this week! It's only Wednesday and he has sent at least 8 missionaries home for various health reasons - mostly knee or ankle issues, some stomach issues and other things! This Elder that we saw today doesn't need to go home. He will be fine in a couple of weeks. President was doing interviews and so we got to talk to some Elders that were waiting. They are so sweet and humble. It's fun to be around them!
We left the missionaries and drove over to Tula where there are ancient artifacts and pyramids. Tula is where the Toltecs lived between 600 AD and 1100 AD. They built some great pyramids and tall statues on top called the Atlantises of Tula. There was a temple there to Quetzalcoatl as well with carved out reliefs of serpents and jaguars. Tula is right next to San Marcos where 2 men were martyred in 1915 during the revolution. Rafael Monroy was the branch president of a small branch. Someone in town who was upset with him told the revolutionists in town that he favored another revolutionary group and he had strange beliefs. They took him and his first counselor and told them if they did not renounce their faith they would be killed - they wouldn't renounce it and were hung. That was 100 years ago this month. The grandson of this faithful member is serving with us here in the area offices as the area executive secretary and his brother Hugo Montoya Monroy was just called to the first quorum of 70's last conference. We looked for the small chapel there but did not find it.
We walked around and took some pics and enjoyed our little side trip. We drove through a few towns to get back to Mexico City. The Andersons invited us up for dinner and a movie night with the Griffins. Dinner way yummy and we watched Night at the Museum #3 Good times!

Beautiful green countryside near Tula

Lots of agriculture in this neck of the woods.

We saw a lot of heavy farming equipment in the small towns here in the state of Hidalgo north of Mexico City

Mixquiahuala -looks like she is headed to a party

Downtown Mixquiahuala

Downtown cathedral in Mixquihuala

Sidewalk merchant

Volcano in the distance

Cute little homes in Tlahuelilpan - say that name fast a couple of times.

Large playground in Tlahuelilpan (near Tula)

Cactus garden in Tula

Felt like I was back in Arizona

Century cactus blooming

Another century cactus (so named because supposedly they send up this tree like center stalk once every hundred years

Blooming cactus

Pyramid in Tula

Building to the side of pyramid

Alter in a large field

Simply called Pyramid C

More ruins in Tula

The main event - called the atlantises of Tula or giants of Tula - carved in four parts and assembled on top of the pyramid around 900 AD.

Peg, next to a giant with volcano in background

You can see the four sections on this one.

City of Tula in the background

All of these pyramids have very steep, narrow tall steps to climb up - they were a small people. The only explanation I have heard is that climbing these steps safely requires you to bend over and humble yourself. (We were humbled)