Monday March 2 to Sunday March 8th, 2015

It has been a short but good week and the last week of the temple closure. It will be so good to get back to work in the temple! We have had fun but it is most certainly time to get back to the purpose of our Mission and be busy again. I really don't think I would like being on vacation all the time, it is so much better to be busy and have a purpose and a reason to get up each day.

Tuesday was a catch up day, we did laundry, cleaned the house, got groceries, did some mending, and all those fun maintenance things that go with everyday living. Wednesday we went with the  Roesberrys to the Zocolo and ate lunch in a fun little restaurant they call the bird house. It is in the front of a motel and has an open courtyard with caged birds of all different varieties that whistle and sing while you eat. It really is pretty and to top it off the food was reasonable and tasty, especially the desert. We then came back and went to see the Disney movie "Into the Woods".

Thursday we went on a tour of 5 different local places, the tour cost 200 pesos each, about  $13.00 American. It started at 10:00 am, and they picked us up at our house, and ended at 7:00 pm. It did not include food or entrance to the parks. But still pretty reasonable and the van was  pretty new and had air conditioning ( not always the case in Mexico).  We had quite a diverse group with us, one guy from Brazil, Pedro, a musician who had been in Mexico City helping with a concert, 2 young women on a 3 week tour of Mexico from Poland, A couple from British Columbia, Canada filming a music video in Mexico, another young woman musician from Spain, 2 ladies from Mexico City, an older lady from New York, and us 4 transplants from Idaho and Arizona. We went to Tulle to see the big tree again, it was just as impressive the second time. I didn't post pictures this time.

The next stop was a place where they make rugs. It was really interesting to me as I remember
sitting by my grandma Robinson and watching her weave rugs.

They told all about the different plants and how they make the different natural dyes to make the brilliant colors of wool, they also explained the entire process of cleaning, carding and spinning
the wool, I was glad we were on the English tour.

 



These are a few of the people in our group, we had a fun time visiting with them, several of them seemed drawn to us and just kind of hung around with us.


 

The next stop was the Mescal Factory, they showed us how to make Mescal in the old time honored traditional way. We weren't really very interested. It is made from the Agave plant, after the explanation they had an open bar where our group could sample all kinds of different types and flavors of Mescal, needless to say we did not avail ourselves of the free samples. Although many in our group were a touch happier when we loaded back in the van! And there were several that came back with a few bottles to take home.

Our next stop was the little town of Mitla, right in the middle of the town is the ruin, this was the main destination or reason we took the tour. This ruin is said to be much newer than many of the ruins in the area and our guide claimed it is Zapotec in origin. The main temple has a functioning Catholic Church built right on top of it! This seemed to be the way of the conquerors down through the ages, the Myans built a temple, the Aztecs conquered them and built their temples atop of the Myan temples and so on. It does tend to put a stop to what ever religion the conquered people are practicing!

Our guide for the day by the smaller temple at Mitla, Guillermo
o en Engles William.
 

A wall inside the palace at Mitla, notice the stonework pattern, each stone was hand cut and fitted in place,like laying bricks only there is no mortar, it is so even and perfect. 





Ross at Mitla

Outside the Palace at Mitla

Our next stop was a little roadside café for lunch, it was a buffet and we were glad we had brought a lunch. Our peanut butter and jelly sandwich looked much better than the buffet and we were pretty sure we wouldn't suffer any ill effects the next day. After lunch we went to the falls ( remember lunch in Mexico is always eaten around two or three).  Most of the way to the falls was on a twisty rough dirt road, but it was worth the drive, it was actually called the petrified falls. It was a mineral springs and the mineral deposits had left formations that looked like waterfalls. I thought they were very other worldly and pretty. There is also several large pools where you can swim or soak in the mineral pools, we did not, it was not a very warm day and also we didn't take suits and towels. Pedro swam and he said it was very cold, especially when he got out as the wind was quite cold.

The small pools and mineral deposits.
 

The smaller falls.

More small pools



The large Falls.



This gentleman charged for the walking sticks if you needed one to go up and around and down to the bigger falls, he called Dad a Joven which means young man.


 

All in all it was a great day and it was fun to see some of the things close to where we are living. This world is such an interesting place with so many different places to go and things to see.

Last night on our way to the Roesberry for dinner we stopped in a candy store, I am not sure I have ever seen so many different kinds of candy in one place ever in my life, it was actually almost overwhelming, in a sweet way. Hahaha.

One last picture, 2 weeks later and this is the progress, it looks like they are ready to pour concrete. Every bit of this has so far been done with shovels by hand.


As we have thought about what to leave with you this week that might be an uplifting thought this quote by President Hinckley came to mind " Please don't nag yourself with thoughts of failure, don't set goals that are far beyond your capacity to achieve, simply do what you can do in the best way you know how and the Lord will accept your effort."
Remember that we love you more than you can imagine and that our Father loves you infinitely more than that, the Gospel is true and it brings us so much joy and happiness. Be good to yourselves and each other.