Silver, and caves, and my boss; oh my!

I cannot call this adventure a complete success for two reasons: one, we didn’t buy a magnum bar, which, if I haven’t told you is the best ice cream bar on the plant. And two, w did not get horribly lost, which was a trend we set on our first few adventures. We did have a fantastic time on our weekend adventure to Taxco. We decided beforehand to do a two for one outing. As I mentioned, our destination was Taxco, a town known for its high quality and low priced silver. On the way we stopped at a town where there was supposed to be some really cool caves. Let me tell you, they were just that and more! I have been in several caves and copper mines in the States and none of them were as big as this cave. IT WAS ENORMOUS! The caverns were so big that you could fit a foot ball field in most of them. Likewise the formations of stalagmites and stalactites were quit large as well. Yes, there are some pictures so check em out!

Our tour gook us 2.3 Kilometers into the cave wher4eupon we met a formation that acted as a curtain on a giant stage, baring the way top to bottom and side to side except for two small openings about the size of a door. Our tour guide said that in the past exploring groups have ventured into these holes NEVER TO RETURN…no really, but I thought it sounded good. In actuality, these explorers made it as far as 16 Kilometers. It may be deeper, I can’t say for sure. It was difficult to understand our guide because, well, we were in a cave and echoing Spanish is very difficult. This is a shame as apparently our guide was quite a ham and she had the group laughing quite often. Thought I did not catch all the jokes I was quite amused when she pointed out formations that looked like elephants, pandas, dolphins and allsorts of other creatures.

Taxco was something else. If you check out the pictures on Photo
Bucket (see my blog for a link) they may remind you as it did me of the crazy market scenes in the old Indiana Jones movies. Some kid wanted to sell us gum for one paso, and when we said “no thank you” he went away and pretended to cry. There was also a large assortment of “boot leg” DVD’s for really cheep. I bought some DVD’s of movies that just came into the theater! (Chris, guess what your getting for your birthday!)

The silver was cool, we really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the artists products. I have never seen so much silver in one place before. Before we left we went to the Grand Cathedral and it was really cool, very ornate, and simply beautiful. I did not get to explore it and take as many pictures as I wanted thought because there was a wedding I.P.

So, after almost missing our buss because of having to work out a problem with our tickets we headed home and considered it a day well spent.

Today I am entering my final week at language school. It was a bitter sweet Monday. I enjoyed my classes, and I like all of my new teachers. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and am excited and nervous at the same time. I am nervous because I feel like I have so much more Spanish to learn, and a bit sad because I will miss my friends at school and our host family. Yet I am really excited about going to Mexico City and starting work with the church, especially after having met with Huberto this last Sunday! He is really great, and the two of us get along really well. We spent a few hours on Sunday afternoon getting to know each other and discussing our thoughts about the next few months. I am going to be learning so much as he has much more experience than me, and his youth group is in a completely different cultural setting than anything I am used to. I am also excited because the beginning’s of a whole new era of youth ministry is underway in Mexico and God has placed me in the middle of it. Please pray that God would guide Huberto and I in everything we do as we literally lay the foundation for a youth ministry at his church.

More to come later! God willing, the next time I send a news letter, it will be from Mexico City!

Jon Reid