Catching Up at Year's End

We began our Mexican journey on the country's east coast and now, on it's west coast, we find ourselves seeking refuge from the party-and-celebration crowd. Here is a brief review of the past few days ...

Since our bus to here was to depart from Queretaro, about a half hour from Dan & Heather's place, we planned to go there early to see some sights. I was particularly interested in seeing an ancient Mexican temple for reasons I will give later. The site on which the temple stands was closed for three reasons. (1) We arrived at 3:30 pm and it always closes at 2:30 pm. (2) It is open every day except Mondays and this was a Monday. (3) It is closed between Christmas and New Year's Day, and we were in the middle of that period. Talk about a shut-out.

All of the above notwithstanding, we managed to persuade the sole security guard to open the gate and let us in for a few minutes. We had permission to take some photos and here is one of mine ...

To those of you familiar with the architecture, this needs no explanation. If you are not familiar with it, this pyramid-shaped temple follows an architectural pattern originating in ancient Chaldea, half a world away. Archaeologists have named these structures ziggurats. Some have also been found in southeast Asia.

Besides a general pyramid shape, they feature great processional stairways leading to the top where the actual temple was located. They are significant in that the first one was, according to the evidence, built in Babel and was in fact the infamous Tower of Babel. When, as the scriptures report, God changed the language of people to oblige them to spread out and fill the earth, he did not change their religion. As a result, the introduction of false religion at Babel (Babylon) also spread worldwide.

This not only explains a similar architectural pattern in ancient temples worldwide, it also explains why so many religions, although all claiming to be different, nevertheless share almost identical core beliefs - all conflicting with what God's Word the Bible teaches. This world empire of false religion is called Babylon the Great in the Bible and will soon be dealt with by God.

Although I have often seen photos of ziggurats, it was a fascinating experience to stand and look, for the first time, at a real one.

Later on Dan drove us to the bus station for our trip to Bucerias. This required major and patient resolve on his part since the route was incredibly serpentine and traffic plentiful. Eventually we had to say our goodbyes after having traveled together and visited with one another over a three week period.

The overnight ride brought us early to our destination, 6:30 am, where a very kind brother named Harvey picked us up in his van. He spends winters here and, when he heard of our interest in Mexico, urged us to include this destination in our trip. Our hotel here is small but attractive and a block from the beach ...

Having arrived much earlier than check-in time we were invited to the roof where we could rest on lounge chairs ...

At one point I went down to the desk to ask about our rooms when I heard a voice say, "Brother Sheppard?" It was Ian Alleyne, a Witness from Montreal I knew by sight. He lives here now. He and another brother from California were in the service and had stopped in the hotel lobby to leave a few tracts. Interesting coincidence.

This morning we had breakfast with Harvey in a very pleasant restaurant of his choosing ...

 We stopped by the local Kingdom Hall. (That's Harvey's van.)

The center condo is where Harvey and his wife live while here. *Very* nice, with a view of the ocean from the back balcony.

And speaking of the ocean, here is Carol standing where she once stood before, about 14 years ago ...

Bucerias

Yesterday evening we left on an overnight ten-hour bus ride to Bucerias, near Puerto Vallarta. The bus company's brochure shows people sleeping in heavenly bliss on the overnight trip but, despite this encouragement, our quota of rest fell a tad short. As a result, this blog will be continued once any shortfall in this area has been regained.

Hotel Villa Florencia and Other Places

In the small town of Tequisquiapan, well hidden among a maze of narrow side streets, there are a few acres of paradise called Hotel Villa Florencia. To enter, one mounts a few steps to a circular floor covered by a lofty dome. The dome is supported by columns with glass panels forming walls between them. This entrance is an elegant introduction to very well kept landscaping and buildings.

Here is a view of us freshly inside the entrance dome ...

At 10:00 am we were the only ones around except for the occasional worker, one of whom brought out parrots for our entertainment ...

They next let out the peacocks to amuse us as well ...

The view below shows the domed entrance area in the background ...

Our purpose in coming here was double: Today's meeting required our presence at the Kingdom Hall in Tequisquiapan, and Dan very correctly thought we might enjoy a breakfast in this place Take a look at the dining room ...

Yes, we were the only customers. This may have been due to culture, the season, or something else, but we had the place to ourselves. In case you're interested, a typical breakfast here costs on average $8.00 (CDN). The coffee refills are prompt and endless.

The view out the dining room entrance.

Sharing a bench with bronze monkeys.

After exploring these elegant surroundings we went to the Hall where I gave the Sunday talk entitled, "Does God Count You Personally Important?" This was followed by the Watchtower Study, followed in turn by the Congregation Bible Study, which is how they do things here.

Later in the day the four of us went to the home of Tom and Janet Byrne where we were invited for a royal supper. Tom barbequed steaks which were utterly tender and delicious. The whole meal provided us with a memory that will certainly be a highlight of our trip.

Tomorrow we will go in the afternoon to Queretaro, about a half hour away, and look around that city for a few hours before boarding our overnight bus for Bucerias. Reportedly these top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art buses are very comfortable, the seats are spacious and fully recline, allowing a pleasant overnight experience. I'll let you know.

Javier & Frederico

While Carol and Heather drove off to Tequisquiapan this morning to meet people who had shown interest last week, I stayed in San Juan Del Rio and worked with Javier, seen in the photo below.

Javier is a medical doctor. He and his wife have an eleven-year-old daughter, Ruby, whom I've already written about. In a commercial area, Javier got into a discussion with a Spanish-speaking man while I simply waited. Two young men behind me were descending a staircase carrying sheets of gyproc salvaged from an abandoned office on the floor above. Soon I heard, "Excuse me, sir!" It was the boss of the two young men needing extra room to get a bigger piece by. Although Mexican, he knew to speak to me in English. Ahhhhh!

The man's name was Frederico and he had worked in the USA for 23 years so I had a golden opportunity to witness in English. I told him I understood he was busy and wasn't going to take a lot of his time. He replied, "To talk about God I have time. I will give you one hour!"

He had been a Catholic, grew to distrust the church and is currently experimenting with the Baptist Church. I thought I'd teach him God's name using the Our Father Prayer as a starting point. He guessed the Father's name as just God, then Jesus. Then he recognized, no, that is the name of God's son. I told him I'd show him God's name in the Bible. He paid close attention to the scripture and got the point. I used the follow-up question I learned from a brother in my congregation, "Isn't it wonderful to *know* this? Now you can use God's name in prayer." I mentioned that if he liked learning this huge truth in just fifteen minutes, imagine what he would learn if we could talk to him for fifteen minutes at other times. He gave us his address and my brother Dan will follow up.

San Miguel de Allende

Today we explored San Miguel de Allende, about an hour and a half by car from San Juan Del Rio. The welcoming statue is shown below ...

This city is visited by many tourists and many Americans live here. Much English can be heard in the streets and restaurants. We also heard Quebec French in a restaurant here. Most of the streets are very narrow and, at two feet wide, the sidewalks were designed for single file pedestrian traffic. To be sure there are many shops as well as street corner vendors. Some landmark scenes follow ...

 The city of course is dominated by church buildings.

The city has numerous art galleries with many forms of local art for sale. Here's my photo of Carol, Dan & Heather in one of them ...

In this place I found a charming painting of an apple. The artist's name is Valenzuela. The painting's combination of realism and simplicity caught my eye, and my iPhone caught the image. Well done!

We lunched at a quaint restaurant where the waiter took our picture ...

Needless to say, one eats well in Mexico and portions are generous. I saw Aztec soup on the menu and ordered it because of the utterly delicious bowl I had in Ixtapa last year just before leaving. The Aztec soup here was different, quite good but not at all like what they serve in Ixtapa which had sent my heart spiraling into the heavenly splendor of bursting gratitude for the gift of such an outstanding recipe. In other words, I *really* liked the Ixtapa variety.

Dan needed a new hat before the warmer and sunnier weather returns. He found what he was after and here he is looking a little like Wyatt Earp.

Before leaving this city we were treated to a parade in the main square. Men on horses rode by followed by an older couple dressed as though it was their wedding day. They were followed by a brass band. But it was not a wedding. It was a celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary.

The stars of the parade.

It was all very impressive and although it does not happen to be my style, we wish them all the best.

On the way back we stopped where the view of San Miguel was spread out at our feet.

The Holiday Crowd

It was back to Plaza Independencia this morning to do cart work among a different crowd today, people off work because of their holiday. At first, gray skies and intermittent drizzle made prospects seem unpromising but soon the clouds departed, the sun came out, and the Plaza crowd assembled.

Below is a photo of Tom helping a family understand what the literature is about. 

The sign on the cart says "Free - Take One.." It's a wise approach because it moves people to investigate what each book is about in order to choose one that interests them most. Often this leads to productive conversations.

A second crowd in the park are the pigeons which, every once in a while fly in squadrons around the plaza, apparently just for the exercise. Alas, certain ones among them enjoyed exercising their bombing skills and Tom's black jacket seen in the above photo got badly splattered a few times before we noticed it. One of them scored a mess onto my jacket sleeve. Dan escaped unsoiled. Look closely at the photo below to see some of these unChristian birds in flight over the Plaza.

One young man accompanied by two women stopped to take our photo. We acquiesced but I asked to take their photo too (see below for the one I took).

We discovered they were Witnesses from Mexico City on a trip. Sometimes a stranger will come by and insist on shaking our hand without ever looking at the literature. Then he just keeps moving on. I have no idea what that's all about.

In the video below you will see depicted a scene which, in real life, is best witnessed from under an umbrella.

Thirty books were placed in the Plaza today, a local one-day record.

Mall & Hall

We went to the major shopping mall here today. Maintaining my lively interest in cultural differences, I was fascinated by the concept of having to pay for the privilege to park in the shopping center parking lot. The entrance ticket booth is shown below ...

 Carol outside the Center. As you can see it was an overcast day.

We arrived early so had to wait a few minutes for the stores to open at 11:00 a.m. As we entered we passed a policeman, dressed in black uniform, carrying on a shoulder strap his standard automatic weapon. To a casual observer such as myself it seems over the top to have this kind of police presence as one enters a modern department store, but then again I'm just a visitor. One thing I do know is that nobody needs to waste time here with controversies over the use of Tasers.

As for the merchandise in this center, it is all first class. For those interested here is a sampling ...

Considering it was the day before Christmas the shoppers were remarkably few as the photo below reveals. Perhaps Christmas gifts are purchased in greater abundance from the vendors on the road at stop lights.

 The above photo was taken around noon. By 1:00 pm the population had increased to about twenty persons. I wonder if this center has ever been tempted to experiment with free parking - you never know what might stimulate business.

All this notwithstanding we had a very enjoyable lunch here although we did feel a tad isolated as the only two souls occupying a table in the ten-acre food court.

At least these pet shop creatures weren't as lonely as the pet shop owner.

 Open air transport. Note the hoodie. It was cool today.

 Show me the electrical drawings! This cannot be according to plan!

This evening we attended a meeting and, due to extremely limited seating in the English mid-week meeting (on Wednesdays they occupy the second school which is the size of a bureau drawer) we sat in on the Spanish meeting. I believe Carol absorbed quite a bit. The main thing I learned is that there is an eleven-year-old girl here named Ruby who knows how to deliver a ministry school assignment brilliantly. She hardly looked at her notes, she spoke freely from the heart, and used expressive gestures. Her masterful performance nearly moved me to tears although I understood not a word. Afterwards I was able to communicate my heartfelt commendation easily because she speaks Spanish, English, and French. I'm sure glad she's on our side.

Ruby

Errands

While Carol and Heather had a great time in the service this morning, discovering additional English speakers in the territory, Dan and I did only a little then had to ride about the town on household errands. Here is the Hall in San Juan Del Rio where their Tuesday service arrangement is held.

Sitting in the passenger seat of Dan's car I snapped photos of things appearing snapworthy, such as the scene below ...

I find it interesting that newer Mexican housing strongly favors boxy shapes. Some row housing developments stretch on for a mile with box after regimented box. Below is a photo of a new housing development, currently a forest of reinforcing rods awaiting to be inundated with concrete.

A feature of this town is the many cobble-stone roads. They appear to be part of a strategy to keep motorists from speeding. It is certainly effective. Driving 40 kilometers an hour on a road like the one shown below would result in one's car rapidly disassembling. This road is, as you likely noticed, extraordinarily wide. Further along it narrows into a road only one third this width. So why all the acreage in this section? Could the builders have been like the speaker who goes overtime because he feels he must use all the available material?

Below is a photo of where we had lunch today, behind the first arched window. Their quesadillas and tacos are superb but today I ordered Dan's favorite lunch: a fruit dish with yogurt and granola. It was a treat. Yes, that's Dan's Corolla lower right.

Some of these streets have more traffic than others with several nearly deserted when we passed. Yet enterprising individuals set up displays or simply stand on a corner holding things to sell. The absence of pedestrian traffic seems irrelevant to them as does the marketability of their merchandise. A prime example of this, to my mind, was the man standing on a corner holding, with effort, a large round wooden pedestal table for the rare passing motorist to see. This was his sole product. One either wanted his table or not. Later, when returning we saw him walking bent with the table on his back to another unpopulated corner.

Last but not least, I show you the design of Dan's dining room wall. It is a concrete wall of course and textured with subtle vertical ribbing. Dan successfully painted the two-tone color scheme incorporating a strikingly sharp, straight, and smooth line. I must say it is interesting how that visually perfect line grows on one. The look is ultra-simple yet it is an admirable work of art.

Odds & Ends - Part 2

Here are some photos I could not, for some reason, locate yesterday ...

 Above: Photo 1 of the pool hall girls. (And you thought I was kidding).

 Discussing tournament strategies.

 Heather sinks one in a side pocket.

Dan emerging from the municipal water department office content in the assurance he will still be able to wash the dishes this evening.

Odds & Ends

Today I accompanied Dan to town where he paid his monthly water bill. The local procedure is not without the element of entertainment since one does not pay the bill by check, or mail, or online. One goes downtown to the municipal water department located in a storefront office on a main street. There a person stands in line, his fist full of cash waiting for his turn to dole out payment. Reportedly it is good to be punctual making payment since otherwise the expiry date on the bill will be marked by the prompt halt of water flowing to one's house.

So Dan handled the matter today ensuring that showers and flushes shall continue for the foreseeable future. Drinking water of course is of more exacting provenance.

This evening I went with Dan to make a couple of return visits on men who had shown interest in the past. They both run businesses which operate in the evening so our time with them was necessarily limited. The first is a dance instructor with a sign in his entrance featuring belly dancing. He came out onto the street for fifteen minutes to talk, watched a Spanish video I had on my iPad, then invited us back next week for another fifteen minute session. The second fellow runs a health club in which he sells natural remedies and health-promoting products. The three of us considered scriptures over cups of Aloe Vera. As for Carol and Heather, they joined a friend in the congregation at the local pool hall to shoot pool. You read that right. Carol, recovering from a broken shoulder, discovered it was still premature for her to exploit her skills as a pool shark.

The above photo is of Dan waiting for the gates to his Privada to open. I have observed there is a custom, not mandatory but preferred, to simply wait for someone inside to leave in order to make group usage of the electric gate. Sometimes two or three cars will wait outside for someone inside to leave. This normally requires a wait of not more than five minutes. Then a car will exit and the ones waiting outside will enter, as well as the occasional random pedestrian - a creative use of security installations.

Sunday Meeting

Today we returned to Tequisquiapan where I received a lesson in how to pronounce it. For the curious it is: Tay-keece-KWEE-a-pan, accent on the capital letters. This lesson was patiently administered to me by Alexandro, an interested person whom I met at the meeting. He does many things for a living: gardening, guitar playing & singing, teaching English to  the Spanish, and Spanish to the English. When he said he also knew Italian I spoke the only line in Italian I know which translates as "I always get nervous when I speak Italian." Thinking I actually knew the language he took off speaking Italian to me. Carol snapped a photo of us ...

The Circuit Overseer gave the talk in his gentle manner which was very pleasant listening. His illustrations were good and I'll share two of them.

The first was directed to those who at one time were able to do much in Jehovah's service but for whatever reason, health issues, age, etc. are no longer able to perform as before. It can be a discouraging circumstance. So he told the story of a woman who would follow a path to a creek every morning to fill two buckets with water that she would bring back to use during the day. One bucket was old, dented, and eventually developed a small leak. Instead of arriving home with two buckets full of water, the woman now arrived with only one and a half. After a while the leaky bucket said to her (as the CO said, 'It's a story'), "You may as well replace me with a new bucket. I'm no good to you any more. With me you're only getting half the water home." Some with limitations may feel like saying something similar to Jehovah. The woman replied to the bucket, "Thanks to your leak I've been able, every day, to water the flowers I planted along my path. Look how beautiful the flowers have made it!" The moral of the story is that we need to see ourselves as Jehovah sees us and not according to our own limited viewpoint. We need to 'stop and smell the flowers.'

The other illustration was to instruct us to be good spiritual 'shoppers.' A woman might have a peach colored purse and shoes and go shopping for a blouse that would match them. After much searching she notices a beautifully styled blouse in precisely the right color. She feels this is exactly what she needs. It's absolutely perfect! But on closer scrutiny she notices the material is cheap and the stitching is hit-and-miss. The blouse has been made in a shoddy way. So she promptly places it back on the rack. It is similar with what the world has to offer us as opposed to what Jehovah offers. The world may offer things that, at first sight, seem ideally suited for us. But we need to be good shoppers and look closely to recognize what we would really get, which is cheap and shoddy compared to what Jehovah offers.

The post-meeting scene ...

A scene on the road to the Kingdom Hall ...

A scene in San Juan Del Rio ...

San Juan Del Rio is at an altitude of 6,350 feet. Carol and I are finding the effects of the thinner air more noticeable than two years ago when we visited Dan & Heather in San Luis Potosi (altitude 6,070 feet). The increased altitude here is modest but the diminished oxygen supply causes us to tire more quickly, and sometimes to feel out of breath after a little exertion. Mexico City is a thousand feet higher than San Juan Del Rio which is a remarkable thing considering that over 8,000 feet is considered a 'death zone,' according to my Web research, where getting acclimatized is just not something the average person can count on. So if ever you are in Mexico city, you would be well advised to avoid taking a breather on the rooftop of any 65 story buildings. Not much to breathe.