“Adventurers do not wear makeup!”

The plan for the day had originally been to wake up early and begin our journey/hike to the pyramids here in Mexico City. Our plan went wrong first when the alarm did not go off. So, the day began a little later and plans changed. Instead we decided to travel far far away in the Metro to the Basilica de la virgin Guadalupe. We traveled there, yes all by ourselves. We climbed the big hill all the way to the top where there is a church. We ate at the usual café that my family goes to at the basilica and we went through all of the catholic churches. My heart longs to see the people of Mexico free from the bondage of Catholicism. They seem trapped. Catholicism has ripped them off. This was Lauren’s first time to the Basilica and this is still her first time in Mexico. It was neat to see her enthusiasm for the people here and heart for those who are so trapped in religion.
From there, we continued on, through the metro of course, to the center. Here is where Lauren practices her favorite hobby: shopping. I love to shop, but I have my limits…Lauren has none. Before we began shopping though, we went through the Palacio Naccional, containing many of the paintings of Diego Rivera, retelling the history of Mexico. Though Rivera was Marxist and had a rather distorted view of some things, his paintings on the history of Mexico are exquisite and quite fascinating. He has become one of my favorite painters. In order to get out of the palace, Lauren and I had to shuffle past many of the French tourist groups visiting. We felt very at home with so many white faces surrounding us. It was so comical to be in the middle of Mexico, but surrounded by so many French people. Though this may already seem like a packed full day, it still continued. We shopped and shopped and shopped at the center, then continued to shop at another market in Balderas. Here it started to rain, but we were not able to find what Lauren was specifically shopping for so we continued to ANOTHER market in Coyocan, near our house. Finally we found one of the things she needed and decided to be a little adventurous as well. If you have never experienced the art of Henna, well, you should! I have the drawing of a flower around my wrist while Lauren has a small bird. We finally ended our journey by giving our feet a rest and taking a taxi home. My feet are currently still resting, but in a foot spa, much deserved after the amount of walking completed. Tomorrow we look forward to the pyramids!

Funny moment of the day: Every time someone whistles at us or stares, Lauren gets rather upset and calls it quite rude. Needless to say that there is a lot of that here in Mexico City…Constantly! So we are sitting at the café place in the basilica for about an hour. The whole time we were sitting there, we kept hearing someone whistle, over and over again. Lauren and I kept looking around, trying to figure out what was doing that rude whistling. Was it at us? Was it a machine? After an hour of wondering, we finally looked behind one of the vender counters and saw a lovely green parrot, just whistling away. We laughed at ourselves and the whole situation. There was no one rudely whistling at us, it was just a silly bird.
April 6, 2010