To Guadalajara and Back

Dear Family and Friends,

Our trip to Guadalajara to attend the temple was eventful.  We left Thursday morning and returned Saturday night, and then Monday was a holiday so we didn't go to the office until late afternoon.  But the missionary recommendations keep rolling in. Now we are playing catch-up after missing 3 days of work.

The drive to Guadalajara was pleasant and the weather lovely.  We drove by a large lake.

And took several pictures of it and the nearby fields. Pretty scenery.

These yellow arches were some of the first landmarks we saw in the city. 

We had to hurry to get to the temple in time for a 5:00 p.m. session and didn't get a picture until after dark.

I was delighted to see that the temple president was Gilberto Cerda, one of 5 brothers who served as missionaries when my father was president of the Mexican Mission.  It was great to see him and his wife!

Of course everywhere we go I have to take pictures of flowers.  

We saw some beautiful ones in city parks and even along the highway.

Friday morning we went to a famous market place near Guatemala - Tlaquepaque.  Street scene.

And a picture of some of the plentiful restaurants surrounding a beautiful patio.

And some of the shops.

Guadalajara and the state of Jalisco are famous for their mariachis.  Fun statue!

Also known for their typical colorful costumes.  This was a 3-D mural on a wall of one of the restaurants.

We didn't see any mariachis that day, but we did see and listen to some marimbas.

This store has a clever way of entertaining children while their mothers shopped for beauty supplies inside.

One of the things we enjoyed was sitting in the shade in the central plaza.

We were entertained by watching some guys trimming the trees with machetes.

And this woman was sweeping up the trimmings with a palm frond broom.  I am fascinated by how many people sweep the sidewalks or yards with palm leaves.  They are long and cover a lot of ground.

Most parks have the trees trimmed in shapes:  circles, squares, and sometimes even like animals.

This park in Leon, Guanajuato, where we were Friday afternoon had trees trimmed like gumdrops or Dots.

Also there were many vendors around.  I was impressed by this colorful mountain of balloons and balls.

Look at the size of these pieces of bread!  I think the panadería/bread store must supply giants.

We left Leon about 3:30 p.m. and were supposed to be in the city of Guanajuato where we were to spend Friday night in less than an hour.  Well, it took us over 4 hours to get there!  Near the town of Silao a gas tanker truck had tipped over and blocked traffic going both ways.  We laughed at this sign above the road as we inched our way along at 1 mile/hour.  It says "This road is not for high velocity."  We were very tired when we finally arrived after 9:00 p.m.

Our hotel in Guanajuato, Real de Minas, was lovely and picturesque.  

I must have taken a dozen pictures there.   

We spent a comfortable night and had a delicious breakfast buffet there and also at our hotel in Guadalajara. There is always an abundance of a variety of fresh fruit along with cereals, eggs, sweet breads, and an assortment of Mexican food. 

The hotel was full of arches and flowers.

Plus nooks where where you can sit and admire the beautiful architecture and decor.

It began to rain during the night and rained all day so we didn't get to enjoy the unique city as much as we would have liked.

Since the town is built on hills, it is hard to build roads, so there is a maize of underground streets/tunnels to get around the city.

Another thing the city is famous for is its mummies.  After a person has been buried for 5 years, if the family does not continue to pay rent for a grave-sight, the remains are removed to a large common grave.  However, it was discovered that many of the remains did not disintegrate but were dehydrated or mummified.  

They had not been embalmed but were still preserved by the chemicals in the soil.  Now they have over 100 mummies in a museum near the cemetery.  Not my favorite stop on the tour of the town.

Much more interesting to me was a tour of an old abandoned mine.

Between 1768 and 1804 about 2/3 of the silver produced in the world came out of the mines there.  Note the vein of minerals in the ceiling of this mine. 

There was also gold found in the mines, but mainly silver. Some mines are still in operation.

Some in our party were anxious to get home before late at night, so we had a nice noon meal at a restaurant on the town square and left.  Note the trees here all trimmed to form a hedge.  Guanajuato is definitely a city I would like to visit again. 

In spite of some traffic weather problems, we had a good trip.  Best of all for me was being in the temple.  I miss not being about to attend 3-4 times a month as I did in Utah.  Only being able to go once every 3 months makes it more special.  I especially enjoyed doing some initiatory ordinances in Spanish after our session.  It is the first time I have been able to do it in 8 years, since Guatemala.  We are excited that the Mexico City Temple will be open again in September.  The open house will go from August 14th to September 5th, and the dedication will be September 13th.  I hope some of our family and friends will be able to attend.

Love to all of you until next time,

Michelle / Mom/ Hna. Sandberg  

NEWS FLASH:  We experience our first earthquake since being here this afternoon.  Gilbert and I were in the office alone about closing time and I felt my chair shake a bit.  I looked towards the window and saw the vertical blinds swaying and told Gilbert I thought we were having a small earthquake. Then over the loud speaker the announcement was made that we should go to our safety stations near the elevators.  We are on the 11th floor.  When we got there, many others from our floor had already gathered.  We chatted for awhile and then returned to our offices.