Tag Archives: Mexico

South of the Border~Part 1

15 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill LItes

Bill Stars Plane

 

In the summer of 2002 our church here in Titusville, FL sponsored a construction project and trip to northeastern Mexico, to build houses for homeless people living in that area. A Christian family organization by the name of Only A Servant Ministries, Inc. (OSM) in San Antonio, Texas organizes the building project trips. Once the trip plans and funding have been finalized with a given visiting group, OSM coordinates locating the building sites, securing all the necessary local Mexican permits, and arranging for power and water to each building site. Then they clear the designated sites, dig the foundations, pour the slabs and buy all the necessary building materials for each visiting team they have arriving to build a very basic 16’ x 20’ house.   All of this is done ahead of the arrival date of the visiting groups, so that no time is taken away from the actual building time. They also schedule travel time to and from the building sites in Mexico, and arrange for all transportation, housing and food requirements for the visiting groups. It’s a huge coordination effort that they somehow managed to accomplish, sometimes as many as12-15 times each year. 1                                    For our particular trip, 23 of us left Orlando, FL on Saturday, and flew to San Antonio, TX where we were met by our OSM hosts, the Kennedy family. After we found all of our luggage, we had a quick lunch (nothing is very quick when you are dealing with 25 people) and then headed for the Singing Hills Retreat Center (about 45 minutes northeast of San Antonio), where we would spend the night. 2 After settling in, we had time to visit the Kennedy’s ranch compound (about 30 minutes from the retreat center), where we did some relaxing, and then some of our group helped prepare dinner for the large gathering (the Kennedys had 10 of their 13 children at home for that meal). After dinner, we had a wonderful time getting acquainted with everyone, before we headed back to the Retreat Center for a good night’s rest. 3 After breakfast Sunday morning, we traveled to the nearby Natural Bridge Park and attended a short church service in the park. After the church service, we toured the Natural Bridge Caverns, which were discovered in 1960, and get their name from the limestone slab bridge, which was formed when a sinkhole collapsed below it, and now spans the cavern’s entrance. These caverns are beautiful and said to be some of the largest commercial caverns in the United States. 4 After our tour, we stopped for lunch at the Alamo Café, and then took time for a short stroll on the famous River Walk which it is said evolved, over the years, from the aftermath of a 1921 flood of the San Antonio River. After that beautiful experience, we headed back to the Kennedy ranch for some free time. 5 Then, after dinner, our group all gathered around so Ken could give us a detailed pre-trip briefing about what we could expect during the next week’s activities. After the briefing, we were free to enjoy the serenity of the ranch and its surroundings before heading back to the Retreat Center and bed.

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—–To be continued—–

 

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Our Cruise to Mexico-Part 4

31 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

Judy

Our last port of call was Key West.  Fred had been there on one of his Air Force business trips, but it was new to me.  I knew there were a lot of bars there, and that was of no interest to me.  But I also knew there was a lot of history there, and was eager to see the sights. We docked at a good time, but for some reason, they wouldn’t let us off the ship for two hours!  There were people in boats below us yelling for us to “come on down!”  And we wished we could.

And so, when we finally were able to disembark, everything BUT the bars was closed!  We had no opportunity to see Hemingway’s house,

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or the lighthouse and keeper’s house,

 

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or the Key West Museum of Art and History

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– or just about anything else.  We were quite disappointed.  But it was still daylight enough to see the outsides of the buildings and bronze plaques annotating the sites.

We were able to see the southern most house in the U.S.,

 

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and the southern most point in the continental U.S.,

 

7and other things.  We saw the Mile Marker 0 (Zero) sign for U.S. 1.  That was important to Fred and me, since we had seen the other end of it when we lived in northern Maine.

 

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There was a “street party” going on that lasted past the sundown, which was fun and interesting.  We wandered our way through that, and around some shops, then watched the sun sink slowly behind the horizon.  Our last glimpse was of a tall ship, which was really pretty against the setting sun.

 

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Back to the ship and head for Charleston and home.

We had always been delighted and amused while on board cruises, to find the “towel animals” that the crew put together – and on our bed each night.  Most were fairly recognizable – some required some imagination.  But it was fun to see what animal was going to greet us as we returned to our stateroom each evening.  What do you think?

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OUR CRUISE TO MEXICO – Part 3

24 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

 Judy Wills

Judy

                                                     

The next day, our port of call was Cozumel.  We docked at a small island and caught a fast ferry boat to Playa del Carmen.  Very touristy town.

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Brian had pre-arranged a car/van for the six of us to take us to Tulum and the Mayan ruins there.  The car was arranged through Avis, so we thought we were safe.  However, when we tried to find the address where the Avis rental store was – it wasn’t there!  We even checked in with the police station, and they had no clue where it was!  Brian actually called Avis to find out what was going on.  Finally, after walking around the town for about an hour, he was able to find out they had built a lovely new showroom – on the outskirts of town!  Apparently the Avis company didn’t realize this – had no record of it, etc.  In any case, we climbed into two taxi’s, and were on our way.

While the rest of us freshened up, Brian got the car.  Turns out, they had given away the van he had reserved, and the only vehicle they had was a Jeep that only held five bodies, so Katie sprawled in the luggage area of the vehicle.  Not very comfortable.

And especially not comfortable when we were hurtling down the road at 60 mph and came to an unmarked HUGE speed bump!  She was literally bounced to the roof of the car, and banged her head, causing her to cry out!  After this happened the second time, she tearfully announced that Forrest was riding back there on the way back!!  There were three speed bumps on that road, and only the third one was marked!

We finally arrived at Tulum.  We had a light lunch, and Brian arranged with a local to be our guide through the ruins.  Before we headed off, we were treated to a show of pole dancers.  No, it’s not what you think – this was a group of four men, dressed in native costume, at the top of a tall pole, who allowed themselves to be dropped nearly to the bottom of the pole (and the ground!) and swung around.  Very festive, but certainly not something I would want to attempt.

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And then we began our tour of the ruins.  Fred and I have always enjoyed roaming around ruins – whether in New Mexico, Texas, Europe, or now Mexico.  Our girls enjoyed it, as well, so this would be a fun trip.We were quite interested in seeing the “village” and the building there.  We saw the temple and it’s outbuildings.

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One structure that interested us quite a bit was at the top of a hill.  Our guide, Ernie, said that it was an “early warning system” that the Mayan’s had built-in for hurricanes.  When a hurricane was coming, the wind would blow through that building – or the “hole” within it – and make a unique sound.  And it only sounded when a hurricane was approaching – no other storm would make that same sound.  Fred, being a meteorologist, was fascinated by this piece of information and the ingenuity of those ancient peoples.

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When we returned to Playa del Carmen, Brian dropped us off and he went to return the car.  We were concerned that he wouldn’t get back to the ferry in time to make the ship, but did – running at top speed!

More to come……….

 

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