I'm bringing Xanga back - drop a comment if you're with me!

 This past week I was able to visit a very cool place in Mexico. It is a now-famous ghost-town in central Mexico, called Real de Catorce (Ray-al day Cat-or-say). The town was originally built in the mid-1700s as a mining town. There was approximately 10,000 inhabitants, but I guess when they decided to close down the mine most of the people left. There are about 1,000 people that now live there - some of them original descendents of the original towns people. Many of the original buildings are still standing but are abandoned and have been for a few centuries. The approach to the town starts at the base of a mountain and is a "cobblestone" road. I say "cobblestone" because it is basically a stone road but not so even in how it was laid although I suppose after centuries of burros and wagons and now vehicles it is no wonder that it is fairly bumpy. The cobblestone road winds up the mountain for 24 km until a tunnel is reached. This is the originally constructed tunnel the miners used in the 1700s and not too much has been added to it although apparently about 5 years ago they put in some lights (that may have been for the movie, The Mexican, with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, which was filmed in Real de Catorce even though in the movie it says that the town is called San Miguel - interesting too that they make you think that this town is close to the Toluca airport. The Toluca airport is about 45 minutes from my house and Real de Catorce is a 7 hour drive - Hollywood, go figure). The tunnel itself is a 2 km long dirt road through the mountin with numerous cave entrances and even a chapel in the side along the way (the entrance from the town side is pictured above with Amanda). It is a one-way road so there is someone at each end of the tunnel letting you know if it is safe to pass. The entrance to the town is a mass of VERY steep cobblestone streets. Most of the buildings are over 250 years old. The "hotel" we stayed in belongs to an original family of the town and it is really one of their houses refurbished to allow for overnight guests. The photo to the left is the street that passed by our hotel. The buildings are quite spectacular and the view is beautiful from the top of the ridge. There are old churches, cemeteries, an old cock-fighting ring and even an old bull-fighting ring as well. Up until about 10 years ago the only visitors to the town were those searching for free peyote to consume in the desert. I met a guy from France who told me that was why he originally went to Real de Catorce - he spent 3 years in the desert before he came upon the town with all its bountiful supply of peyote nearby. He is now married to a Mexican from the town and they have a little souvenir shop. About 10 years ago some Europeans stumbled upon the town and decided it would make a cool tourist destination so started buying some of the huge abandoned stone homes for as little as $500. Now there are a number of Europeans (mostly Swiss and German and the lone French guy, as well as an American that call Real home). There are great restaurants, coffee shops, artensania shops and a very interesting history to take in. The town is small enough to walk everywhere, and there are plenty of guides willing to take you on horseback for a tour around the hills. We walked out to the old church and cemetery and saw a goat-herder on the hills with a herd of goats - a fairly common sight actually in this part of the country. We even went by the place where Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts stayed while filming there. I asked the lady who worked there what it was like to have such famous people in their little town, she just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders saying they weren't so famous to her. All is relative, isn't it? Anyway, I highly recommend it as a very unique location to visit. We spent two days there in a beautiful room with a lovely patio over-looking the town. We were only one block though from the newer church and the bellfry at the church seemed to really enjoy ringing those bells so sleeping was a little more difficult to accomplish as it was interrupted every 15 minutes.

  I was back in Canada for a couple weeks and was able to go with a couple Mexican friends - a brother and sister actually - Alejandro and Perla. We visited lots of different churches and met with the groups that have come down to be with us here in Mexico and then with those that are coming down this year. We were able to get a few days R&R in there and one of the days we snuck off to Banff and Lake Louise to see the beautiful mountains. When we were in Lake Louise they were getting ready for the ice sculpture contest and had already built a big castle out on the lake. It was so pretty and hard to believe that it was that cold as today it was about 28 degrees celsius here. We had a great time though as we experienced the beauty that is the Rocky Mountains. I love going there as the majesty of God is just so very obvious. Isn't it just beautiful with all the snow and the sun? Ahhh, I have missed that. Of course, seeing family and friends was just as wonderful. Except for the snowmobile crash everything was great!