Mexico "Swine Flu" City

WARNING: anyone who is stressed/concerned about getting the swine flu should stop reading this post because the author was in Mexico City from April 24- April 26.Dun dun dun......

So Friday, April 24 - we all flew down to Mexico City and arrived around lunch time. The first thing we notice as we're coming out of our gate and walking through customs are BLUE MASKS (scary!). My dad asked the lady who was checking our passports why everyone who was working in the airport was wearing one of these masks. She mentioned something about something going around. Nearly an hour later, as we're safely nestled in the City, CNN breaks the possible pandemic and outbreak of something called the Swine Flu... or in Mexico called Influenza de Porcina. Before we got on the plane down to Mexico, there had not been a single news flash, article, or warning about the swine. Why were we headed to Mexico? Click here.

As we pulled into Benemerito, the wonderful and promising High School located in Mexico City (owned by the church), classrooms were empty along with the campus. The President of Mexico and the Secretary of Health canceled all schools and major public events as a precautionary. Naturally, I was a concerned about the whole thing, because now my family, Thayne and Muy, and the rest of our crew were right in Mexico City, where everything was ordered to be shut down, and people were wearing blue masks. Not only this, but my brother Stephen is serving in Mexico City, and I was worried about him too.

Anyway, all of this didn't stop the school from serving us a wonderful dinner and providing excellent entertainment. Benemerito is famous for many things, among them is the Ballet Folkoriko. It is an amazing performance of about 25 dances all together, which include many costume changes, and musical numbers. The costumes are all so bright and colorful, and very intricate. We all enjoyed it, except for I think Adam and Muy may have slept through some of it, and I don't know how because the dances were accompanied by some of the most powerful speakers I've ever heard. It was a lot of fun!After the ballet, headed for taco-mania. I enjoyed some of the best tacos ever here. The whole crew enjoying a late night taco stand.

After the performance, we walked around the block to a little taco place for a midnight snack. Tacos de Habeneros was more like a midnight meal. Queso fundito, and nearly 20 other dishes filled our wobbly table on the side of the road in true taco stand fashion. We all hungout there for about an hour, and had so much fun! Thayne was a champ, and ate enough tacos for me and him, so I didn't have to. That night we slept at Bene, Muy and I bonded. I borrowed her shampoo, she borrowed my blow dryer, it was great.

The next day we got on a little bus provided by the people at Bene and headed to Cholula. Cholula is at the base of Xalizintla, the village that we originally came to ten years ago. Up in Xali, were a very grateful group of people who had been in need of wheelchairs for a long time and received them. While my parents spent the afternoon up in the villages... Thayne and I, and Adam and Muy began a day of walking and lots of eating...like four meals for dinner eating. We stayed at Club Med, right near the base of the very famous pyramid.Awesome shoppers.
I don't speak Spanish, therefore I blame these beer flavored suckers on these two that DO speak the language!Me and Thayners at the base of the pyramid. Pastry break! 12 pastries...for $3 , delish.Cold chocolate foamy drink. We thought Adam knew what was good since he lived here for two years, but this certainly was not good. The end of the night. The forth and final meal, Muy has to spoon feed Adam.

Before we knew it, the next morning, we were back on the road headed into the city. As we passed through the main toll to get into the city, they handed enough masks for everyone in our bus to wear. To be honest, I felt like we were in a movie trying to escape to somewhere like the movie I Am Legend or Outbreak. Thankfully, we all made it back into Salt Lake safe and sound. What a fun trip! Inside the airport straight from church.Nothing Burger.Kinda ready to get back to the states.

Thanks for the awesome trip!