Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It's been a pretty hectic couple of weeks! About two weeks ago, I headed to Tuxpan again with a woman connected to the ministry here in order to run a few errands for Dave. We had a good time in the city--had lunch and walked around a bit. I took some pictures and wanted to give you an idea of what the city is like here. It's SOO different from the country, where I'm living. In fact, the differences are shocking sometimes to me! Every time I go to Tuxpan or a bigger city, like Tepic or Mazatlan, I feel like I've stepped back into the 20th-21st century; but then I return home to Cofradia, and it feels like I've stepped back in time a bit--almost like the 20th century, but in many ways it's like stepping back about 50 years! It's a very strange experience and extremely difficult to put to words, but perhaps the pictures will indeed communicate the thousands of words that I seem unable to find.

Ok, so tthese are a shot of a typical street in Tuxpan (left) and a typical street in Cofradia (right). Notice the stark difference! I don't really enjoy going to Tuxpan because it is SOOO crowded that it just makes me nervous. There are so many people walking around and the roads and sidewalks are PACKED with cars and sidewalk shops or eateries (for lack of a better word for the little places you can stop and eat that aren't really like restaurants, etc.). However, in Cofradia, I can walk down the street and breathe, and enjoy the plain beauty that God has placed in this country. It's almost like getting back to what's real.

Speaking of sidewalk shopping and eateries:

The sidewalks there are swarming with vendors selling everything from food to shoes to jewlry and more! In addition, you can also see the buildings that are full of stores as well! It's crazy! As you can see, this is me in just such a store--a flower shop.

Isabel and I stopped and ate at a little sidewalk eatery that made really good seafood stuff. So we had what they call Jugo de Camarones (the J sounds like an H)--literally, that means Shrimp Juice, but as you can see it's really like a brothy soup. I believe the broth is tomatoe based, and it has shrimp in it along with onions and cucumbers and some other vegetables. You can get it cold or hot. Mine was kind of in between, but it was really good!

One other thing I got see in Tuxpan was the market (below). They have stores there in Tuxpan--like general stores really, but they call them Farmacias (Pharmacies), whether they dispense medications or not. But they have markets too. They are sort-of open air, in that they are covered but don't have doors on the entrances. There are booths set up, and it seems that they are permanent booths. Perhaps the vendors rent them or something I don't know, but they have a meat section and a fruits and vegetables section and all kinds of other stuff. It was pretty neat to see that! You don't see those in the states anymore, really! This was one of those times where it felt like the modern times mixed with about 50 years ago or more. It's really weird! And again, really crowded--which you can't really see in this picture, because we were there right before siesta time started (2-4 every day), which is when everyone shuts down to go home and have lunch, relax, or whatever. Then they open back up again around 4:30-5 pm for evening vending hours which generally end later than what we are used to.