Taxco, México

Austin and I were supposed to wake up at 8am, but woke up at 9am instead because we needed more than 3 hours of sleep. We were supposed to meet friends at a certain bus station at 10:30am, but when we told Mamá, she said that that was the wrong bus station and wouldn't take us where we wanted to go. She gave us the correct bus station, but Austin and I went to the wrong one to wait for our friends. After everyone arrived, we stuffed ourselves into a taxi (6 of us: Austin, Beth, Sara, Logan, Tómas, and me) and went to the right bus stop.


We arrived in Taxco an hour and 30 minutes later. We went to a resturant to get something to eat. I thought I'd be adventerous so I got something on the menu that I didn't even know what it was. I was apprehensive at first, but when it arrived, I was glad I ordered it. It was incredibly tasty and I kept talking about how good it was all day. ALso, I usually don't like guacamole, but this place had incredible guacamole and tortilla chips--not chips in a bag but real fried tortillas.


Taxco is on a hill (much like a Mediterranean city), so Tomás started leading us up the hill. We walked for about 45 minutes when I decided that we were going nowhere. I expressed my concern to the group that we weren't getting anywhere, only walking in poor streets. Tomás said that we should keep going and everyone agreed; we pressed on.


The walk was pretty hard because of the steepness of the streets. One girl, Sara, was having a hard time. She was usually behind everyone else by 15 feet. I didn't want her to feel left out, so I stayed near her to make her feel better. I thought of what my father would do in the same situation and tried to emulate what he would do. I can remember my father always walking in the back of large groups to make sure everyone was okay--he always acted like a shepherd. I knew that if I didn't help Sara, I would be disappointing myself and my father.

Everything was okay until I said we should take a break. Sara was exhausted and so was I. Everyone said, "Yeah, let's take a break" and sat down. After 2 minutes, Tomás said he wanted to see how much further we had to walk. He started walking away and then everyone else followed. It upset me that we were supposed to be taking a break and we didn't; it was selfish of them to not wait. After 5 minutes, Sara and I pressed on.

We caught up with them and came upon some steep steps--about 100 of them. Once she saw them, Sara said that she couldn't go any further and told everyone else to continue. There was no way, I thought, that we'd leave her by herself. Unfortunatly, I was wrong. Everyone else pressed on. While Sara urged me to go with the group, I told her I wasn't leaving her. I don't believe any group should leave a person behind. I was angry that the rest of them left us and thought it was okay to do so. I really wanted to go to the top, but I would never leave Sara's side. In an enlightened moment, Sara said, "You know, it would be really lame if we walked this far and stopped here." I agreed and was excited at her determination.

We took our walk slowly, playing a game of how many steps we could take. On our way up, I heard Keane playing from a stereo and thought how cool globalization is. There was a kid trying to carry a bike up some stairs, so I carried it for him.

It's funny because the other people who left Sara and I are pretty liberal, so I had this thought: How could these people with liberal ideologies who express compassion for the poor and other travesties not display compassion for someone who needed it right in front of their eyes? I think its great that people have compassion in a theoretical way, but only true application really means anything. I still think those who left us are great people, but I was disappointed in their lack of moral judgement.

We finally met up with them and walked for 20 minutes, finally reaching the highest point in the city. The view was spectacular and totally worth the clib. There were some Mexican children who helped us fnid the place and I enjoyed talking to them. Whenever I see kids, I'm reminded of Ryan Oliver Hansen and try to do what he would do around them.




After 30 minutes of talking and resting, we walked back down. It went more quickly this time (though for me, it hurt more because of gravity). I took tons of pictures and was glad when Beth looked at them and said she liked them. I fell asleep on the bus ride home, tired from an exhausing day.