Mountains

Yes it has been a while. I'm sorry. I have however, been a part of a couple cool things over the past few weeks.

The most famous landmark in Monterrey is the Cerro de la Silla. This is a mountain that juts up above Monterrey and looks like a saddle. It looks really cool. On one of the peaks there is a huge antenna. Also, there is a path that leads up to the antenna. Four guys from the church and I decided that we wanted to climb up the mountain and reach the top, aka the antenna. One Saturday morning very early I got up and went to the church. After waiting around for a long time (Latin American time), we finally all gathered together and set off for the mountain. We parked at someone's house and the trailhead was maybe a quarter mile away.

The trail was actaully a jeep trail. Though there were some parts that I think would have been difficult even or a Jeep. Not to mention the large vehicle we saw that had rolled off the trail down into the woods a few kilometes up the trail. Anyway, eventually we made it to the top. The view was awesome. Monterrey is so much bigger than I originally thought. It took us about three hours to get to the top, we stayed there and hour, and it took two hours to get back down. My legs were sore for the next two days. It was a great hike.

A couple weeks after that we went to the second-most recognizable landmark in Monterrey-Chipinque. Chipinque is a massive park with lots and lots of trails. All on the side of a mountain. This time instead of five guys, we had six guys and three girls. Chipinque, at least the part we did, wasn't nearly as difficult as Cerro de la Silla. It took us 2 maybe 2.5 hours to reach the "Meseta," which is a large recreational area. It has a playground, souvenir place, food place, and lots of squirrels, which some people enjoy giving food to. After that long getting up (though we did take lots of breaks at various stopping points and playgrounds and for pictures) it only took us 45 minutes to get back down. We were going pretty quickly. The total distance traveled was about 4.5 Kilometers, a little under 3 miles. It was funny the next day seeing people sore at church. I wa glad that my legs were fine.

After Chipinque, the young people had a devo at someone's house. Then four of the guys including me, plus two other people who go to a different church (one from out of town) went to the World Cup Qualifying game between Mexico and Belize. It was their second game and Mexico won the first 2-0. One of the guys bought a jersey for me, my face was painted, and I wore my red bandana, so I was pretty decked out. The game was an absolute rout. Mexico won seven to zero. It was a lot of fun.

I guess those a the big things that have happened recently. In the school we lost one teacher but four others came. Classes. Etc. I have three weeks and two days left in Mexico. I am now on the final downhill slope. Anyway, I guess that is all.

_W_