Mexico City!

The week before Thanksgiving we took the SMCA kids and families on a 5 day trip to Mexico City! The trip was packed full of exploring the city and learning more about Mexican history and culture. What a joy it was for me to see the kids so excited about learning and experiencing some of the things that we had been learning about in the classroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 1 was a day filled with travel. Since we were driving 8 hours, with 18 kids, we decided that it would be wise to break up the trip with some stops along the way. So we took a couple of hours to explore the city of San Luis Potosi.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Day 2 we headed out of the city to the Teotihuacan Pyramids.

The Pyramid of the Sun.
On top of the Pyramid of the Sun.

Juan Porto is one of the teen home parents on our campus and he grew up in Mexico City. He kindly offered to be our tour guide and teach us about all of the sites that we would be visiting. Above is a picture of Juan explaining to us the history of Teotihuacan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Day 3 we toured the Palace of Chapulepec, explored the Museum of Anthropolgy and ended the day hanging out at the Children's Museum. Below is a picture of Hope, Ruby and I in the palace.

Above is all the kids with the palace in the background.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Day 4 we walked around downtown and visited the Federal Palace.


Inside of the Federal Palace.



Mexico City is built on top of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. In the heart of downtown is el templo meyor. The is the site where the top of the largest pryamid is being excavated. It is incredible to think that while I was walking through the city, an entire ancient civilization was buried under my feet. Mexico City is also built on what used to be a large lake. Due to this, many old buildings have begun to sink. If you look closely at many of the buildings you will notice that they have a slight tilt to them.

Downtown we found many beautiful buildings! Above is a picture of the Theater and Architecture Museum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Throughout the trip we also ate some delicious... and unique... Mexican delicacies!

Ruby and I ate grasshoppers! The flavor was not too bad, they tasted mainly like salt and lime! However, the picture below will show you that the texture freaked me out a bit at first. I have to admit that the crunchiness came as a bit of a surprise to me. And finding a little leg between my teeth was a very new experience for me.


Below is the taco stand near Juan's mom's house. He insisted that we try some tacos made by his friends. They sure were delicious! Did I mention that they were cow eye tacos?


Yum yum! We love tacos!!
Here are all the flavors that you could order for the inside of your churro!!
The market where we did some shopping!


And just to prove that the trip had an educational focus, here is a picture of the kids writing in the travel journals that we kept throughout the trip. They used their journals for notes, sketches and reflections throughout the trip!
Thank you so much for reading my blog and your interest in the work I am doing with my kids. Many exciting things have been happening on our campus over the past few weeks and I believe that God is working in mighty ways in the Casa Hogars that we work with. I hope to make another video blog this week to try and help you see the bigger picture of the work Back2Back Mexico does. Until then, I pray that you have a wonderful week and are able to spend some time serving those around you as the Christmas season draws near!

With a heart filled with joy,

Jessica