Mexican Road Trip

Well folks, I just returned from our road trip down to Uxpanapa for the Mass of Thanksgiving for Br. Juan Manuel Alzamar, the trip was long and arduous and not without its problems and typical misunderstandings and disagreements among the passengers!

Br. Nereo, Br. Fermin and I left Queretaro,  Thursday at around noon.  Our first destination was Puebla to pick up Br. Chuy for the ride to Uxpanapa.  Our plan was to drive to Puebla and spend the night and leave the next morning for the trip.  In Mexico, it is difficult to get a direct answer to a question.  When I asked how long the trip would take, I received four different answers from four different brothers, and each answer was said with a great deal of certainty.  The trip to Puebla was pretty uneventful, a four hour drive, but we hit a lot of traffic as we entered the city of Puebla...there is always construction happening.  For many of the drivers, they do not let the idea of a "shoulder" of the road get in the way of them using it for transportation...yes, it was a mess and scary at times. 

We arrived in Puebla and were greeted warmly by the Brothers there.  So, when we were thinking about what time to leave, the Mexican Brothers agreed upon 4am....4Am!!!!!!!! So, of course, I asked if that was 4am American time or 4am Mexican time, and they assured me that we would depart on time.  So, whenever I have to wake up earlier than I usually wake up (5:30am) I usually do not sleep very well the night before.  Well, true to form, I kept looking at my watch thinking I was going to oversleep.  I did get some sleep. but I rose from my bed at 3:30am to take a shower to get ready for the 12 hour road trip ahead of us.  All of us were on time and we left shortly after 4am...so far so good!  We traveled for about 4 hours in the dark.  Both Nereo and Chuy were asleep in the back and I sat in the front so I felt like I needed to be awake for the driver.  We came to an area that was dense with fog.  We had to go up the mountain and down the mountain in dense fog with many trucks along the path.  Hail Mary, full of grace..... I was so tense by the time we finished the descent down the mountain, I was ready for a shot of tequila at 7am!  We continued traveling for about an hour and then stopped at a roadside "restaurant" where we filled up on eggs, coffee, and of course, tortillas!  The owners of the restaurant had a small roadside shrine with the images of Jesus and Mary surrounded by flowers.  So, after our breakfast, I did a blessing of the shrine for the owners.  They were very happy to receive the blessing.  I told them that their place was holy not only because of the images of Jesus and Mary, but because they treated each guest as if they were welcoming Jesus and Mary to their table....they smiled and thanked me.  Off we went to continue our long trip.  For some reason, Br. Fermin decided not to take the Autopista ( main highway) but decided upon taking the older highway----big mistake.  We traveled on a 1 lane highway for close to 8 hours and added about 2 hours to our travel time.  While we were making our way through the mountainous terrain, the car was giving us problems too.  Great, I am going to be stranded on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere....I'm sure my AAA card did not work in Mexico!  Once again....Hail, Mary, full of grace...I think I prayed enough during our trip that I do not have to pray at all during Lent this year!  So, the trip was long, the car was giving us trouble, and now it started to rain and the windshield wipers probably should have been changed two years ago.  We finally arrived at a town close to where we were headed...the Brothers thought we should stop and eat and then continue for a short distance (2 more hours) to our destination.  The meal was filling and the beer tasted great.  As we made our last push for our destination, we encountered roads that were drastically in need of repair.  Two hours of bouncing through potholes and swerving to avoid major puddles definitely gave me a headache.  Well, not to worry, we were going to stay at a hotel for two nights, so all shall be well...Well, it wasn't! We arrived at the 5 star hotel in town and were shown to our rooms.  My room smelled like smoke, the pillows, the sheets, everything.  At first, I thought I was just imagining it, so I left the room and entered again....I could feel my hair starting to take in the smell of stale smoke.  I thought I would tuff it out, but then went downstairs to see if I could change rooms, only to find the reception desk closed...so I had to stay in the stale smoke room for the night.  I took a sleeping pill so that I could sleep and placed my shirt over the pillow so that I would not directly smell the smoke.  I did sleep, but I also did wake up several times smelling smoke.  It was a rough night after a rough day.

In the morning, Nereo, Chuy and I  went to breakfast down the block and had a great breakfast.  We walked a bit in the town to see a property that the Marianists own and are trying to sell in the near future.  The rains started again, and I was the only one to bring my umbrella.  A bit wet, we returned to the hotel and changed our clothes for the Mass.  As an aside, the Brothers kept telling me that it was going to be very hot down south....I would be sweating through my clothes.  So, I brought short sleeves and only a heavy flannel shirt in case of colder weather.  Well, because of the past 3 days of rain in the area (which does not happen in February) the temperatures were pretty cold.  So, we began the day, tired, wet, and cold.  Oh....and after breakfast the electricity went out in the area for the next 8 hours.  So, after breakfast and our trip to the Marianist property, we went to the home of Br. Juan and were met by two of Juan's nephews who were cooking the 4 cows that they were preparing for the "Parish Feast" of Br. Juan professing his perpetual vows.  The men were outside and the women were inside preparing tortillas and other items for the feast.  We went to the area where we were going to have the Mass.  It was outside but a huge aluminum canopy covered the area.  The family had to bring in chairs and tables and all the food.  All of this was happening as Mass was going on...a liturgist would have had a heart attack...I just had to smile to myself.  Before the Mass, some members of the town gathered for Adoration.  One of the ladies of the Church asked me if I would do the final benediction and lead the community in the Divine Praises....now I don't even know them in English, so I had to get a copy of them in Spanish and then quickly review them.  It all went well.  There must have been about 450 people at the Mass and a few more joined us after for the dinner.  It seemed that the rains kept some people away!  I concelebrated with the local parish priest who presided and preached.  I was a bit disappointed because he barely mentioned anything about Br. Juan, the Marianists, the importance of perpetual profession, Fr, Chaminade, etc....for all intensive purposes it could have been a normal Saturday morning Mass.  Some of the other Brothers mentioned the same thing, so I was glad that it wasn't only my reading of the events.  We will have to ensure this does not happen again in the future. 

Well, after the Mass, the "Church" was reorganized into a banquet hall.  Many volunteers assisted putting up the tables and chairs and in passing out the food and drink and making sure everyone had enough to eat.  The band played many forms of Spanish music and I danced in my seat because no one went out to the "dance floor" and danced....another disappointment!  The reception had to end early because it was starting to get dark and the generator was starting to run low.  We returned to the hotel to rest a bit (oh, and I did change my room) before going to the home of one of the Brothers for tamales and beer.  Br. Regulo asked how the five star hotel was?  I said it was five stars minus four stars....everyone laughed.

The next morning we were invited to the "president" of the municipalities' house for breakfast.  I was looking forward to a great egg breakfast...it was nowhere to be found.  In this area they eat a breakfast similar to what we would eat for dinner-chicken, pork, meat, rice, beans, spaghetti.  It goes back to the days where for many who worked all day in the field, they needed to eat a breakfast that would provide energy and strength to last for the long day.  Well, the Brothers do not work in the fields, but they certainly ate as if they did!  I could not eat all of that in the morning, so I took just a little bit and just said that I wasn't very hungry.    The trip back, we picked up three other passengers in the van.  So, we left Uxpanapa at 10:30am and arrived in Puebla at 10:00pm at night.  It was a long trip, with a few stops a long the way for drinking, draining, and eating.  Once we made it back to Puebla, we took out the tequila and had a drink to get us ready for our sleep and for the next day.

We left Puebla at 7am on Monday.  We hit some traffic on the way out...at the same place we hi the traffic on the way into the city.  The trip took about 4.5 hours because we finally stopped for breakfast and enjoyed some food and much needed coffee.  It was good to spend time with the Brothers and to talk about many things during our trip.  There were many times when I thought to myself, "What are you doing?"  But, all in all, I am glad I went. 

So, now we gear up for Ash Wednesday this week.  I will probably have two of the five services scheduled for the day, and yes, the people will be coming out of the woodwork to get their ashes!  During Holy Week, some of us will take another road trip to provide a parish mission for a poor parish several hundred miles away.  Yes, I am having lot's of interesting experiences here!

Wishing all of you a holy and meaningful season of Lent!