Monday, November 9, 2009

Ensenada 2009: Part 5

Well, now that I've been home for almost five months, I figure it's time to finish posting Mexico pictures, like I promised. Better late than never, right? I hope you enjoy these!
In between ministries, we were given one afternoon to sightsee. Our group visited la Bufadora, which is one of only three ocean blowholes in the world and is located right by Ensenada! The ocean waves fill up a cave until the pressure builds up enough to spew the water straight up into the air. This is a huge tourist spot, with merchants lining the street for what seems like miles, right up to the blowhole.
People line up all along the railing to get a glimpse of the blowhole. I am in the bright green sweatshirt on the right, taking a picture and getting wet!
Then our translator Felipe, being a typical guy, decided he should go behind the fence and climb up on the rocks to get a better view. We, of course, followed! And the view was better from there ;-).
Our youth pastor, Jerry, and daughter Callie pause for a picture along the railing to la Bufadora.
Everyone got some great souvenirs that day. Several of the guys bought these sweatshirts, and Dan and Mikey just had to show them off!
Later that night, we all went to a local taco stand for supper. The tacoes were quite different than ours. They are made from corn tortillas, carne asada (as opposed to ground beef), cilantro (instead of lettuce), guacamole, and salsa (if you choose to add it, which I would advise against, unless you have an extremely high pain tolerance).
This is Dan's "a bit too hot" face. Just to give you a clue of how hot some of the sauces were, I will tell you that at least one member of the team threw up after eating a taco smothered in what she thought was guacamole. Turns out it was habanero sauce. Whoops!
As we were eating tacoes, a young homeless man named Alejandro approached Jerry and asked him to buy him something to eat. Jerry bought some supper for him and they struck up a conversation, with the help of Felipe, of course. We learned that Alejandro had left everything behind in another city and come to Ensenada to find his brother. He soon learned that the address he had been given was wrong, and he had no idea where his brother was. He also had no place to stay, so he was sleeping under a local bridge. As they talked, Alejandro began asking questions about Jesus. Before we knew it, Alejandro was praying to accept Christ! We saw Alejandro on the streets the next day, and were able to give him a Spanish Bible and direct him to a Bible-preaching church nearby. Praise the Lord!
Boy, food in Mexico is crazy-expensive! Just kidding! The peso sign looks the same as the dollar sign, so this food was actually 125 pesos, or about $9.42. Tacoes cost about 89 cents each, and you could buy a glass bottle of Coke for 40 cents, provided you had an empty bottle to trade in.

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