miércoles, 5 de marzo de 2008

Trip to Mexico

Mexico is one of the top tourist countries in the world, drawing millions of tourists a year. When I was four, my family and I took a trip down south to our neighboring country. When we arrived in Mexico City, it was like we had stepped off the plane and into another world. My clearest memory of Mexico City, is the massive crowds we always found ourselves enveloped in. Being the most populous city in the world, this was to be expected. Since none of us could speak a word of Spanish other than ‘gracias’ and ‘hola’ we though the language barrier would present an imposing problem. However, we found the citizens to be very hospitable and seemed to love American tourists (maybe because American tourists contribute the most income to the tourist economy). We spend a few days shopping in the marketplaces. This part of Mexico really reminded me of shopping in India. Everywhere shoppers were bargaining and haggling over prices and every time I turned, another vendor was shoving their products at me, trying to convince me that they had the best deal in all of Mexico. We left with armfuls of souvenirs, many of which I still have today.
The best part of our visit down south however was our trip to Guadalupe. Guadalupe is famous all over the world as being the site where ‘la virgen de Guadalupe’ appeared to a poor farmer boy, Juan Diego. Every year, 6 million pilgrims visit this place. The cathedral we visited was beautiful and ornate and the interior was filled with candles and flowers brought from pilgrims from every corner of the world. Entering the cathedral was like stepping into a sanctuary where suddenly the chaos and confusion of the city seemed miles away. My trip to Mexico was “muy bien.”

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