If you have been following our journey from the beginning, you may well remember that early on in our journey we stopped off in Coyhaique for a few days to visit friends. A reunion had been organised there with people from Dave's Raleigh International Days. One of the people that attended was Keith, who used to be the Raleigh International Expedition Leader in Chile. With a wry smile on this face, he offered us a place to stay "if and when" we finally arrived in Mexico.
As soon as we heard that we would need to fly back to the UK, we contacted Keith to see if Dave and I could stay with him and his family for about 5 days in the Mexican capital. I think we might have suggested that we would be happy to "kip on his floor or pitch the tent in the garden," but Keith assured us that there would be a bed at our disposal.
From Chiapas to Mexico City, if we had cycled, we wouldn't have made it in time for our flight. So, reluctantly, we had to book a 15 hour overnight bus journey to the capital. We had a great time in Mexico City, we were quickly adopted into the family, and made "honorary grandparents" by their children. This meant that we visited the children's school for the morning for Grandparents' Day and much to my amusement, Dave was asked to read a story in front of a class of children.
There is so much to see and do in and around Mexico City that we decided to just pick a couple of things to occupy us and for the rest of the time and after that, we enjoyed being able to have a few days rest before our flight to allow our bodies to slow down and get used to being off the bikes.
We took a ride out to Teotihuancan, an Aztec archaeological site we had been looking forward to visiting, which was well worth the visit. We followed this up with a visit to the Anthropology Museum in the city - if you are ever in Mexico City, the museum is definitely worth a visit with incredible Mayan, Aztec and indigenous art work, textiles and pottery.
We had heard that there was an SOS Children's Village in the capital and they allowed us to visit them, albeit the short notice that we gave them. Mexico City has a population of about 18 million people. Due to the high levels of poverty many families are often separated with parents working the USA, other states within Mexico or with children migrating to the cities, with or without their families.
The SOS Children's Village in Mexico City was set up in 1971. At this moment in time, the village is under refurbishment so that it can accommodate up to 18 houses. Just like the SOS village that we visited in Colombia, women are employed, often on a long term basis to be mothers for orphaned or abandoned children. The village we visited employs 7 mothers who look after up to 9 children each and the organisation goes to great lengths to ensure that siblings are placed together in houses. We were lucky enough to be able to visit one of the houses, and although many of the children were at school, we spent a great deal of time chatting to one of the SOS mothers. We were amazed to discover that she had been an SOS mother for 20 years and had raised numerous SOS children. In Colombia we found that the children left home at 18 years old, but here in Mexico the oldest child still living at home in the SOS village was 22 years old. The mother that we spoke to explained that she still keeps in touch with all her SOS children and many return for festivities such as Christmas and Easter. She was very excited about the new SOS construction which would not only expand the number of houses that could accommodate more children, but plans were in place to expand the sporting areas and recreational activities.
Just like our visit to the SOS village in Ibague, Colombia, we left feeling inspired by the work carried out by SOS Children�s Villages and the people that work for them. We found out that in total, 600 Mexican children are supported by SOS Children's Villages community, educational and nutritional campaigns. There are also 8 SOS Villages operating in Mexico, along with 7 youth houses, 1 school, 1 vocational centre and 7 SOS social centres. If you would like to find out more about SOS Children's Village in Mexico please click here.
We just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that has taken time to donate to both our charities. To date we have raised �2,532 pounds for Julia's House and �3,085 for SOS Children's village. Schools, individuals, family and friends have donated, along with people that we don't know. All this money will go along way to helping make a difference in a child's life. Thank you for taking the time to go on line and donate there. However, we are still a long way off our original target and hope that donations will still continue to come in, from people that have enjoyed reading our website or perhaps discovered it for the first time and found it helpful or interesting. It only takes a minute or two out of your day to log onto our Justgiving site to make a donation.
It has been a few days since our time in Mexico City and we are now sitting a bit dazed and confused in the UK, not sure if we are coming or going, trying to get over our jet lag. In a couple of weeks we will be returning to our lives in Dorset and using the next few months to reflect on our journey through Latin America.
This is not the last blog, already people have been asking us what we have learnt about ourselves and the world as a whole from our experiences on the road and so to that end, we will, over the next few days or so gather our thoughts and write about our reflections.
