Mexico RV Trip 2012 - un viaje mas grande - Day 13, January 9, 2012 Tamazunchale

Today was not the typical tourist day. Rodolfo Reyes, “Rudy,” picked us up at our RV for a tour of the area about 9:00 this morning. We piled into his little pickup and off we went. The roads were narrow, often turning to little more than rutted paths, with many had rock slides from previous years blocking at least one lane. You won't be able to wander into any of the villages and meet the people without Rudy. He bridges the gap between the modern and the ancient.Our first stop was in the village of Coxotla, high in the mountains north of Tamazunchale. Many of these little villages have only a few families living there and appreciate the assistance that Rodolfo provides. He takes toys and clothing for the children and often brings medicine to the people or drives them back to Tamazunchale to a doctor or medical clinic. He even helps by collecting their trash in the back of his truck and taking it back to the city, which we did today, as well.

Rodolfo’s mission is to educate his people about respecting the environment and balancing their traditions (he is a Nahua), so they can have a better life. He helps provide better cook stoves which burns more efficiently with less smoke. Many of these people suffer from asthma from years of cooking over wood fires and these stoves are vented to the outside and require less wood. These stoves cost about $25 to make and have made a huge improvement in the quality of life for many villagers.

While these families appear to have little in material wealth, they seem to be happy and generous, offering us coffee or fruit. They genuinely appreciative whatever assistance he can provide.

When we drove back down the mountain toward Tamazunchale, we looked out and could see the “thumb” mountain that was near Xilitla which we had see a couple days ago!

Back through Tamazunchale we headed south on MX85 to the village of Tempexquititla where many of the residents make piñatas for export throughout Mexico. Years ago the government helped this village get started and it is now the largest area for making piñatas.

Each family has their own designs and styles.

Across the street, she is making a different style.

One of the children, Alejandra, gave us one of the piñatas that her family made. I guess Santa will be traveling with us!

Back to Tamazunchale, we stopped at Dona Paz restaurant for lunch, enchiladas entomatodas. They were delicious.

Rodolfo helped us find a place to have the tie-down strap sewn and to have the scooter looked at. He provided an excellent tour and education of the area. In addition to showing tourists around the area, he has a weekly radio and TV program about ecology and ideas to help educate the people in the area, and teaches private English lessons. He is currently trying to find ways to help develop other business opportunities for many of the villages.

Most of what he does, he finances on his own. This man truly knows the meaning of generosity! Rodolfo could use donations to expand his mission to his people. If you are EVER traveling in this area, please bring Bausch & Lomb Advanced Eye Relief eye drops, Murine ear drops, school supplies, or blankets. Or, if you know someone coming to this area, contact us on how to get supplies to Rodolfo because mailing from the US does not work. His email is rudytam50@hotmail.com.

Back to the RV for the night, we were treated to a beautiful sunset!