Our Family's Mexico Adventure: Atotonilco and Mexican Folk Art Gallery

Today we rented a car as Lindsay, Joerg, Hannah, and I hadn't yet visited the church at Atontonilco. Charles and his parents raved about this church and Mom had read about it in a guide book and said it was a "must see." So...with all those recommendations we were eager to go.

Picture: Hannah, Lindsay, and me and the next few pictures are of the Gallery.

We dropped off Charles and the boys at Xote (the waterpark) and rest of us headed off. We had also made an appointment at Galeria Atotonilco which I had read about as having a wonderful collection of Mexican Folk Art from all around Mexico (you had to make an appointment to visit it as it is not always open). Since we were a little early for our visit to the Gallery we stopped at a place called Nirvana, which used to be a popular restaurant in downtown. I had just read about the restaurant moving from centro out to the country and changing over to a retreat center/hotel/restaurant. We were all hungry (as usual) so we stopped in there and had a lovely lunch overlooking beautiful gardens. It was completely quiet (unlike our city living) and it was really enjoyable. I enjoyed a delicious seafood curry soup, although couldn't quite stomach the octopus in the soup. Hannah was a bit grossed out when I pulled the tentacles out...Lindsay and Joerg who don't like seafood weren't too excited either! Ha..

After that we went to the Gallery and spent the next 3 hours there. It was amazing. The Gallery was filled with wonderful pieces of art and was such a delight to visit. In addition, the gallery was part of the man's house which was a showcase. Truly...this house has been featured in Architectural Magazines all over the world. The house had incredible water fountains everywhere and a water system that ran and recycled all the water to all the waterfalls and fountains. It was also filled with Mexican art everywhere, so it was a real feast for the senses. Amazing!

I splurged and bought a hand-painted plate depicting the Day of the Dead. Lindsay and Joerg also bought a beautiful plate and a hand carved wooden jewelry box. The things were stunning there.

Then we were off to the church at Atotonilco which was only about a 5 minute drive down the road. We hit upon a HUGE festival right near the church and the place was packed with vendor stands and girls dressed in beautiful white dresses. We parked on the street and for a while didn't think we were going to get in the church. I finally worked my way through the crowd only to find the church almost empty save a Spanish tour going on!! I guess it pays to be pushy. Everyone was waiting for the festivities to begin so we were able to see the wonderful frescos and scenes inside the church. It was truly stunning. This church is on the "endangered" list of churches since the Mexicans don't have enough money to restore the church. We are hoping that this masterpiece is maintained as it is really amazing. We didn't have too long in the church which was too bad as then some of the girls in white dresses started coming in along with their families.

We learned that this was a quinceanera which is a 15 year old rite of passage for girls here in Mexico. They enter the church as girls and leave as women. Girls wear flats when they enter the church and leave in high heels. Afterwards they have a huge party which is equal in scale to a wedding: food, dancing, drinks, and fun for all. This was a huge day at the church and we couldn't believe the crowds. We felt lucky that we made it into the church before this event started or we would never have seen it all.

After this great day, we went back to the water park and picked up the boys who had a grand time all day swimming. We then stopped at "La Burger" (don't you just love the name?) which was recommended to us by some friends. You literally pull off of the highway to this little place and it is really cute. We had huge burgers and steaks cooked over a wood fire and a few beers.