Doing laundry in Mexico

What I saw was a small pond fed by an underground spring.  Surrounding the pond were flat rocks.  I am sure I had a look of horror on my face when I realized this was the laundromat.  There were a few women there already on their knees scrubbing their clothes on the rocks.  In front of them was a rail made out of a fallen tree where they would hang their clothes to help drip some of the water out.  Next to the pond was a square of bricks creating a roofless shelter.  You climbed inside to get to the underground spring.  This is where the people came to get their drinking water.  They would bring their horses weighed down with big jugs or they would use two five gallon buckets hanging at each end of a stick by ropes which went across their back.  The women also carried their laundry in this fashion.  I eventually learned to adopt this way of carrying water and laundry as it was alot easier than the trying to look cool way.  I decided I was not going to let them see I was a lazy American.  I learned there is a technique to washing clothes on rocks and I was terrible at it.  They showed me as best as they could with the language barrier how the process went but I was useless.  I tried my best and then it was time to go.  No problem.  This is when I realized carrying a bucket of wet clothes up the side of a mountain especially when you are not used to the altitude is not so easy.  I was not feeling so cool now, all dressed up, panting like a dog trying to get up a hill.  I was desperately trying to keep them from seeing that I was dying.  Yeah, good luck with that.  Finally, I made it to the top after hiding behind a few trees to catch my breath and cry.  We then hung out our clothes in the yard the old fashioned way to dry.  Some people took me out to explore some nearby caves.  The Grutas de Cacahuamilpa National Park.  The caves are on the side of a cliff.  You climb down stairs built out of the cliff to get to them and pass by water falling from the cliff as you get to the caves.  I'm not much into caves but I was very interested and overwhelmed by the enormity of these caves.  They are one of the largest cave systems in the world.  At the end of the path that they created was a cross.  The story is of an Englishman who came here in the early 1900's to explore the cave.  He fell breaking his leg unable to move.  His dog went to the entrance and howled looking for help.  Due to their superstitious beliefs the people that heard the dog thought the man had died and that it was his ghost.  Therefore he was left to die.  They eventually found his remains as well as those of his dog lying next to him.  The story is they buried them exactly where they found them.  The story I found with the link below differs slightly from what I remember. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grutas_de_Cacahuamilpa_National_Park
Once out of the caves you can continue going down winding steps to the river with two mouths.  This is actually two separate underground rivers that come out of the cliff next two each other each creating their own waterfall.  It is absolutely beautiful and there are so many yellow butterflies on the trees they look like flowers at first glance.  I was also taken to get honey from the hives on some cliffs.  They got the honey by taking a............................................

El Santo Desierto Del Carmen

I ended up in a small village on top of a mountain in Central Mexico.  The only way up was a ride on an old SUV type vehicle from the town one hour below.  They would not leave until it was packed full of people including the roof which also had animals that the passengers had bought at the market.  It was a dirt road so traveling to the top was quite a blast.  Halfway up the road was a waterfall with a small pool at the bottom that drained under the road creating another waterfall on the other side.  This was all so fascinating to me especially being from the islands.  What a completely different world!  Once to the top you enter the village of tiny brick streets.  The town was built by monks who were looking for a retreat to get away from the world.  They began building the church in the 1500's bringing in laborers from other parts of the country who eventually settled there creating the town.  The church was built by cutting blocks out of the cliffs from different parts of the mountain.  The cedar trees that were planted in the 1700's (when the church was completed) along the main road that leads to the church, are still there today.  I was there once when one of the trees fell and the town all went and made use of it by building furniture out of the wood and using it for their houses.  A wall was also built around the entire town to keep out intruders and the "bad people".  Parts of the wall still exist in several parts of the mountain.  I ended up staying with a family living in a one room house with their nine children and 3 beds.  The kitchen was separate from the house and consisted of sticks woven together and the inside was lined with feed sacks held in place with bottle caps.  They did not have a stove and all cooking was done over the fire.  I needed to do laundry the next day and was told to go with the wife.  Mind you I did not speak Spanish at this time and I was young and stupid.  I'm still young and stupid.  I was trying to figure out why the hell would they put the laudromat way out in the middle of woods after following her in silence for an eternity.  Ackward......  That was when I saw....................
Video of El Carmen 2010