Daily Archives: February 9, 2014

February 9. 2014 Ensenada, Mexico Part 4

Sunday we took two tour buses to a place where they have a ocean blowhole called La Bufadora.  The drive there was beautiful and we had the same tour guide as we had on the tour of Ensenada.  Her husband was the driver of one of the buses and her son who is 18 years old and working on his license to be a tour guide was the on the other bus.

The blowhole was more of a tourist trap than I expected with a street full of vendors and restaurants. 06-IMG_20140209_114314 The blowhole was not as spectacular as we had hoped since the tide was going out, but the view was wonderful. 01-P1040133 02-IMG_20140209_092357 04-P1040298 05-IMG_20140209_094029

We had lunch at Habana Banana where we ate upstairs and enjoyed the view.  Our friend Sharon decided to take the slide down from the second floor instead of the stairs! 07-IMG_20140209_114346 03-P1040284

After lunch we went to a local orphanage.  This is a good time to to talk about one of the goals of the Mexican Connection 8 which is to do charity work in Mexico.  One of the members of our group is a retired fireman and his town of Durango, Colorado donated $30,000 worth of used equipment and supplies to the firemen in the outlying areas of Ensenada.  The town of Ensenada has a fairly decent fire department, but the outlying area have practically nothing.  They were given uniforms, jackets, boots, hats and other equipment firemen must have when fighting fires.  Some of the men in our group took the equipment to the firefighters and the retired fireman said it was such a humbling experience  to see how much the help was appreciated.  The fireman said the fire engine they had was older than the engine he rode on 30+ years ago when he was a rookie fireman.

Mexican Connection 8 donated clothes, toiletries and other personal items, as well as school supplies and money to several charities in Ensenada.  The money raised during our auctions and raffles during Happy Hours was used to help the children in the orphanage we visited today as well as several other charities in Ensenada.  Some of the ladies had made beautiful dresses for the girls.  When asked what the orphanage needed, the reply was food and toilet paper, so several leaders of our group made arrangements to take them to Costco.

The orphanage we visited was called Kids Kingdom run by an American minister and his wife.  If you are interested you can google them and read more.  They had children ranging in age from 5 to 24.  They were well cared for and happy, though somewhat awestruck by the large group of Americans visiting.  The two older children had grown up in the orphanage and were now attending college.  They choose to continue to live at the orphanage and help out.  One younger child has muscular dystrophy and is taken twice a year to Mexico City for treatment.  Another older boy is a special needs child and is currently taking classes at a school that will teach him a trade so he can get a job.  Before leaving we had some time to go to the playground and interact with the children.  Visiting the orphanage was truly a humbling and sobering experience. 12-IMG_20140209_131633 11-IMG_20140209_131609 10-IMG_20140209_131507 15-IMG_20140209_132337 16-IMG_20140209_132450 17-IMG_20140209_204656 13-IMG_20140209_131757 14-IMG_20140209_131847 09-IMG_20140209_130314

Later that evening we had two auctions, one silent and the other a regular auction, all items donated by members of the group.  Through the sale of raffle tickets, $440.00 was raised, with half going to the winner and half to the orphanages.  Of course the winner immediately donated his winnings back to the charities.  Women baked pies and cakes which were bought at big prices…all going to help the children of Mexico.  When the owner of the resort where we were staying saw the huge amounts of items we had brought with us for the charities, it warmed their hearts and opened doors for us.  The same happened with the tour bus company and tour guides.  When they were asked where their were orphanages and people needing help because we wanted to help them, again it opened doors for us.  We were initially only supposed to have the one tour of Ensenada with the buses.  When the tour bus company found out about our charity work, they gave us buses to go to the blowhole at significantly reduced rates.  They were also willing to make a side trip for us to visit the orphanage instead of returning straight back from the blowhole.  The tour guide and her husband made treats for us to have on the trip and thanked us over and over for what we were doing for the people of Mexico.  I am proud to say that our little Mexican Connection 8 group raised over $7,000 in addition to the $30,000 donated by the firemen.  The group in charge of charities scouted out the area and visited all the possible charities to receive our donations.  They presented a list to the group and we voted on the charities and how much each would receive.  The money and supplies went to several orphanages, a shelter for abused women, and a group that provides wheelchairs and supplies to ambutees and handicapped.  We did check into a nursing home but they said they were okay.  A couple people from our group went to visit the shelter for the ambutees and were driven there by a woman who is a double ambutee herself.  They later told us she drove her car through busy downtown Ensenada traffic using a stick with a crossbar at the bottom that she used to push the gas pedal and brake.  Needless to say the couple came back wide-eyed from the experience.

After the auction we went home tired but feeling like it had been a very fulfilling day.