My name's Pip Hall, I'm 17 years old and I'm from the North of Staffordshire.

Between the 30th of July and the 12th of August, I went to Mexico with Midlands Region. We spent our time between Mexico city and Our Cabana, where we visited sights and took part in activities related to the theme of the event.

The event at Our Cabana was called "Girl Friendship", the idea was to help us to make new friends, and teach us about different cultures and the life styles of girls from all around the globe.

During our stay not only did we take part in activities like, an international festival, and games from around the world, but we also often went on trips outside the Cabana to places, such as the city of Cuernavaca (where Our Cabana is situated), tepotzlan ( a market town famous for its crafts) and Taxco (the silver city).

At our time in Mexico City we lodged in a "Guías de México" (Guides of Mexico) youth hostel. We spent our time visiting the area of Mexico City and other locations just outside of the city itself.

For example one day we conquered the pyramids of the sun and the moon, the sun pyramid is the third largest pyramid in the world being 71.2m high and when you add that to the altitude it's a very difficult pyramid to climb, however once you reach the top it is probably one of the most rewarding experiences of your life, I know it was one of mine.

Overall this international trip has been one of the most fantastic experiences of my life, it truly is, I find, the best part of Guiding.

I would recommend an international trip to anyone. I met so many fantastic people who are now friends for life, this was truly fantastic.

And here's Sarah Hardie's version of events...


We set off on the 30th July from Manchester airport, all 15 of us met there at 7.30am all excited and slightly tired but looking forward to the adventure we were just about to start.

We then had a 3 hour wait for our first flight to JFK, New York from Manchester which was a 7 to 8 hour flight.  From JFK we had a couple of hour flight to Atlanta. We then had an hour break at Atlanta to get some food before we caught the final flight to Mexico city which takes 3 hours to get there. Once we had got through customs and we had collected our luggage we then had a half an hour coach journey to Ticalli guiding hostel in Mexico City.

The next day after travelling  we had to be up early to go for breakfast and then go out for 10 o’clock to go to the big main park in Mexico city.  It was a good day to go to the park as it was a special celebration of family day so it was really busy and all of the market stalls and vendors were out selling different products from food to toys and from having drawings done to getting souvenirs.

We eventually came across a lake which had pedalows so we all decided to have a go, it was so much fun and the time went really quick and before we knew it it was time for lunch. For lunch we found a little restaurant which did traditional Mexican food but some found the food too spicy, I went for the safe option of quesadilla. We then made our way back to Ticalli.

Next morning we packed up as it was then time to make our way to over to Our Cabana on the mini bus. This took a few hours to get there but we sang all the way.  We arrived at Our Cabana which is one of the Girlguiding world centre and was shown to our room and also taken on a tour of the vast grounds.

Throughout our time in Our Cabana we had a number of activities that we did within Our Cabana organised for us by the volunteers of the Centre. It was also arranged for us to have day trips out of Cabana to the local towns and villages surrounding Mexico City.  We visited Cuernavaca town to look around the craft markets and the Cathedral. We then went to Taxco, best known as the silver city where we able to buy silver from shops, also looked around the craft markets and the spectacular church with amazing art work in. We also went to Tepoztlan another market town. We also went to Xochicalco, which are pyramids built by the Aztec.  It was quite a climb to the top but certainly worthwhile for the most amazing views.   

Also as part of Our Cabana we did a service project in the community where the community came to us which was a group called ‘Vamos’.  These were children aged between 4-16 years who come from underprivileged backgrounds just to have a day of fun away from their everyday life. Our travel group organised games for the children to do which include some really classic games of egg and spoon race, dodge ball, newspaper hockey and simply throwing a bean bag the furthest, the boys enjoyed this the most. We then had lunch with the children after playing games with them all morning. After lunch they had a couple more hours of unplanned activities where the children could do whatever they wanted before they went home. One young boy was very shy and not interested in the morning group games but was happy with my undivided attention and for the rest of the afternoon  he seemed to enjoy himself by playing one to one bowling, hockey, basketball, football etc .  We seemed to enjoy himself and at least had a smile on his face throughout. It was then time for them to go home so we waved them off, and overall a lovely day was had by all.

After all the trips out and all the activities within Our Cabana it was time leave Our Cabana and go back to Mexico city so we had to say our goodbyes to everyone that we had made friends with from all walks of life including Guides from Japan, Texas, and the Bahamas  and stay in touch in the future.

On our return to Mexico City there were just a couple more places and things we wanted to do before we returned back home. These included a trip to ‘Hard Rock Cafe’ and a cinema in Mexico. We took a couple of trips out of the city this time and went for a tour around part of the city and then to the Guadalupe Shrine and the Pyramids of Teotihuacan, ( the sun and the moon). The pyramid of the moon was big but it was only a third of size of the pyramid of the Sun, all 15 of us managed to make it up to the top of the sun a little out of breath but the views were just amazing, we could see for miles and miles, and it was a real achievement to get to the top. 


We returned from the pyramids to then get ready to go out for the evening to go to the Ballet Folklórico de Mexico which was nothing like what you would see in the UK, the dancing , the costumes and the music was just authentic to Mexico as was the dancing, it was held in a really beautiful building.

The last day was spent going to a quiet little village outside of Mexico City, Xochimilco, which are also called the river gardens, which are beautiful and really colourful. There were vendors selling things off the boat.   

The rest of the day was just spent packing ready to get home which seemed to take forever because some of us were over the weight limit so our hand luggage became a whole lot heavier. Once we were all packed up we had a presentation of certificates and a little present for each of us to remember our time in Mexico. We then went out for dinner and then got an early night as we were up at 4.00 the next morning.

4am start with all of us half asleep we had taken our cases down the night before so all we had to do was put our uniform on ready for another 24 hours of travelling to get back home. All the flights were good but we were all split up on the way back which meant we were all sat on our own. But it was ok as we slept most of the way back from JFK to Manchester as it was the longest flight and an overnight flight.

Overall it was an amazing trip to have seen different sides of Mexico that you wouldn’t see with family or friends. Meeting other people within Guiding and what they do. I am sure we have all made lifelong friends and have many unforgettable memories.  

I would like to thank Staffordshire County International team for giving me the opportunity to go on this amazing trip, which I will never forget.

                                                                                                                             





 

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