Before I ever left home I did a little research and found out exactly where and when the closest LDS Branch met. I knew it should be possible to reach it by public transport and should take between 75 and 90 minutes to do so. I was however a little unsure about making my way there on my own my first real day in the city. So John was nice enough to offer to go with me. I took him up on the offer and we got directions from the hotel to the nearest Metro station and set off to have an adventure. (You DO know that is the theme for the month right?!) We made it to the metro, figured out how to by tickets and made it onto the right train. We even got off on the right stop, but that is where the trouble began.
We couldn't find anything telling us where to get which bus. We found a taxi drive but when we showed him the address where we wanted to go, he did not know where it was so we couldn't take the easy way out. We finally found a bus stop, but still couldn't find the right bus. I swallowed hard and asked a perfect stranger for help. Can you believe it Todd? He couldn't really help, but he asked someone else whose English was better and he told us exactly which bus to take then pointed us to the right stop. Then we asked the fare collector for help knowing which stop to get off at. He took the time to point us in the right direction once we were off the bus and was super nice. With very little difficulty we found the right street and started walking and looking for #40. Since we started at one it seemed easy enough. After we had been walking for at least 20 minutes and still hadn't reached 40 John suggested I try Catholicism for the day since we had seen that church at the very beginning of the street. We started following a cow up the street and contemplating trying to ride her to our destination. When we got to the top of the street and there was no #40 we decided we must be in the entirely wrong place so we gave up and started going back to where we had seen the last bus stop. Shortly after that we had our first experience with begging children, not cute. At the bus stop we had our second experience with mothers using their babies to beg. When it seemed that the bus wasn't coming we gave up and started walking back to the other bus line. Guess what we finally found about an hour after Sacrament meeting started...the church. It turns out that they number one side of the street and then when they reach the end they go back to the other side of the street and continue from where they left off so on one side it's 1 and the other house directly across from it is number 37. So where exactly was the LDS church that of course occupies part of a school building and only has the adress written small enough that you couldn't possibly see it from across the street? Directly across the street from the Catholic Church.
Because we were so late we decided that we would not go in for the closing prayer and would just head back towards the hotel. On the way back to the Metro station we saw a gorgeous building and decided we may as well explore it while we were there. It tured out to be the Parliament building and at the end of that road was the Presidential estate, which makes the White House look tiny and boring. We took some pictures and really enjoyed some of the unfamiliar flowers and creative wasy to use the familiar marigold. The very best part of the trip and the day was finding monkeys living outside the gates to the Presidential estate. We saw some from the bus earlier in the day but couldn't get pictures in time. This time we weren't moving though so we got several shots like the one at the top. After we saw the monkeys we slowly made our way back to the train and then to the hotel. I hope that by next week I can figure out a more direct route to church and actually make it there before the meeting is over. But I do have to say we had a good day anyway and saw things we would not have if we had made it straight there and back.
Once we were safely back at the hotel and thru the security screening I got my feet and legs cleaned up and had some dinner. I will tell you a little about the food tomorrow
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