I've been in Toluca now for three days. Fr Jean, the Mexican Provincial, and a seminarian, David, picked me up at the modern clean (unlike LAX!) airport in Mexico City. David drove, and got lost twice, which pleased me. I was totally lost! The journey to Toluca took an hour and 40 minutes - almost all of it on a motorway and in the built up area of Mexico City. It is big! Very big - more than 20 million souls live in Mexico City.
I'm living for the moment in the Marist Parish of St Bernard of Siena. The parish is near the place I'll eventually be living in, the Centro de Proyección Universitaria (known as the CPU). The CPU is under going remodeling as it'll become the Mexican Province's formation house. It's scheduled for completion in August.
This is the parish church:

I'm in community here with Frs Jean and Oscar (the parish priest) and David - Fr Jean was born in France, but has lived here for more than thirty years. The other two are Mexicans. Both Jean and David leave in a month or so. David goes to Rome to continue his studies at the new international Marist theologate there and Jean will go to another house in Mexico (here they refer to Mexico City as "Mexico" or sometimes just "DF" - for Distrito Federal). Other Marists will come here in August, along with the seminarians.

Here's some initial shots of the interior of the parish church - which, by the way, dates from the 1600's!

The interior of the Church

La Virgen Dolorosa

El Divino Niño

 Loads of statues in the church - cared for with great devotion, but perhaps not quite as we would like them!













Toluca lies at 2667 metres above sea level. I've been a bit breathless if, say, I climb the stairs too quickly, and I have had a bit of a headache, but these effects are disappearing as I acclimatize.

The nights are cool - even cold - at night and so far, sunny and warm during the day. The air is very dry. It rained briefly yesterday evening but dried up quickly. The city has an alpine feel about it, similar to what I experienced in the Andes of Peru - thin dry air and bright sun.

The metropolitan city population is 1,610,000 which only puts it at eight in the list of largest Mexican cities! It is clean and well maintained - although the traffic is totally chaotic! People seem to stroll rather than stride as in other large cities. Perhaps because of the altitude?