June 19, 2009 - Autlan

Autlan

This is our final stop on the trip. Here we gave away a fire truck, 2 ambulances, a fire command rig and 3 police cars. When we arrived in town we were escorted in by the fire department. We arrived and found mostly government employees, the fire department and curious on-lookers waiting for us. We only knew the town official who rode down with us from the border and he spoke very little English. We didn’t have previous friends and no one quite knew what to say or do. They all spoke Spanish and very little, if any, English at all.

 


Craig and Kathy saying good bye to the police car they drove 3,000 miles and gave to Autlan.

It was a bit awkward but we managed to put our translators in the right places to start the flow of communication. Once the ball got rolling it easy to see how excited the people were. The entire time the Police Chief had a grin on his face that never left. The fire fighters could not contain themselves. When Phil lifted the boom on the truck you could tell many never thought they would ever own a piece of equipment like this. The fire department is only 7 years old and as you can tell by the photo they are very young. Yes, one kid is only 14! 


The Autlan Bomberos standing in front of their new truck. Look how young they are!

 

 
Gonzo with Fire Fighters in Autlan.



Javier translating for Phil as they teach the Autlan Fire Fighters to use the fire truck.





Fire Truck boom extended in front of city hall.

After we had dinner with the town officials and fire department members took us to the Autlan hotel where we all checked in and handed over the keys to the vehicles. They proudly displayed the fire engine, ambulance and a police car at town square. The other vehicles were driven around all evening by the police and fire fighters. They were waving and honking at citizens. Around 10:00 p.m. the fire truck was rolling around town with 5 or 6 fire fighters aboard. They were blowing the horn and had the lights on. This is a town of about 60 thousand so it is a much larger town than Ayutla.

 

 


Rick Adamson hands off the keys to the patrol car and a department coin to the Police Chief of Autlan.

While in Autlan, Javier, Omar and a few others made it to Carlos Santana Square. This town is the birth and home town of Carlos Santana. They have a street named after him, which the fire department is on and statues and numerous other reminders that Santana was born and raised here. Javier has seen Santana more then 60 times in concert so you know he was thrilled to be in his home town. 

While we were in Autlan, Lauren, Cathy and I got a behind the scenes tour of the town clinic which was built by Carlos Santana. Dr. Martin Sandavol is a good friend of Santana’s and we have been working with him for some time to get the items down here. It was interesting to see and we will talk more about that later. 

  

 


The clinic built by Carlos Santana in Autlan.

Tomorrow we leave at 8 a.m. to make the drive over the mountains to Puerto Vallarta. We will spend one day there and fly home the next day. Everything has been delivered, everyone is safe and we start the final drive tomorrow.

 

 
Jose with town officials in Autlan City Hall as they presented us with thanks.


 

Take Care.

Posted by The Mission To Mexico at 6/23/2009 9:01 PM
Categories: uncategorized
 

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