We are a little behind on our doings in Mexico, but today we will give you part 2 of our day as tourists (part 1 being Teotihuacan).
After the Pyramids, Carlos took us to the Basilica of Guadalupe. There are 3 churches on the plaza, but the Basilica is a crazy modern building wherein is the relic which makes this place the most important Catholic shrine in Mexico. People do really intense pilgrimages on foot to come see the painting/miracle shown below.

This icon is said to have miraculously appeared on the garments of one Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin after he had several conversations with the Virgin Mary in the mid 1500's. I have seen this icon on many candles in the Mexican sections of grocery stores without realizing its historical importance. When we heard the story of the Virgin's image on the clothing, we were expecting a more organic Shroud of Turin/Virgin Mary appears on piece of toast type thing rather than this full color high detail painting (I will post below the death omen that appeared in our juice drink on Christmas eve last year as a point of reference). There were four moving sidewalks in front of the shrine- obviously there is an enormous amount of traffic to this site. We read a very informative article about the history of the relic on Wikipedia after seeing it. This is how we usually tour: we see things we don't know very much about, and then we go home and learn about them on Wikipedia.

This is the beautiful dome in the older Church that used to house the Lady of Guadalupe.

Carlos explained that this is where women who are hoping to find a husband come to pray. They need one of these in Utah as there are a lot of 19-22 year old girls who are starting to lose hope.

This is the new ultra modern mega-basilica where the Lady now resides. The interior is quite impressive. The plaza now doubles as a launch pad for this mother ship.