Once you get off the cuotas—the toll roads—driving in Mexico becomes an adventure. For one thing, you're more likely to be held up for extortion by the police. Most corrupt in my experience are the cops in the State of Mexico. I have driven through that state four times now, and I have been stopped three of those times, threatened with impoundment of my car. This trip to Tepoztlán was no exception.

For another, you get lost. The number and accuracy of directional signs is improving, but I usually wind up asking for directions several times on a long stretch. At the small town of Santa Martha, near the border between the states of Mexico and Morelos, we asked about the road to Cuernavaca en route to Tepoztlán.

Santa Martha is a sweet town with friendly people. We were given good directions by a group of smiling taxi drivers just like we have in so many other little pueblas. What made Santa Martha stand out for me, though, was its church.

Architecturally speaking, it's not particularly pleasing. Absent the bell towers, the design is more suited to a warehouse. But its appearance is nonetheless arresting. I screeched to a stop when it came into view.

What is it about this building that caught my attention? For one thing, there's the color. Bricks don't come in that shade of red. A close look revealed that the church had been painted red, and the mortar lines, white. Also unusual, the crosses atop the bell towers support solar collectors, even though CFE power lines run to the building. Isn't that sacrilegious or something?

Over the gate to the church courtyard, someone mounted a large image of the Virgin Mary rendered in neon tubing. She's carrying a torch, a symbol I'm not familiar with. More oddly, she's depicted standing on what appears to be an outline of the State of Morelos.

The decorations on the church doors are a marvel—a riot of plastic flowers. Plastic ornaments usually strike me an abominations, affronts to my sensibilities, but here the effect is somehow pleasing.

In preparing these images for posting, I corrected keystone distortion (the effect that makes buildings look narrower at the top than at the bottom) and camera tilt. Only after I had completed the work, I realized that I had inadvertently removed the church's most endearing characteristic. The whole building is out of plumb. Check how the roof line and the beam immediately beneath fall at different slopes.

This place of worship apparently was built by community members who weren't skilled in construction techniques. Well, the lines may be skewed, but as a symbol of the faith and devotion of the residents of Santa Martha, this building is perfect.