A Week with the FAMILY :)

Sooo... where to start? Mom and gang left from Merida this morning, and they will pretty much be traveling all day. Send some prayers that they have gotten home safely! We had a great week. I think we hit just about every sort of activity there is to do here, although I will confess that they did not eat at El Colon, which is an excellent ice cream shop born here in Merida.

Saturday was Progreso. I think it was good for those Ohio ladies to kick back on the beach and relax. There is also some really good shopping there, so that of course happened as well. It was a perfect day, and everyone was gutsy enough to get in the water except me... I think it is a bit on the chilly side right now, but if I were coming directly from Ohio, I would have gone swimming too. We went to Pancho's that night, which is one of the best restaurants in the city. While the prices are quite high for Merida, when converted to dollars, it would be akin to eating at Applebee's. All of the restaurants we went to were lovely actually... we could really eat well because prices are pretty reasonable... and let's be honest... food is a big part of the experience here. Poor Mary Claire, who had been sick on the bus on the way to Merida took it like a trooper. Her poor stomach went from American Mode to Revolt Mode to Mexican Food Mode... and that had to have been a bit rough.

Sunday was Merida. The main plaza area was FILLED with people because of Carnaval. Usually, Merida closes up the plaza on Sundays and vendors set up stalls. They did that this past Sunday as well but there were even MORE because it was Carnaval! We went to mass in the Cathedral and spent the day wandering around Merida. I wanted them to get a chance to see the city I live in. Unfortunately the crowds were extreme and there was a lot of junk around because of so many people. While they perhaps didn't see Merida at its lovliest, they did see it at its busiest... and of course Carnaval is very fun.

Monday was the haul to Chichen Itza. We went on the second class bus, which takes a bit longer because it weaves in and out of little pueblos along the way. I think it was interesting to Grandma, Mary and Laura because they got the opportunity to see pueblos what Mexican pueblos are like, even though we didn't get a chance to stop in one. We arrived at Chichen Itza and bombed around there for a while. Interesting note: Chichen has a lot of vendors selling souvenirs for visitors, and last year while I was there, some commitee or other decided that they were a distraction and kicked them out. They eventually got permission to come back in however... which seems ok. Most of them are Mayan... and it WAS their city to begin with, right? Anyway, we got to see the ruins and the cenote there, which is kind of ugly. The excavated it in the 1950's looking for remains. They found everything from human bones to pottery to gold all the way from Columbia. Unfortunatly, they plugged up the natural drain in the cenote, so no water moves in or out... and now it looks pretty gnarly. The ruins themselves were really interesting. I had been there last year, but it was nice to go back because it is, after all, a world wonder. They are also reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaally big, so I thought it would be a good place to take Mary Claire and Laura for their very first experience of Mayan ruins.

Tuesday was really fun... we were off to Campeche, which is the capital city of the state Campeche. Of course we saw the colored buildings and the walls... unfortunately, the museums were closed for Carnaval... which was little in Campeche! BUT... now I can reveal the secret that I have so diligently kept about Campeche since my last trip.

Yon about noon, we went over to the coast to see the Gulf. The water was beautiful, and we were sitting on the dyke right next to two giant, rusted cannons. Looking out to sea, Laura pointed and shouted: 'LOOK! It looks like a pirate ship!' Sure enough, out on the sea in the distance was a very pirate-ish looking ship sailing along the coast. I kept quiet... well not quiet really. Mary and I played Pirates and pretended to be defending the city of Campeche with our cannons. It was funny because after we began 'shooting' at it... it turned around and went back!

I had told everyone that we had an appointment at 5, but I didn't tell them where we were going. We grabbed taxis out to the city's edge and walked into a restaurant... and out the other side onto a pierre. There at the end of the pierre was a pirate ship! We got to ride on a pirate ship called 'Lorencillo' after a famous French pirate that attacked Campeche hundreds of years ago. Mary Claire and I had a blast. We were dual captains of the ship.. she was the Dread Marina Silver and I was Captain Redsword of the Gulf Coast. We were ship captains that became blood sisters and we raided, pillaged and plundered towns on the Gulf Coast. Laura (or should I say Black Sonya) joined in and became our third captain. Luckily, we managed to get a snapshot of the three of us captaining the Lorencillo pirate-style... hats, swords, pistol and everything. It was a blast. The voyage lasted about an hour, and we went out to eat after at a restaurant that overlooks the main plaza of Campeche. We caught a bus home that night, so we got home pretty late.

Yesterday, we took an excursion from the hotel. We went to two haciendas and two cenotes. One of the haciendas was completely restored and the other only partially. I managed to make a bull-friend at the first. There was a random bull tethered in the lawn in fron of the first hacienda. It was a Brahmen (is that how you spell it?) which I think is one of the cutest breeds of cattle that exist, so I went up to in and we made fast friends. I was sad when I found out that he was supposed to be someone's dinner that vvery night. After the first hacienda, we went to the two cenotes. One was partially covered, and that one was pretty shallow. You could feel an oh-so gentle current. We had quite the time splashing around in there. The first cenote was nothing compared to the second, though. The second was deep in the ground but open to the sunlight. Tree roots and branches hung down from the walls, and we had to climb down a long ladder to get down to the eerily clear, blue water. The cenote was as deep as a football field is long... and you could still see the bottom as clear as if it were a foot in front of you. We floated and talked with the people in our tour group (a couple from D.C. and a Mexican girl from Mexico City.)

After we pulled ourselves away from the second cenote, we went to eat lunch at a working sisal plantation (the second hacienda). The hacienda has a dried up cenote behind it that the owners are currently turning into an amphitheater for tourists. We got to see all of the machines that are used to separate and dry henequen. There was no friendly bull... but I liked it just the same! We ate a wonderful lunch there and Mom, Grandma and I spent the whole lunch talking to Jesica (the girl from Mexico City). She didn't speak any English, so I had to translate all of lunch... a hard task sometimes, but it was a lot of fun. We talked to her about all sorts of political issues, including illegal immigration. It was very interesting to hear what she had to say about all of it. We ended up swapping information so that we can stay in touch.

After all of that, Laura and I decided to go get our nails done. I actually had to go to work and type things today, so I didn't get false nails... just painted. LAURA, though, got some serious nails. Hers are lovely and long right now... very elegant and quite fun. The only problem that we ran into was that the girl who did Laura's nails accidently glued Laura's fingers together... yay for Mexican manicures!!!

After all of that monkeyshine, we went to Mama's for dinner. I had not seen her since Friday, so it was good to see her once again. It was really fun to have my family from the USA meet my host family here!

All in all... a fabulous week. The only problem now is that I have to make up the hours at work. I missed 2 days, which isn't that bad... but can't be made up this week, so I guess I will have to work on that in the week to come...!