Week with Family: Sunday

On Sunday we were on the go again. I hired a private tour guy to take the four of us to a town called Uman, the hacienda Yaxcopoil, and the mayan site of Uxmal. I had been to all three of those, but I was trying to have them see all parts of Mayan and Yucatacan history.

Mom climbed up 3 stairs to take the picture after dad, Neal, and I were getting down from climbing up to take a family picture.

Another picture of the four of us...

A beautiful picture that Neal took of the hacienda, Yaxcopoil.

This is part of the small market in Uman.

I think everyone enjoyed this day because the tour was in English and so my parents and Neal could ask any sorts of questions about the history or the henequen plantation. It was quite a day, but we loved spending the time together! When we got back, they helped me pack Neal's suitcase that I brought down here for all my stuff so they could take it back with them. Then we went to supper at a little restaurant even though they served appetizer portions. So, we came back and heated up our leftovers from our supper at the nice italian restaurant on Wednesday night. It was quite a planned and eventful weekend, but they were able to see cenotes (used to be a place of human sacrifice to the gods of the underworld), the city of Merida and all its history and architecture, the caribbean, ruins in Tulum, then a typical yucatacan village, an hacienda which brought wealth to the Yucatan for about 100 years during the Industrial Revolution since the henequen is broken down into fibers that make rope, and then last but not least, the ruins of Uxmal. They were also able to try some typical Yucatacan food on Sunday night. I was happy how everything turned out since it took quite a bit of work to get everything organized and into a schedule. Thank mom, dad, and Neal for a week that I will never forget!!

P.S. I think they were also able to see why it is going to hard to leave Merida and Yucatan itself. Neal didn't want to leave and he was only here 5 days. It is going to take a long time to process everything I have experienced. But, I really am excited to get back home to my family and friends.

Week with Family: Friday and Saturday

Sorry these pictures are out of order. On Friday morning we made the 4-hour bus ride to Tulum since my parents and I love the caribbean and Neal had never seen it before! Poor Neal, I slept half the way...I was tired too! But since he can't sleep in a moving vehicle, it makes it hard to sleep in a bus!! But once we got to Tulum, we had a bite to eat and some gelato!! I surprised them with that little fact until we got to Tulum otherwise I think Neal might have gone a little crazy... =) But after enjoying some yummy gelato we got to our hotel and hung out in the hammocks and then went to the beach. That night Neal and I had our own little date at the restaurant that was at the hotel so that was really nice to finally be able to sit down and share a meal together since we haven't done that since August. Crazy how time has flown but also seems so long ago!!

Saturday morning we got up, had breakfast, and were in the water a little while until I cut my toe pretty bad on a rock that I didn't see in the water. At least there weren't any broken toes! After getting it cleaned and bandaged up, we went to the ruins in Tulum so they could see how pretty they are--on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean sea.

Us at the ruins overlooking the beautiful blue water.

So the water was cold and Neal decided to splash some water on me after I told him I didn't want to get wet. So I had to get him back!! I'm not going to let him pick on me without fighting back, thats for sure!

Ya, I'm not wanting to get in...this is right before Neal splashed me...

An awesome photo mom and dad got when they got up super early to see the sunrise on Saturday morning.

This is postcard material! Mom--have you ever thought about that? Just kidding...you have enough going on!

Another beautiful picture of the beach in front of the restaurant and hotel Saturday morning.

The sunset looking back at the hotel Friday night.

Friday night on the beach.

On the beach. This is one of my favorite pictures. =) Notice who the cold one was? ME!! And that was about 80ish degrees...not so sure how my body is going to handle a 60 degree change in temperature on Saturday!

Another one of my favorites--walking to the beach

Dad just relaxing after getting to the hotel.

The whole time before my experience in the little village of Tinum, I had always slept in my hammock like a banana. However, that weekend I learned that you are really supposed to sleep in the hammock the opposite way..so I was trying to do that with Neal when we got to the hotel, but the hammock wasn't wide enough for how tall he is.

On the bus ride to Tulum. They were showing Rush Hour 3. I love those movies...I just think the difference in mine and Neal's expressions are great! Haha.

Week with Family: Thursday

On Thursday morning, I think mom, dad, and Neal found out how much I planned for the week they were here. I also had a set schedule which was sometimes difficult to follow in a country where time is a little more relaxed. Right away in the morning we took a tour of Merida on the city tour bus, went to the Cathedral so they could see how impressive it is, and I even showed them the jaguar that the children at Patronato painted. When we returned from downtown, we had about an hour before the Thanksgiving dinner began. We had invited people from Merida that we had met and there ended up being probably about 50 people there. I was so thankful for mom, dad, and Neal coming down because this Thanksgiving was still very different not being with mom and dad's families and being in a completely different country. I was also thankful for Skype because Neal and I called my grandma and told her I wished I could be with her and then we called Neal's parents that were spending Thanksgiving in Webster City. So even though we couldn't be with all of our family, we still got to hear their voices!!

The buffet for the 50+ people that came for Thanksgiving dinner.

The organ pipes in the balcony of the cathedral.

The main aisle in the cathedral. Absolutely breath-taking!

The jaguar that the kids painted at the Patronato. There is a wilderness convention/fundraiser going on in Merida so there are jaguars all over the town. The kids painted the jaguar for the event but also because once someone buys it, part of the money will go to the organization. I think that is very smart on their part!! Publicity + Fundraising in such a large city.

A stop at a fountain in one of the MANY parks in merida during the city tour.

A beautiful house along the tour...

Another one...

Neal and I sitting in the infamous chairs found in downtown Merida. They are called comprometidos which means engaged. However, we are not engaged! But I think the design is so neat.

Then Thursday night we just laid low at the house. I was planning on taking them to the VIP Theatre so they could experience that, but we were all kind of tired so we decided to spend the night together--just the 4 of us. We went to my favorite pizza place here in Merida that is only a couple blocks from the house, called Koony's. Then we walked back to Oxxo (a convenience store that is across the street from the house) to get some popcorn, pop, and juice for the movie we were going to watch together. That night I became confused about my mom talking about going to "The Hugs and Kisses store". I asked her, mom, what are you talking about!?!? I don't know of a hugs and kisses store and what the heck would it be anyway? And she said, the Oxxo store. And I burst out laughing. I had never thought of it that way since I had only ever known it as "Ox-O". But anyway....that night we made our own couch in the room Neal was staying in at the house by putting the twin bed against a wall and putting the computer on a dresser. Talk about dorm-style living!! We really enjoyed watching Facing the Giants together and especially since Neal had never seen it.

Week with Family: Wednesday

Ok so I was lying a little on my last post. When I talked about my parents and Neal coming, they had already come! I don't know if you caught that, but I just had to tell you I was telling a little bit of a white lie. =) I am going to let you guys in on what the 4 of us did when they were down here, so I'm just going to break it up by the day since my mom just loves taking pictures and well it would take a while to get all the pictures I want to post in one blog.

After they got into Merida around 9:30PM Tuesday night, we just headed back to the house, got settled in and so forth. Then Wednesday, I planned on all of us going on the 3 cenote tour that I had taken earlier in the semester so they could experience the different forms of transportation and get to swim in a few cenotes which were very important in Mayan history. So here are just a few pictures.

Neal being the daredevil climbing tree roots that were almost touching the water from the tree above us since we were probably 300 feet underground. He did it since I absolutely hate heights.

In that same cenote there is a high platform you can jump from and well since I hate heights I told Neal that I wasn't so sure I was going to do it another time since I had already put myself through that fear earlier in the semester. But, I decided to be "nice" and jump in with him, holding his hand but it took about 5min. to coax me into jumping in. You can't really tell in this picture but he is standing on the edge of the platform while I'm standing 3 feet back because I was so scared. I don't think I have ever screamed so loud and sounded so scared in my life as I did jumping in that second time.

Mom, being the photographer, wasn't in too many pictures. This was at the first cenote before we all got in. The water was freezing but so refreshing!

Making our way in the trici-taxi to the horse-drawn carts that took us to the cenotes. We may be smiling in the picture but we felt awful for how hard the peadler had to work!

On the bus to Cuzama where the three cenotes are located.

Wednesday night we ate at the nice Italian Restaurant, Villa Italia and had a great time sharing a meal together. Its been the whole semester since I have sat down and ate with the people I love most. It was such a blessing! However, after that night, my parents started giving me crap about how far we had to walk to places. I told them that the restaurant was about a 5 block walk from the Central house but on the way, my mom yells out, is it 5 or 15 blocks?? And I was like, its coming up, just relax. Well on the way back, to pick on me even more, they counted and it was 9 1/2. I was only off by about 5 blocks, but after being here for 3 1/2 months, 5 blocks is not a big deal at all! But, when they are used to driving everywhere, 10 blocks each way is a walk. Even though I kept reminding them that they could eat more than usual here because we were going to do a lot more walking! I think all the walking I do has contributed to the little bit of weight I have lost. I don't know if all of you know this, but I struggle with my weight. I want to be heavier (don't kill me for saying that!) but I lose weight super fast and can't gain it back that quickly, so I'm hoping that with all the warm, yummy food that I'm going home to on Saturday afternoon, that I am able to gain the little bit of weight back.