cenotes adventure

Justin is visiting and also Elana and her family are visiting. Elana's family is Noah, Shira, and Chaya (husband, 6 year old, 4 year old) Josh did a ton of maneuvering to get a rental car (or two of them, actually) and a beach house and a place to stay in Merida. In fact, we went to Merida in order to rent a car. There were no cars to rent when we were in Campeche. It's far, so they got an Airbnb house in Merida. 

Josh and Noah spent time on the phone and online and went to the bus station and talked to a zillion people and after 2.5 days, finally arranged it. Couldn't get a rental car in Campeche, so took a bus to Merida. To get to the bus station of Campeche, we walked a few blocks to the mercado to get two taxis. We were 9 people, carrying frame packs and 3 car seats and 4 kids and a scooter and a guitar and everyone had their hands full as we walked. We were the last ones on the bus but we made it. We didn't have dinner but had random things like trail mix and an orange.

At Merida we took two taxis - one to the house we stayed at, and one to the airport to pick up the two rental cars. I got a ride to the little 7 eleven down the street and bought dinner and breakfast: two boxes of Kraft mac cheese and milk and a box of cereal and some cheese. Finally got to bed with cars gotten and stuff where it should be and kids undressed but not teeth brushed - it was probably after 11. We were sleeping on a fake velvet tucked in blanket on a bed with no sheets or anything. Josh found a blanket and a spare sheet to use as a towel. 

The next day we went to see some cenotes. We drove and got a little lost and turned around but passed a bunch of guys trying to hand us pamphlets and entice us to their own cenote. We finally found the parking lot we were looking for, and got our names on a list. We ate some random things we had like hard boiled eggs and bananas while we tried to stay cool in the shade of a tree but we were sitting on the ground, a little surrounded by trash. After a couple hours, it was our turn. It was intermittently raining randomly and hot. When it was our turn, we got to sit on a wagon, all 9 of us filling the seats, while a horse was attached to pull the wagon on a track into the trees. We rode this wagon for 20 minutes or a half hour, and then the tracks ended. We got off and waited awhile for a motorcycle that was attached to a wagon and we squeezed into that even though it was supposed to seat 6. The trail continued and the motorcycle pulled us and we went another 20 minutes. Then we got off and waited for another horse and trailer. The tracks started again. We rode that for a few kilometers and looked at the old stone walls around us. We were riding a wagon on tracks pulled by a horse going in the trees and brush. It seemed pretty random and unorganized and we didn't know where we were on a map except that it wasn't too far from Merida, in the Yucatan state of Mexico.

We're finally there. We walk 100 feet away from the trail and there is another trail leading to a hole in the ground. There's a couple people leaving, wearing wet swimsuits and backpacks. There is no water in sight. We go over to the hole and look down. Way way down, there's water! And light is shining into it and it looks blue and mysterious and there was a wooden ladder going down. With the people who were on other wagons we were probably about 25 people. I wore Aviva in my ergo and we all went down the ladder. It was probably 50 feet down the ladder and there it opened up into a cavern with giant roots of a banyan tree or something, that were suspending down from the top. There were some jumping-off places and a piece of wood you could walk on to get to a bunch of rocks where you could climb down and get in the water. Most people were jumping. It was a 15 foot jump or so. Josh held Aviva while I jumped in. I forgot to pack swimsuits so we just wore our clothes. There was a rope you could use to get out. The water was so nice and not too cold and so beautiful. The whole thing was kind of too beautiful and amazing and it didn't seem real. 

Google images of cenotes and you'll see pictures.http://vagabond3.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/yucatan-cenote_1362052c-pinterest.jpg

Everyone was diving in or climbing out or swimming and it was pretty crazy. We went to two others, transported by horses. They looked like nothing from the tops, but down inside it was totally different. I went into the next one, but not the last one. It started getting dark and we rode horses, motorcycle-wagons and another horse to go back to the parking lot. It was totally dark when we got there and we were looking at the stars at all the stops when we were waiting for our horse or motorcycle. We saw lots and lots and the Milky Way. It was 6 or 7:00 and we stopped at a mini-restaurant/someone's house to pick up some food. We ate empanadas and things and went home, dirty and tired.

swimming

We took the kids back to Playa Bonita, which we are now calling Playa Meh. Actually, today was prettier and more lively. Midweek the beach was empty, literally we were the only people there, but Sunday it was full of families enjoying themselves, having picnics, taking selfies, etc. It was a fun, happy scene. The tide was in, which was much prettier, because it hid the retaining wall that lurked 50 feet out to sea. There are tides there, but no waves. This part of the Gulf of Mexico is totally calm.

The good news is that Aviva went in, over her head and did not even cry, at least not at first. The bad news is that she went in over her head because she fell off a 2.5 foot wall into the water.

She was kind of playing on a small retaining wall.
I was not so worried because the wall was not that high, the water next to the wall was 3 feet deep (enough to break a child's fall but easy enough to fish her out), I was right next to her, already in my bathing suit, so I knew I could grab her  Finally, the water was totally calm and clear. I was also watching her just in case.

Elana saw her walking on the wall and said, do you think that is ok?
So I said, I think it's ok. If she falls...
Then, splash!
I jumped up and grabbed her.
What impressed me is that she knew not to breathe water so when I grabbed her a few seconds later she was totally fine. Not even coughing or crying. After a few moments she did start crying, maybe after seeing the concern in my eye. But then she asked to do it again. 

market

Campeche has a great, bustling market full of every kind of fruit, vegetable, meat and fish known to the Yucuatan Peninsula. Today we were considering a honey pineapple, sniffing away, and trying to decide if we wanted one or two. It cost 75 cents and smelled great so we got it. With a twist, the green part came off and we had our fruit. We were really excited.

When we went to collect our things and finish our shopping, we noticed we were missing something. We had started the trip to the market with four children. Post pineapple, we only could find three of them. (It was not one of our children, rather one of our friend's children, a 4 year old girl.)

We started to high tail it back to the cheese section of the market, where we had last been. What was funny was that in those few minutes word of a lost gringo girl had spread from the dairy stalls, past the butchers and fish market, through the vegetable aisle and all the way to the edge of the fruit section. As we rounded banana corner people, seeing a panicked gringo family running towards the dairy section, started telling us everything was ok and pointing us in the right direction.

A few minutes later we had our girl, who was being soothed by an elderly milk lady, and we were back to shopping.  

On the contrary

Our Airbnb hosts speaks English well, which would be helpful if he were helpful, but occasionally he gets expressions wrong. When I said thank you, he meant to respond, no thank you. 

Instead the conversation went like this

Me: Thank you

Host: On the contrary and have a good night. 

Me: Yeah, good night. 

PS - He has been helpful about a number of things, just a couple of areas where we could use his assistance, like the name of a cleaner and having a desk or some surface to write on. Other things, he has been really good about. 

Whats Up

One of the interesting things to see is the growth of smart phones. This year, many more people have them. One of the most common apps is WhatsApp, which lets you send text messages or make calls without paying the phone company. For example, the lady who watches Noah is this very sweet grandmotherly lady. We were making plans and she asked if I had WhatsApp so we could text to finalize the plans. But what is funny, is how everyone says the name of the app. Just like the Budweiser commercials from 10 years ago, they are talking in a normal voice (in Spanish in this case) and then WHATSAHPPPP

See here for an illustration
http://bit.ly/1kjWfU2

Baila

At the Parador Gastronomica de Coctales

mexico house pt 2

noah and josh were pushing a car that got stuck, with the taxi driver. noah said the car was a little heavy to push but not too much.

i will attach some pictures. more than just this

we found a dropin daycare thing for the kids called Club Kid. couple hours yesterday and couple hours today and josh and i go to a cafe or place with wifi and do work and stuff. we took a bus back home yesterday and took a shared taxi today.

fam left on saturday and we went to a beachy area and saw crocodiles. we went to la casa de los crocodilos.

when nana and papa were with us, we went to the markets and i'll attach pictures of that also, later. we bought starfruit and nana made starfruit salsa. we also bought some fresh fish, and fried it up, covered in cornflakes.

at the zocolo

all the windows have wrought iron with different designs. these curlicues/hearts are a common design

walk through mangroves at casa de los crocodilos

so many crocodilos - these are all the one year olds. they have a little crocodile conservancy but also they cook them up for lunch. tastes salty and really tough and chewy. 

nana and papa and scooter - sidewalks are usually more narrower than this

hot chocolate being frothed

the consumption of the said hot chocolate

mexico house

we are here and it is hot. it's nice and cool in our apartment, but our apartment is pretty ugly or charm-less. it's pretty outside and very charming but it's hot. we are in the old city, centro historica, which is walled in.

we need to make decisions about plans before we’re falling apart or before the kids are falling apart and we’re desperate to get out of the house. b/c once the kids are falling apart, or we are, we just have to act fast to change the situation. we can’t plan logically or efficiently. this is a bullet point that we need to be sure we do.

• make plans a day ahead of time

so i want to debrief our time so far. traveling is hard. it definitely helped that the fam was with us. airplanes and security lines and everything in spanish and we have 3 suitcases and a stroller, two car seats, a frame-pack, and backpack and josh’s computer bag. and two kids. it’s so hard to get from point a to point b, even when they’re 100 feet away. there were many long lines we waited in, sometimes with all our stuff. (add to that list: fam’s stuff and fam). the airplane rides were actually good. we all had so many ways to entertain the kids and there were all kinds of toys for them. it was good. that preparation we all did really paid off. it was even complicated to get to the airport. dorian helped a lot by driving us to the airport, and taking care of plants while we’re gone and transporting some of us to the fam’s house… it all took planning and preparation.

so we flew to mexico city and stayed at an airport hotel, then left in the morning for our flight to campeche. we couldn’t fit in one taxi so we took two to our house. house is fine. no charm whatsoever which is kind of sad. an apartment with nothing on the walls and brand new white sheets and towels, and missing a lot of random things. whatever. there are two chairs that are like net/hammock/rocking chairs. and there’s air-conditioning in 3 rooms. three bedrooms. one for kids. putting noah to sleep was tricky and for two nights we had to do it so late and in our room, with both me and josh taking turns. or shifts, really, because it was work. it was about 10:30 the first night, when we started around 8. i guess it makes sense b/c it was two hours earlier in california.

so on monday and tuesday we walked around and saw the malecon or beach walk/area and also a fish market kind of place where we bought fresh fish to cook at home, and MEGA, the grocery store. we walked around the zocolo and the little markets with fruits and veggies and cellphones and nicknacks. we took a bus to the beach, la playa bonita. we got the internet set up and unpacked. josh did some work. we are starting to set up routines, including time in undies and sitting on the potty. we’ve had some time-outs, but only a few. it’s great having the fam here to help with the kids and to hang out and keep company/talk with.

adventures are more fun when you can reminisce about them later, and remind each other of details. mostly talk about them in the past tense. remember when….? here are some:

remember when we forgot about the frame pack and left it at the airport until tuesday when we noticed we were missing it?

remember when we called the airport hotel and the cab driver and decided to just go to the airport and ask about it?

remember when noah gave me a black eye by bonking his head into mine?

remember when noah locked the door to the bedroom and closed it? and there was no key so we called the locksmith?

remember when noah gave aviva a black eye?

and remember when we went into the water at the beach and we found a big conch shell in the water and there was a huge hermit crab crawling in it?

we tried out a sitter for the kids but gave up on her. she didn’t talk to the kids. and she was helping noah sharpen his colored pencils so that he could break them again on purpose. and then she’d do it again. we found two potential schools and one drop-in place that they’re trying out now. there’s other kids there too, and lots of toys. if that works, then the kids can spend 2 or 3 or 4 hours there, a few days a week, and then josh can work and i can be kid-free too.

here’s what i will do in my kid-free time, and what are my goals for mexico:

1. read about/prep for my classes, which will start at the end of january at san jose state.
2. work on the baby books that we are 2 ½ years behind on
3. read for fun
4. self-care-ish things like yoga, stretching, meditating
5. email and catch up on emails, work on low priority things that i’ve been putting off, like the baby book and emails
6. listen to more lectures online from happiness class i started a year ago (or maybe two years)
7. improve spanish with a class or tutor
8. blog

i’m looking forward to doing these things.

we went to the fruit/veggie/random-nick-nacks and nativity scenes market. i was wearing aviva on my back and she accidentally stole an orange as we passed by. we also were looking at two puppies for sale and one was a baby chihuahua, the size of a big potato. we’ve been eating good food and drinking a lot of juice and water and horchata. the buildings and the streets are pretty. cobblestone-y and nice colors. it’s very very hot. and also humid.

josh has been working and he was presenting at a webinar the other day. we’ll probably still find a better arrangement/place/time for work - the apartment isn’t so comfortable with no desk or table tops. probably we’ll find a coffee shop where was can set up shop for a few hours at a time on different days. we’ll see.