Mexico XVII - Grutas de Cacahuamilpa

Family Picture outside the cave entrance. Funny, huh?



Caves are always challenging to photograph, a portable tripod would be nice



The girls were not really impressed with the cave, until they saw "diamonds" on the walls.




For some reason I like this weird blurry picture. I should really read my camera manual.



The girls posing.



Scott is still smiling! He has way more energy than me when it comes to touring with the kids. This was not a stroller friendly place - in several areas we had to carry it up several flights of stairs. I would reccomend the baby backpack or a really light-weight umbrella stroller for this day trip.

The girls posing again.

Mom has had it. No more day trips for a while. Notice the vein popping out of my forehead. This picture also shows how pretty foilage is in the moutains surrounding Mexico City.

Julianna on a zipline over a huge canyon. She is such a dare-devil! When I asked the workers how old the child had to be, they told me 18 months old and up... okay... I was hoping you had to at least be twelve.

Mexico XVI - Taxco

We saw the "Grutas de Cacahuamilpa and Taxco all in one day. It was Good Friday and Scott didn't have to work, so we figured why not? A little much for one day, but sometimes I'd rather drive home late at night then to bring everything for an overnight stay.

Here is a view of the valleys surrounding Taxco. I bought a wall-hanging from this man on the side of the freeway and couldn't resist taking a picture. I did ask his permission first, and usually as long as you buy something this is acceptable. The mountains in this region (southwest of Mexico City) are so pretty, and it's great getting some fresh air.

Taxco is meditteranean style city built upon the side of a moutain. This used to be the world's largest producer of silver. There are still silver mines in the area and it's a great place to pick up silver beads and jewelry.

One downside, the town is not stroller or kid friendly. To the right of the picture above, you see Scott carrying the double-stroller down a flight of stairs. There are several places where you can proceed via a long flight of stairs, no ramps or roads to take you up to the town square. I would definately not do this again with the kids.

Here is a view of the town from the restaurant.

The kids were starving after all the flights of stairs.

The "zocolo" or main town square of Taxco. Note all the movement!

WARNING: Those with week stomachs stop reading at this point and don't look at the following pictures.

Well, what we didn't know, was that there is a huge religious procession on Good Friday, the day we went to Taxco. I looked this up when we got home, and it actually is a time when a lot of tourists come to Taxco to see this very procession. Above is a man carrying a cross from a montesary up to the center of town.

Poor Julianna found this very disturbing (who wouldn't) but couldn't stop watching the people carrying thorns, heavy crosses, or even those whipping themselves with belts covered in nails (self-flagellation as I later learned.) Notice the girl in the picture totally staring at Julianna. There is no word in Spanish that means "stare" and people will just stare and stare and stare at you. Matilda, with her blond hair and blue eyes shoots back nasty glares, and even this doesn't stop them. Scott taught her to say "Que me ves?!" - why are you looking at me?

This man is carrying stalks covered in thorns. My kids kept saying, "Mom is this real???!!!" And i couldn't lie to them, this was not some Hollywood production. This man had blood dripping down his back. One women told me a lot of these men were addicts who wanted to join the montesary and had to do this first. Haven't they heard of AA? That would be far less painful. I have more pictures, some of women with collars and leashes covered from head to toe in black doing the pilgramidge on their hands and knees.

This was the only nice part of the procession, little children dressed as angels.

WARNING - CONTAINS GRAPHIC MATERIAL

Taxco Good Friday procession - self-flagellation

I really hope I don't offend anyone, this is what we all happend to see... you never know what you are going to get in Mexico. Julianna, after seeing this asked me, "Mom, is this the true church?" I told her, "no," and she said, "I didn't think so."

Mexico XVI - Easter, broken elevator, swine flu and the apartment we will not miss!!!

April 2009. Here are the girls, cooped up in the apartment during the swine flu scare. School was shut down for two weeks, as well as restaurants, movies, parks, museums. We stayed in the apartment and rotted - literally.


So when we looked for apartments in October 2008, we chose one close to a large banking building, because that meant 4 extra policemen on one side of our building. This was all good, until there started to be several protests by mining workers. Apparently, several of their men had been killed and the company (whose headquarters were in this building) failed to recompensate those families. The screaming and yelling, the first time, frightened me, but everything was fine. The protestors stayed outside the exit during lunch hour so the "millionarios" couldn't leave on their break. We were just happy they had their clothing on (naked protests are common here). Look to the back on the picture, you'll see Scott - I dared him to go down their with them.

Here's when the protest can get ugly. Extra police are called in to confront the protestors and allow the "millionarios" to leave their building. The poor miners then left, but there were two more protests like this one while we were in that apartment. (These pictures were taken from our family room window)

Here is a picture outside our apartment, located on 510 Seneca, in Polanco with our favorite security guard, Raul. What a nightmare this apartment turned out to be. Besides protests, it had several problems. We were told by the landlord, that everything had been repaired and renovated and we wouldn't have any problems in this building. It turns out, the week before we signed our contract (from Arizona of course) the elevator went out. The landlord, Roberto Charvel, did not have the decency to tell us before signing. When we arrived on January 5th, I wanted to cry when I noticed the elevator was out - but all our stuff was there waiting to be unpacked and there wasn't much else we could do. Roberto reassured us it would be fixed soon. January, February, March..... no elevator! We have 4 kids, buy lots of food at Costco, the water alone is enough to kill someone climbing up two flights of slippery marble stairs. So finally in April, after a lot of fighting with good old Roberto, we were done with that place. So, anyone thinking of renting from Roberto Charvel with either Vander Properties or Pelican Properties - BEWARE. He is totally dishonest... I could go on and on. Maybe this will come up on a google search for him, maybe not. By the way, Roberto did not fix the elevator until August - I'm so glad we moved!

Decorating Easter eggs - note how messy the place is. By May, I wised up and hired a live-in maid. Life is hard in Mexico City - it is good to have a lot of help!

Decorating Easter eggs in our teeny tiny kitchen. In Mexico, most kitchens are built just for servants, not for families. So they are so small and rather depressing. Very little light, counter space, etc.

Mexico XV - Cancun with the Hatch Family

April 2009. The group at Xcaret - minus Matilda and Scott.




Timothy and his cousin Austin Hatch (Becca's baby)




Timothy fell asleep in the sand. It most have been like a womb - all warm and comforting. Don't worry he's wearing SPF 60 and he did not burn. We moved him into the stroller where he took a nice long nap on the beach.

Why is it that Dad's are so good at thinking of games which require so little movement or effort on their behalf? Paul Hatch (my sister Becca's husband) played a game with the kids in the baby pool - they loved it! He tossed the intertube and they had to duck underwater before they got hit. Poor Austin took this one though. Good thing he has his binkie in the pool.

Casa Maya Condominiums. We crashed with Becca and Paul in a two bedroom condo. Here is a view from the room. It wasn't as fancy as other places, but it had an ideal location on the coast. It's located on the northeast tip of the island and there are hardly any waves. It was like being at Bear Lake - except with beautiful sand and salt water. I would definately go back to this resort. Thanks Becca and Paul for letting us crash with you guys!

How to fit 12 people in a two bedroom condo - get creative with the sleeping arrangements. The kids had so much fun each night. It was like a big slumber party, except they fell asleep immediately, the swimming really wore them out.

The kids at the entrance of Xcaret - of course you're not supposed to take your own pictures of their macaws.

At the end of the day, I'm really glad we made it to xcaret, the mexican theme park about an hour south of Cancun. There you can swim in a cenote, play at the beach, see some small pyramids, eat a huge buffet, watch a live-performance...etc. etc. All on very maticulously maintained grounds. Would I go again... sure why not, I would just be sure to set aside the $300 way in advanced. It's like a day at Disneyland, expensive, exhausting, but we can't seem to get enough of it.

Mexico XIV - Hilton Cancun

April 2009. Rebecca and Paul left, we moved to the Hilton Cancun Resort. The kids loved the pools, the beach full of seashells and I loved the breakfast buffet. I could go on and on about how delicious the food was... ahhh some of the best chilaquiles ever! The only downside, the water was a little wavy for swimming, and the rooms were small.

View of the pools and ocean from our room.



Paradise! Timmy fell asleep everytime we went in the hammock. It doesn't get any better than this!

Timmy posing for the camera.






We loved the swimming pools at this hotel. Behind the girls is a poolside bar - they actually were able to talk to way to free soda, by swimming up and asking the bartender, "cuanto cuesta?" In just three months they have developed perfect accents. I will never be able to speak as fluidly as them.

Mexico XIII - Three arqueological sites in one day - what were we thinking?

Mayan ruins - Chitzen Itza, Coba and Tulum. April 2009.

Chitzen Itza - the most famous of the Mayan ruins.

Family picture at Chitzen-itza. This was my second time here. The first was 12 years ago with Cheryl, Paul & family. Back then we were able to climb up the pyramids. The kids were really disappointed that it was roped off.

After 5 minutes, Julianna was done. Have I mentioned yet how much she dislikes pyramids? And this was the first one we saw

The second pyramid of the day, Coba. There was more shade and the kids enjoyed exploring the grounds there.

Julianna and Alexandra climbing up one of the pyramids at Coba.

Tulum, beautiful, beautiful Tulum! It's Alexandra who is having a hard time now!

This is the prettiest archeological site I have ever seen, and may ever see. It is located right on the coast, and there is a lovely breeze. Below the pyramid is a public beach that closes at 4:30pm (fyi) - we arrived at 4:45 and the kids were furious that we couldn't swim after such a long day.

We found a public beach close by Tulum and it was perfect! Powdery white sand, a huge sand bar for the kids to play in. It made the long day worthwhile.

The kids trying to body surf in the waves.

Hurray, everyone is finally happy!!

If I could do it again, I would maybe only see one pyramid, then head directly to the "cenote" close by. All pyramids in this region were built by a sacred "cenote" - natural well - that you can swim in to cool off.

Mexico XII - Coyoacan

March 2009. I absolutely love spending a Saturday in Coyoacan. I regret not considering this area when we were looking for housing in Mexico City. This neighborhood is made up of multi-colored homes, cobblestone streets and has more of a bohemian feel. The market has the best seafood tostadas in all of D.F. and there are lots of little art museums. It is only about a 10 minute drive from Polanco (as long as you don't hit traffic!)



Best picture of the Day! Alexandra with one of Diego Rivera's statues. These were all over the yard of the casa azul.

Visiting Frida and Diego's house (La Casa Azul) in Coyoacan. I love the girls' pose!

Timmy sitting next to aa statue. It could have been made of him, back 2000 yrs ago or so.

Julianna posing next to one of fountains in Frida Kahlo's garden.

I really love all the color in Mexico - too bad the HOA only allows shades of brown!

If you want really good seafood tostados, this restaurant in the middle of the Coyoacan market has the BEST tostadas I have ever tried. They serve them with about 8 different choices of salsa, a big slice of avacado. To die for!!!

Waiting for our "Tacos al Pastor" - Yum! For those of you in the Phoenix area, according to the Mexican I met at Garage Sales, you can find Tacos al Pastor in Southwest Phoenix. (the area that always seems to be on the news for something or other... but hey, I'd go there for these tacos!)

The whole family in front of the Coyotes fountain. The name Coyoacan actually comes from a Nahuatl words meaning "land of the coyotes."