December 18:
To celebrate Christmas this year, Becky’s family decided to gather in Merida, Mexico with their close family friends, Alfred and Carmen and their family. We caught an early morning flight from Seattle and landed in Mexico City. Once we got into the main immigration hall to pass through customs and immigration, we were amazed at how many people were jammed in there and the utter chaos. There was some semblance of a main line, but there were five or six lines of people that were haphazardly filing into the line. We thought we would be there for hours! Luckily, the line moved faster than we thought it would and we were able to go through and catch our next flight to Merida. We touched down in Merida around 10:30pm and were greeted at the airport by Becky’s dad, who knew we would be hungry and took us to a local taco joint to get some fresh Mexican food. We then made our way over to the hacienda where we were staying for our trip.
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| Tacos! |
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| The hacienda where we stayed |
December 19:
After breakfast we (and the rest of Becky’s family) drove into the downtown section of Merida, where we met Alfred and Carmen and their family for lunch. After lunch, some of the family decided to go back to the hacienda for a siesta and to swim. The rest of us strolled around the central part of Merida, looking at some of the sights and the Christmas decorations that were around the town. It was very hot and humid today, so it didn’t really feel like it was almost Christmas. In the evening we enjoyed a big meal together back at the hacienda.
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| Merida Cathedral |
December 20:
Today
we drove out to the beach in Progresso, which is only about 45 minutes from
Merida. It was hot out again, but the
breeze and the water at the beach felt good.
We spent most of the afternoon swimming in the water and lounging on the
beach, eating fresh seafood for lunch.
Alfred and Carmen and their family joined us at the beach and we had fun
talking with them and catching up. Once everyone
had their fill of sun and sand, we went back to the hacienda to relax. For dinner we got a bunch of food from a
local taco restaurant and brought it back to the hacienda for some great
tacos.
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| At the beach in Progresso |
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| Hanging out with Alfred and Carmen and their family |
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| More food! |
December 21:
This
morning we got an early start and everyone drove out to the ancient Mayan Ruins
at Uxmal. Uxmal is right in the middle
of the Yucatan jungle, so it is almost always hot and humid. The family spent some time wandering around
the ruins. Sadly, since we were last here
in 2018, many of the ruins had been roped off and inaccessible. Still, we had a good time admiring the ruins
and hanging out with the family.
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| Mayan ruins at Uxmal |
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| Sorry, can't take that home! |
After Uxmal we stopped at a restaurant for lunch, then decided to go
over and swim in a pair of cenotes, which are underground pools of fresh water
that dot the Yucatan peninsula. Since it
was still hot outside, the cool fresh water felt great! We even saw some divers coming up from the
underground cave systems that connect the cenotes.
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| Swimming in the cenotes |
On the drive back from
the cenotes our rental van got a flat tire.
We managed to drive it off the dirt road and back to a local village
where we thought it would be a quick fix to put on the spare tire (since we
have the same Dodge van at home and I have had plenty of experience changing
flat tires). We were wrong. Two of the cars had already left, so it was
just us and Becky’s sister’s family in another van. First off, the tools that you need to lower
the spare were missing from the van, and the lug nut wrench was the wrong size.
The jack was also bent, so it wouldn’t
work. We tried the lug nut wrench from
the other van. It was the right size,
but almost all of the lug nuts on the tire were completely stripped. By this time, we finally got ahold of Becky’s
dad and he drove back to see if he could help us. Luckily the kids entertained themselves on a
playset in the village. Several of the
locals came out to help us and offered different lug nut wrenches, but with no
luck. Finally, we called the rental car
company and they said they would send someone out to fix it, but it might be a while. We decided to load up all of the kids and
most of the adults in the other van so they wouldn’t have to sit and wait. Becky’s sister Sarah and her brother Matt
then waited with me for the rental car guys.
It took a few hours before they got there. We killed time eating snacks and hanging out in
the local park. Once the rental cars
guys got there, they said it should be an easy fix and tried everything we did (even
though we kept telling them that we already tried that). Once they realized there was no way to remove
the tire, they filled it with fix a flat.
They then had the three of us drive their car while they drove the
van. It was hard to keep up with them as
they drove way too fast on a pot-holed riddled road with a tire that looked
like it was going to blow! The car they
had us drive barely had any gas in it and I didn’t know if we were even going
to make it home. They ended up taking
the van overnight to get it fixed.
Meanwhile, the three of us drove to a taco joint to bring dinner home
for everyone else.
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| Trying to Fix the flat tire |
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| The kids entertaining themselves |
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| Waiting in the local village for the tire to be fixed |
December 22:
Today
we drove over to Celestun. Celestun is
famous for the flocks of flamingos that migrate there in the winter. Unfortunately, when we arrived there we were
told that there were very few flamingos out today, so we weren’t able to go out
in a boat and watch them. Instead, we
went to the beach and spent the day in the water and hanging out with the
cousins. Becky, Marcus, and I wandered
around the town looking at some shops and found a place to eat.
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| Hanging out at the beach in Celestun |
In
the evening the adults went into downtown Merida and had a nice dinner together
outside a restaurant. In the same square
as the restaurant there was an outdoor concert with a group playing local music
with traditional dances. We watched the
show for a bit, wandered around and then made our way back to the hacienda for
the evening.
December 23:
Becky
and her parents took most of the grandkids to a local zoo to look at some of
the animals that are native to the Yucatan Peninsula. There was a large tower in the park that you
could go up to get a view of the entire area (the whole area is very flat).
In the evening we drove
downtown to go to some of the markets and do some shopping. Around 7pm it started dumping rain. We were all divided up into different groups
and spent the next hour or so hopping in between buildings trying not to get too
wet. It was no use; we all ended up
getting sopping wet. We hooked back up
and found a great place to eat next to the cathedral (we found the place back
in 2018 and were glad they were still open).
We wanted to keep exploring the city, but it was still raining and we
had a long walk back to the car.
Fortunately the rain had settled down, but all of the street were
completely flooded with 6-12” of water. Some
of the street intersections had more water than that and looked like small
ponds. The kids had a fun time trying to
navigate around the water, but ultimately we had to walk through the
flood.
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| Flooded streets |
December 24:
We
spent most of the day relaxing and hanging out.
With the storm that passed through the day before, the temperature
dropped and the highs were only in the 60s.
In the evening Alfred and Carmen and their family came over to the
hacienda and we did a big barbeque with steak and lobster tails. The kids had fun playing cards with their
cousins.
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| The "cooks" |
December 25 (Christmas
Day):
This
morning we went to a local church with Becky’s parents. Even though everything was in Spanish, it was
great to sing Christmas hymns in Spanish the best we could. The weather was still cool. It was funny to see most of the members of
the congregation wearing sweaters and puffy down jackets to church, since 60
degrees is freezing!
Most
of the afternoon we spent relaxing, talking with family, and eating. The kids bought some firecrackers from some
locals and spent most of the afternoon blowing stuff up in the neighboring
gravel parking lot. Marcus was the only
victim, having a firecracker blow up in his hand. Alfred and Carmen and their whole family came
over for a large Christmas feast.
Afterward, we introduced them to a white elephant gift exchange!
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| White elephant gift exchange |
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| White elephant gift exchange |
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| The "twins" |
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| Marcus held on the firecracker too long! |
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| Cousin sacrifice |
December 26:
Our
family decided to drive out to the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. We had been here a few years ago, but wanted
our exchange student Justyna to see the ruins as well. As always, it was very crowded. Luckily, the weather was cool with a light rain
falling. We spent some time weaving between
all of the people, vendors, and ruins.
For lunch we stopped at a small “restaurant” along the road. It was actually more like a tent that a
family had set up with some tables and chairs underneath. The grandma was
cooking on a charcoal stove by a rock and the kids in the family were serving
the food. The food we ate was delicious,
though I don’t think anyone got sick from it.
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| Chichen Itza |
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| Homemade lunch |
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| Lunch spot |
December 27:
Everyone
in the family drove out to a small set of Mayan ruins named Xcambo. Since it was smaller and not as famous, we
could wander and walk on most of the ruins.
Afterward we drove back over to the beach at Progresso. Unfortunately the recent storms had washed in
a bunch of sargassum seaweed which made it almost impossible to get in the
water. The water was very muddy anyway,
so we just hung out on the beach and walked around town for most of the
afternoon.
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| Sacrificial victim |
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| Xcambo |
In the evening we went over to Alfred and Carmen’s house and had a 50th
birthday party for Becky’s sister Sarah.
Alfred and Carmen had arranged for some guys to make homemade tacos
(that were excellent) and a mariachi band to come and play for a bit. We then had hung a giant pinata and had the
kids take turns hitting it. The party
was a great way to end our time in Mexico.
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| Pinata for the party |
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| Tacos! |
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| Mariachi band |
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| The 50th birthday girl! |
December 28:
In
the morning we took some pictures around the hacienda and took some family
pictures as well, since we realized we hadn’t taken any the whole trip. We then headed off to the airport to make our
way back home. Once we arrived back in Seattle
we found out that Snoqualmie Pass was closed due to a bad accident with a pedestrian
(a crazy man decided to strip down naked and sit in the middle of the snowy
road, which ended up causing multiple accidents and his death). Instead we had to drive south and then take
White Pass home, which took us over double the time it usually does to get
home.
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| Around the hacienda where we stayed |
