Cancun Adventures Part 1

I've been advised that I need to post about my cancun trip as soon as possible or I might receive a multitude of nagging text messages... Thanks for the push Nat.  And just as a foreword - some of these photos were taken with my iPhone, and some were taken with my legit camera, hence the disparity in quality between some of the photos.

The trip started at the crack of dawn.  Literally.  I am not a morning person...

               

I love to fly.  Being up above the clouds is the most amazing feeling.  I think it would be really cool to be a pilot.  Career change someday, maybe?

My whole family flew out of different airports.  Nick and I from LA, Mom and Zack from Ontario, Sierra from Phoenix, and Dad from San Francisco.  But my amazing Popsicle timed all the flights so we all landed within an hour or so of each other.  

 Zack got bored waiting for my dad to land and made a grill out of his gum wrappers.

First order of business was to pick up the rental cars.  We got two smaller cars because it would have been obscenely expensive to rent a car big enough to fit all six of us.  We got both cars for less than half of what one van would have cost... go figure.  After we picked up the rental cars, we set out for Merida (which is a two hour drive from Cancun).  We proceeded to get hopelessly lost and the two hour drive took us five hours...  When we finally found someplace to eat at 11 PM (Burger King... Ha ha ha) Zack asked a man with a computer for directions, and the kind man offered to show us how to get there, even though it was 15 minutes out of his way.
Needless to say we were all a bit cranky from a long day of traveling and were asleep within minutes of finally checking in to the hotel.

The next day we drove to Campeche, which was another 2 1/2 - 3 hours outside of Merida.  We found this hotel without a hitch (because my brother served in Campeche and knew right where it was), dropped off our luggage, and then piled all six of us in a 4 seater car to take a tour of the city.  It was quite squishy, but fun to be altogether.  Zack served in two different areas in Campeche, and showed us both places that he lived, the places he would eat, where he shopped, areas he knocked doors, and a whole lot of other stuff.

The city was quite beautiful.  The houses and building were all so colorful, I wished I could have taken more pictures, but was stuck in the middle of the back seat and couldn't get a good shot off.  I would have liked to have had more time to get out and walk around in the centro (the downtown area) but, alas, we had places to go and people to see.

        

We saw a whole city street lined with these sculptures.  They were amazing.  I wish I could remember who the artist was.  This was the only one I took a picture of, but there were dozens of them all up and down this alley way.  They had all different masks and sets of wings in all different poses.  I found it to be quite mesmerizing.  Like I said, I would have liked to have had more time to walk around in the centro.

There were several cathedrals that looked like this one.  I think they are so beautiful - its amazing how much history is within these walls, and how much faith and pride went into constructing them.  The inside was incredibly ornate, but a little gaudy for my taste.  It really made me appreciate the simple beauty of our LDS Temples - they rely less on pomp and circumstance and more on the Spirit to make you feel that sense of awe and wonder.

For dinner we went to this amazing taco place called atakear (pronounced ah-talk-ee-are).  We wanted street tacos, but some of the places looked super sketchy, and we didn't want to get sick, so Zack told us that this place serves street tacos, but the quality of the meat is much better, and it's more of a "restaurant."  Best tacos I had all trip.  Hands down.  And the gringas?  Holy crap.  So delicious.  If you ever get to go here, which I recommend, get the al pastor and the sirloin.  Heaven.

The next day, we spent the day driving around and visiting all the people that my brother taught.  It was really really neat to put faces to the names of people Zack had written home about, and to actually meet the people whose lives were changed through the teachings of the Gospel.  Unfortunately, all of the pictures of our visits are on my mom's camera.

We had lunch with Carlos and Raquel - who Zack baptized.  That was really amazing to meet them.  They spoke so highly of Zack and were so glad he came back to visit them.  They are doing so well in the church, and are planning to go to the temple and get sealed next March when their son gets back home from his mission.

We visited a lady at her sunglasses shop, and she fed us Charritos and Cristal Negra soda, both of which are found only in the Yucatan peninsula, and both of which are incredibly delicious.  Charritos are a kind of chip - although the term chip does NOT do them justice, and Cristal is a brand of soda, and the Negra soda is like a cola type soda flavored with overly ripe bananas.  It sounds bizarre, but it was beyond tasty.  I wish I could have brought a bottle back but was afraid it would explode in my suitcase.

After we left her shop, we discovered that my dad had parked in no parking zone and had gotten a ticket... which wouldn't have been a big deal except that in Mexico (or at least the part we were in) they take your license plates to make sure you pay the ticket!

So needless to say we had another adventure figuring out where to pay the ticket and how to get the plates back since we were leaving the city that night.  Good times.

This is the only picture I have of one of our visits.  This was a family Zack taught, and he baptized the Father, and the two girls (the boy isn't old enough).  The mother still hasn't warmed up to the church though.

That evening we headed back to Merida, and this time found our hotel with no trouble.  The next day, we just messed around in the city.  Zack never served in Merida, but that is where the Mission offices are, and we had an appointment to meet his Mission President that evening at 5 PM, so we explored the city.

We got to see the temple, which was beautiful.  It is so amazing to me how no matter where you go, no matter what country you are in, the Spirit you feel on the temple grounds is just overwhelming.  I wish we would have had time to do a session.  I also discovered that my love of photographing temples is not exclusive to the San Diego Temple.  I have more pictures of the temple than almost anything else on the trip.

   

After the Temple we headed over to the mission office, where we discovered that President Salinas was actually at the stake center right next to the Temple, in a meeting with the area General Authority, so we headed back over to the Temple and President Salinas took a quick break to say hello.  Those pictures are also on my Mom's camera.

After meeting President Salinas, we piled back into the cars and made the trek back to Cancun.  We checked into the resort, and crashed for the night.

The next day was Sunday, and Zack wanted to go to church in Leona Vicaria, which was an hour drive from Cancun... Are you sensing a trend here?  I will not be sad if I don't go on a road trip for a very long time after all the driving we did on this vacation.

We drove by the place he lived when he served here, and then headed over to the tiny little chapel.  While at church we got lots of hugs and kisses on the cheeks, met lots of people who were over the moon excited to see Elder "Keeterman" and his family, and struggled through three hours of church in a foreign language.  Zack was in his element, and Nick served a Spanish speaking mission, so he was loving it.  My mom and dad were lost the whole time, and I did okay.  I speak a bit of Spanish and understand slightly more than I can speak, so I was able to follow the general concept of what they were talking about and pick up bits and pieces here and there.  In Sunday School we talked about the Joseph Smith's First Vision, so I was sort of able to follow along with Nick helping out by whispering in my ear.  But then the boys went off to Priesthood and left my mom and I in Relief Society.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I was able to pick up, and things were going well until my mom volunteered me to read...  I was mortified.  Luckily the passage I had to read was fairly simple and I sailed through it feeling incredibly proud of myself.  Then later in the lesson the teacher called on me to read again!  This time I was not so lucky and butchered most of the words in the paragraph.  The teacher came up to me afterward and told me that I read beautifully.  I think she was being nice...

This is the whole ward.  Zack said that was a really big turn out because he had messaged a bunch of people on facebook to make sure they actually came so he could see them.  Even though it was a struggle to understand and follow along, I could still feel the spirit of the lesson, and the Church is just as true in Spanish!

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Cancun Adventures - Scuba diving, snorkeling and Explor!