Mexico

During the time Dad was in the hospital, I was booked to go to Mexico with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Fred and Aunt Sue. Uncle Fred and Aunt Sue have a condo in Mazatlan and they invited me to come along to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. At first I said no and didn't really think about it and then Uncle Fred mentioned it again. I talked to Devin and he said as long as I didn't make it a habit of traveling without him, it would be fine. He couldn't come since it was in the middle of school. I left on my birthday and came back a week later. I thought about cancelling since Dad was in the hospital, but Dad wouldn't hear of it. So feeling supremely guilty, I left with Grandpa and Grandma. We got to Mazaltan around supper time.

Uncle Fred rented a car for the week since there were 5 of us. About 5 minutes after leaving the airport, we were pulled over by the police. I was hyperventilating in the backseat, afraid we were all going to rot in Mexican jail! The policeman kept saying "Ticket, ticket" but eventually asked where we were going and Uncle Fred said we were lost and he gave directions and let us go. We weren't entirely sure why we were pulled over to begin with, but figured it had to do with a left turn on the yellow?? Phew! No Mexican jail for us.

The condo is beautiful! They have a nice view of the ocean from their back deck and view of the city from the front deck. The pool was very nice also.

The pool where we did aquasize a few mornings.

View of the ocean from the deck.

We were busy the whole week. We went to the city and saw the market one day (and drank orchata from a street vendor...brave!!!). Uncle Fred drove us down the the Gold District a few times and we shopped. I bought some knock off Coach purses and silver earrings. I found some t-shirts for Dad and Devin. 

The food in Mexico was amazing! I have never had such fantastic seafood! I had a shrimp fajita at Playa Bruha and it had, no word of a lie, at least 60 shrimp in it! And it was divine. I had limonada to be polite the first night, and found out I LOVE it! I thought I wouldn't since I don't like lemonade, but limes...delish! The salsa and corn tortillas were great. I would go back just to eat! Haha. It was really fun to read the menus and figure things out in Spanish. The signs and things at the supermarket were also pretty fun to try to translate.

Gotta love the ocean!

Grandpa found a fish washed up on shore...kind of hard to see it against his busy shirt.

On the top of the "mountain" Aunt Sue and I hiked one morning. We took the bus...wahoo! We walked up this hill and then walked to the market downtown. We took another bus back to the condo. It was quite the adventure.

On the way up the 'mountain'.

Bright lizard.

Beautiful sunsets. This was at dinner after eating the amazing shrimp fajita.

Boogie boarding! It was soo fun! I didn't end up actually catching a wave properly, but I really had fun being washed into shore. Just floating out in the ocean was awesome...except I kept imagining Dad being there and swimming by and touching my leg with his foot and scaring me that a fish/shark was gonna get me! We went seashell finding a few times also. I found some very cool shells. I also found some very cool shells at Seashell City...those ones weren't free though. Dang!

Another nice sunset.

One day we drove out to a small little town about 45 minutes out of Mazatlan called El Calite. It was the perfect little Mexican town. We walked around the Cathedral and through the town. We poked our noses into some shops and had lunch there. The menu was very thoroughly Mexican and most of it I had absolutely no idea what things would have been. Thank goodness for Auntie Sue!

Grandma and Grandpa

Old plow turned into a table

The rooster that was walking through the restaurant by our feet. We wondered when filling out the customs form if we needed to claim we'd been in contact with farm animals??

At the town square.

El burro...Grandpa wanted me to ask how much they'd charge for me to get a picture on the donkey.

In the town square.

Our last sunset.

Our last meal in Mexico was at a restaurant by the beach. Uncle Fred had something very interesting in his dinner and made me eat one...I made him eat one first, and then...

I ate some octopus! It was rubbery, but not as bad as I thought it would be. I still can't believe I actually ate it. Haha.

We got back to Calgary very late and stayed at a hotel. I took Grandpa and Grandma to the airport and then drove home to Red Deer. I went straight to the clinic because I had a Mexican eye infection! Yuck! I also ended up with some weird skin thing on my fingers that still hasn't completely gone away. It was a localized red rash in 4 spots on my fingers. It didn't itch or hurt. It looked like a sunburn, but it wasn't. The doctor said it would just be one of those things we never know what it was. Lucky me!

It was a fantastic trip, but I was very happy to be home to my Devin. I missed that little boy so much! At least I was able to send Facebook messages to him every night. And I got updates on Dad everyday too, so that made things bearable. But no more leaving Devin behind. Not cool!

Thank you soooo much to Auntie Sue and Uncle Fred for thinking of me and inviting me to share in this wonderful trip. I will always remember it as a wonderful time.