Tuesday, November 23rd

Today we went to the pyramids at Tenochtitlan. We've been there tons of time before, but it was still pretty fun. We climbed the Sun pyramid and one of the smaller ones, by then we were all tried so we headed back home.

Monday, November 22nd

Today we got up early to go to Xoxafi, a really cool cave network.

We've gone once before but I forgot to blog about it. First we had to put on a harness and helmet, we thought that the helmets were an unnecessary safety precaution like in most cave we had been to, but this cave was different. We started out by walking down stone stairs into a large cavern. Boring, right? Well then we got to the hard parts. Going down into the Xoxafi caves means an hour or two of squeezing through tight spaces, climbing steep rocks, dropping down through holes, and other exhausting but really fun activities! There is also a zip-line in the dark and repelling down 10 meters. The zip-line was fun, repelling not so much (for me). I'm not a big fan of heights. The rest was really fun though! The hardest part is at the end, there is a place called 'Born Again', it is a space so small that people describe it as like being born again! After Xoxafi we drove to Tolontango, a hot water spring. The water is really nice, like bathtub water, the only problem is getting out. After really warm water, getting out into fairly chilly air feels like freezing to death! We finished up there pretty quickly and went straight home from there.

Sunday, November 21th

Today we went to la Marquesa, a large area filled with zip-lines, four-wheelers, and all sort of cool stuff. The first area we went to had these large, blow-up, plastic balls (think hamster balls for humans) that float on the water. You're supposed to run like a hamster, but it's a lot harder than it looks on water. You spend a lot more time falling than running! The next place had padded, plastic, blow-up balls that went down a hill instead of on water. These were a ton of fun! You climb in, roll it up the hill (someone is always there to help you), then take turns rolling down. You start by running, but after a while it starts going so fast that it's hard to keep your feet. Anyone that falls rolls around in the ball until the bottom of the hill. It was SO much fun!

After that there was a huge zip-line that went across a valley, I was the only one that didn't go. And finally we went to a go-cart track and did that for an hour. I don't like driving go-carts so I just rode with my dad, I was literally hanging on for dear life at every turn!

Saturday, November 20th

Today we went to San Ángel, a large market area that is well-known for selling art and small, traditional Mexican souvineers. Jamie wasn't feeling well today so after that we went back to the house for the rest of the day.

Friday, November 19th

The Joslins arrived yesterday really late at night. For those who don't know, the Joslin family consists of: Mr. Brian, Ms. Sherry, Wes (13), Monica (12) and Jamie (9). Today I had a school field trip to Xochimilco, but I decided I could miss it, so instead I went with everyone else to the Zocalo (city square) and afterwards to Jamaica (the flower market). After we finished there we went back to the house to eat and relax until about 7:00 when we went to see Harry Potter 7! I put on my Hermione costume and wore it to the theater! I LOVED THAT MOVIE!!!!! Who ever hasn't seen it NEEDS to go ASAP!!! :)

Monday, November 15th

Today we got up earlier than normal and packed a bit before going down to the beach. A little while after getting in, all of a sudden I felt a really strong pinch on one of my toes, it really hurt! I pulled my foot out of the water and saw that an inch-long crab was latched on! My mom pulled it off, but I was paranoid for the rest of the day. Whenever I stepped on anything on the beach I jumped, thinking it could be a crab! We also saw stingrays that were riding the waves, it was really amazing! One wave I saw had a group of about five of them all swimming along together. After we had finished at the beach we went back to the room to finish up packing. We managed to get on the road by noon and back to Mexico City by about 9:00 after picking some lunch up at BK.

Sunday, November 14th

We got out to the beach around early afternoon again and stayed there about the same amount of time. Then we went to Costco to get pizza and ice-cream for lunch. When we got back my dad went of to the Princess with Abby again, Nate and I went to the bird swings and my mom and grandma slept for a while. We took it easy from then until bedtime and didn't really do much.

Saturday, November 13th

We slept in a bit before beginning the process of getting ready to go to the beach (which takes a long time!). When we finally got there it was about 10:00, we bogey-boarded, played in the sand, jumped the waves, or whatever else we were doing, until about 1:00 when we all got hungry. We snacked in our rooms and then everyone else went to a saltwater pool at the Princess, a nearby hotel that's owned by the same company. I stayed by myself at our hotel and went down to the park that's right outside our building. It has the awesome bird swings that Chloe, Noelle and I rode last time we went. I spent most of the afternoon on those and had a great time! When everyone else got back we went into the actual city of Acapulco and ate at a nice restaurant before going to see the cliff divers.They are really amazing to see. They climb down the cliff that the crowd is watching from, swim across a small channel of water, then take turns climbing up the other side (which is probably about 100 feet tall). Then they dive off from different heights, steadily getting higher up, until one guy jumps off from the very top.

After the show we went back to the hotel.

Friday, November 12th

Today when we got up we went out for breakfast and then went shopping again. Everyone but Nate got something during today's shopping, poor Nate. He didn't care though, he just played his DS outside of every shop we stopped at. In the late afternoon we got in the car and continued on to Acapulco, the beach! We always stay at the same hotel, the Pierre Marques, which is the one I went to with Noelle and Chloe. We arrived in time to enjoy about an hour on the beach before they closed it for the night. We went out to eat and got hamburgers and ice-cream and then headed back to the hotel.

Thursday, November 11th

Yesterday my grandma arrived at about 9:30, I stayed up until about 11:00 with her and my parents but then went to bed because I had school the next day.

Today right after I got home from school, we finished the last bit of packing and then got in the car to go to Tasco, the silver town. We arrived there in the evening, we went out for dinner, shopped in a few stores and then went to bed.

Tuesday, November 2nd

After breakfast today we went to a Bicentennial Exposition. We didnt do any of the educational stuff, just the activities for kids! (Unfortunately it was mostly for kids Nate and Abby's age) First we went to a sky-walk type thing with a zip line. I only did it once, it was okay, but not worth doing again. Nate and Abby loved it along with a climbing tower that was nearby. Then we went to a go-cart type track, but there weren't any go-carts. Instead there were a bunch of the kind of electric scooter/carts that old people ride around in.

The track was complete with street signs, stoplights and arrows. The funny part was that they weren't there mostly for decoration like on the real streets of Mexico, we actually

had to follow the driving laws! *gasp* And there was a "police car" (scooter) that could pull us over if we didn't obey the rules and he actually did his job (unlike most real Mexican policemen)!

Here he is pulling over someone who ran a red light! XD

We had a good laugh about that! After that we went to a maze made out of bushes, it was actually pretty hard to find the way out. And at the end they gave each of us a cheap little diploma for completing it, I threw mine away at the closest trashcan. Abby saw me throwing it away and asked me why I trashed it. A few seconds later she gave hers to my mom to hold on to, my mom tossed Abby's too. At that point we were about done because the sun was pretty hot, so we got some food, took a few last pictures and then headed out. Those pictures were a few minutes of torture. I have an eye infection, so a second of looking towards a bright light is extremely painful and makes my eye water like crazy. Almost all of the pictures were taken with me looking into the sun. Then we spent a while in the car driving to Dolores Hidalgo where my parents shopped for Talavera (not very interesting for the rest of us) and then drove to San Miguel de Allende to shop for pewter. This stop was more interesting. First we had late lunch/early dinner, I ordered sopa de fideos seco, which is literally dry noodle soup. I of course forgot about the "dry" part of the dish when I ordered it so I was a bit surprised when it arrived.

Yep, that is definatly the driest soup I have ever seen! Makes me wonder why they put it under the soup section. After dinner we wandered the streets while my parents shopped for pewter. They found most of what they were looking for and I am satisfied with what I found that was more what I am interested in. When we finished shopping we found an ice-cream store to stop at on the way back to the car. Then we drove the 3 1/2 hours home.

Monday, November 1st

I minded the thin mattress a bit more in the morning. :P We had an okay breakfast and then went to a mummy museum which was a bit creepy but very interesting too. After that we were all pretty hungry but there weren't any restaurants nearby, the only food in sight was a rotisserie chicken place. A few problems with that.
1. They didn't give us plates
2. Nor did they give us utensils of any kind
3. They didn't even have tortillas to use to pull the meat off of the bones
4. There weren't any tables anywhere nearby
5. The chicken was in a plastic bag, the same for the rice
So, we were forced to give a new meaning to the phrase "street-side food" by buying AND eating the food on the side of the street. We sat on the concrete right next to the street to eat. And it gets better. We also got to burn ourselves repeatedly as we tried to eat the fresh-off-of-the-spit chicken with our fingers out of a plastic grocery bag. I can only imagine how we must have looked! Along with the chicken came two bags of rice. We ripped a hole in one of the bags and I tried to discover the best method to eat rice out of a bag. I found that the best way is to push it up to the hole and then eat it as it came out. :) Needless to say, we were pretty messy after our meal. Now for the best part: there were no bathrooms nearby. We had to make-do as well as we could with a stack of napkins. That was an interesting experience, but not one I would be very excited to repeat. After that we went to see a famous mine called Boca de la Mina that happened to be nearby. After the other caves that we've been to, this one wasn't very exciting. We wore helmets that were more annoying than helpful, walked down a bunch of stairs until we hit the end, and then walked back up the stairs. Not exactly what I'd call exhilarating.

We took a taxi back to the hotel to rest for a while and then went to see a performance at Auditorio de las Minas. The show was called Sounds can Dance and it was an hour long, I expected it to be a ballet or something similar. I was really off. It was a French guy who built a bunch of mechanical instruments make music. He would turn on the machines one at a time and each one would make a rhythmical, repetitive sound, when mixed together they made a song. Then there were little cameras that would focus on each instrument in turn and project it onto a screen so that we could see. It may sound kind of boring, but I literally spent almost the whole time with my eyes glued to the screen. The little machines were almost hypnotizing! I really enjoyed it. For anyone who wants to hear some of his music, search Pierre Banstain on iTunes, he has quite a few albums. After the performance we headed to the city square for dinner. I tried French Onion soup for the first time, I now have a new favorite soup! Then we went back to the hotel, passing quite a few trick-or-treaters on the way. Those kids are seriously milking Halloween for all it's worth.

Sunday, October 31st

Today we went back to Tlaquepaque briefly before continuing on to a city called Leon which is famous for its leather and shoes. We spent most of the day shoe shopping there and then we got in the car and drove to Guanajuato.

How I pictured spending Halloween night:
Maybe resting in our hotel room in Guanajuato, or going out to buy some candy since we didn't bring costumes to go trick-or-treating. Maybe having a nice dinner, exploring the city, or some other activity that was at least a little entertaining.
How I most definitely did not picture spending Halloween night:
Spending a grand total of about an hour outside the house that we were supposed to be renting, with all of our luggage, waiting for the owner to come back from where ever she had gone so that we could get in. But of course, that's what happened. By the time someone finally came out of the house so that we could get in, I was so tired and cold that I didn't even mind too much that I could feel the wooden slats of the bed-frame right through the mattress. I fell straight to sleep.

Saturday, October 30th

Today we went to Tlaquepaque which is a large outdoor market with a lot of little stands. We spent most of the day there shopping, I think the parents enjoyed it, but I know none of the kids did. After that we went to an amusement park to make the trip a little more enjoyable for Nate and Abby. I wasn't feeling well so I just sat on a bench and read for an hour, though I did go on a few rides near the end. When the park closed at 6:00 we went to get dinner and then went to bed.

Friday, October 29th

Today was half day at school and the Halloween parade. I went as Hermione, and I think the costume was pretty good considering I made most of it myself!

I think by far the funniest costume was one boy in my class who dressed up as Snow White with a short, bright pink wig! As soon as I got home at 1:00 and changed, we all got in the car for the long drive to Guadalajara. We arrived at the hotel around 5:00, I wasn't feeling good so I stayed in the room and tried to sleep while everyone else went out for dinner. They came back around 7:00 with some food for me too. We all went to bed soon after.