Viva La Mexico! Fun in the Sun

Each year the Residency plans a trip/retreat to a fun place. It's a nice break for the residents. This year we went to Mexico. We were originally going to go to Cancun, but due to the hotel overbooking we went further south on the Riviera Maya to a resort near Playa Del Carmen. The resort we stayed at was really big and had all sorts of pools and restaurants. We took a walk down to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. The sand was so clean and bright, and the ocean water was a beautiful clear color. Even though it's February and winter here, it was nice and warm in Mexico.

As we left the airport in the bus, we noticed that there were quite a few men dressed in camo, hiding in the bushes with machine guns...hmm. As we drove further, we saw more and more machine-gun clad men all over near the sides of the roads, on overpasses and in humvees at hotel entrances. I just thought maybe this was standard protocol. (When visiting Peru once, there were plenty of guys there with machine guns.) It turns at that during the time we were there, the Rio Group Summit was being held just two resorts down from ours. The Rio Group is a group of 32 Presidents and Ministers of Latin American and Carribean countries (excluding the USA or Canada). But those who were in attendance were:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, current Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet and Chilean president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil; Tabare Vazquez, President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, president-elect of Uruguay, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s President and Alvaro Uribe, President of Colombia, just to name a few.

Kurtis enjoying a book on the beach

The first day we spent on the beach on some nice lounge chairs with our friends, Peter and Kristy Crane. The beach had a bar where we could get endless Pina Coladas...refreshing! We took a walk along the ocean, and stood in it for a while, it was a little colder than expected, but SO beautiful. That night we went to a Japanese restaurant. It was basically like Tepanyaki where the chef has his big grills in front of him and everyone sat around him and watched him cook. He even did a little performance with his cooking utencils and some eggs. The food was delicious!

Camee and Kurtis in front of the Branch building

On Sunday, Kurtis and I took a taxi with the Cranes, and Brad Goates and Josh Brinkerhoff (their wives stayed back in Indiana) to church. The closest place to go to church was at a branch in Puerto Morelos. The taxi driver said there was only a few roads in that city, and he'd never heard of the road it was on. After some time, Kurtis spotted the road sign and the "La Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" sign on the front of a little building. The branch was in a neighborhood with house on either side of it. It was a little cinderblock building painted white. The branch members were so friendly, and each of them came and shook our hand. There were around 50 people there. It was a great experience to attend that branch. Kurtis really liked to think that it was great that even though we couldn't understand Spanish too much, the men who blessed the sacrament have been ordained with the Priesthood and that they were able to officiate at that branch. It was amazing for me to think about how this group of Saints in an obscure Mexican city gathers together faithfully each Sunday, and to think of how many little groups of Saints do this each Sunday all over the world. When we got back to the resort, a lot of the residents had all sorts of questions for us about the church we went to..."Did they speak English? Did you sing the same hymns that you do? Were the songs in English?" We chose not to swim on Sunday, but we did play a little volleyball on the beach. It started raining on us, and by the end we were all completely soaked, but it was a lot of fun. That night we went to a Brazilian Rodizio restaurant and went to Brad and Josh's room to play some games with friends.

Chichen Itza Pyramid

Monday morning, Kurtis and I got up early and went with Josh to Chichen Itza. It was about a 2.5 hour bus ride from the hotel. Chichen Itza is a Mayan ruin and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. (Between Kurtis and I, we've now been to four of them.) It is a whole complex of stone structures, the largest of which is a pyramid. This pyramid and the people who built it are amazing. It was built in a way that when the sun shines on the Winter and Summer Sostices, the light lines up exactly with the pyramid.

Kurtis and one of the serpent heads

In fact, on one side there are serpent heads at the bottom, and on the Spring Equinox, the shadows of the pyramid show up on the staircases that make it look like the serpent's body. It's incredible. There is also an observatory, a church, homes, a giant marketplace and cenotes (sink holes filled with spring water.) We were told that there was a Mayan Shaman who did a performance near one of the cenotes and we thought it would be fun to watch. We found the Shaman (who didn't speak any English) and he started his "ceremony." It began with him wiggling some branches with his back turned to us, but then he turned towards us and started wiggling hims branches up and down near each of us. I tried not to laugh as he started with Josh, we didn't know that this ceremony was going to be blessing (or cursing) us. We just respectfully stood there hoping it would end soon. He was speaking some sort of Mayan language so quickly, we didnt' understand a word. And it eventually did end... after he anointed our heads with alcohol. Good times. Overall, we loved Chichen Itza. It's so amazing to think about how brilliant people were so long ago. They even had a calendar figured out, The Mayan Calendar, which has proved to be more accurate than the Gregorian Calendar we use. Of course the Mayan Calendar ends in 2012... the end of the world maybe, just try not to think about that too much.

Camee and one of the steep, long staircases

We got back just in time to go to dinner. This night the whole residency group got together for Tex-Mex, but we were separated into two groups. We followed the mellow crowd to our table...it's a good thing we did because it got a little unruly in the other room. Some of the residents really enjoy alcohol, and after spending time at the bar before dinner, they had plenty of shots and drinks at dinner. After dinner we played some more games with friends. Good times.

Camee and Hannah

The next morning our friend Hannah offered to take pictures of anyone down at the beach (she's a photographer) so Kurtis and I went down there. We got all packed up and ready to head back to the USA. We had a really good time on the trip. It was a nice vacation and it was ReALLy nice to see the sun! Loved it. Bring on summer!