Today was Sunday and there was an LDS chapel right across the street from the hotel but we didn't have any clothes and so we opted to go see the beach instead. I have to say that I felt extremely guilty last night when Alysa was throwing a temper tantrum going to bed and we tried to bribe her with going to the beach. Her reaction was, "I don't want to go to the beach, I want to go to church."
Morgan suggested that we do our own lesson at the beach and talk about all of God's creations. I am pretty proud of the kids and what they teach me every day!
The beach (playa Linda) was about 30km from town. It was a pretty drive past some Mango orchards and a military base. The road turn off to the beach took us past a ton of nice houses that all had pools. I was pretty shocked at how nice it was. The beach was wonderful. We lathered on the sunblock and headed across the burning hot sand to the water. Alysa and Laina didn't want to have much to do with the water. (It didn't help that dad accidently dunked Alysa in the water!) They were much more content playing in the sand and looking for seashells. Morgan and Cole were the exact opposite and we couldn't keep them out of the water. Chris had no intentions of getting in the water and he ended up the wettest!! Everybody had a great time and enjoyed all of God's creations! (:
Getting into the car and the drive home were not quite as much fun since everybody had sand caked on them!!
We grabbed some lunch on the way back to the hotel then everybody sat on the ground and ate their lunch while they waited for their turn to shower. We then had some serious down time!! Everybody was exhausted from the sun and the beach.
Can I just say how disappointed I am with the service at the hotel?? We had 6 people registered there but they would only give us 3 towels and no extra toilet paper. Chris had to ask for extra towels so many times. He also asked for extra pillows (they were flat as pancakes!!) and they said they would only give us half of what we asked for. We had to use bags of laundry for extra pillows! The only plus side to the hotel was that we were all able to be in one room. Other than that, it was a joke! I wonder if it was just that hotel or if it is the culture there.
In the evening we went for a short little walk. There was a cool statue thing that we wanted to take a picture of but the military guys ran out and told us we couldn't. I got a pretty decent picture of it driving by in the car though.
Monday 5/25/09
We were supposed to be out of Guatemala for 72 hours so technically we couldn't cross back into Guatemala until 3:45. We drove around trying to kill some time in the morning but finally opted to head for the border. As we left the city, we stopped at one of the round abouts to take a picture of the cool Mexican pottery sculptures. I really like the bright colors.
Halfway between Tapachula and the border was a sign for a pyramid. I was so excited to stop and see if but was severely disappointed that the gates were locked and it was only open Wednesday through Sunday! This is the picture that I took from the gate. Not too exciting but it was all that I could see from there! Next time we'll have to stop on a different day!
The border was pretty stressful. We were instructed to go into the Mexico immigration where Chris was told that they wouldn't stamp out passports for leaving their country because we never got them stamped going in. Call us dumb but we've never done this before and had no clue that we needed a stamp from Guatemala for leaving as well as from Mexico for going in!! When we were going in, the Mexico people just told us to go ahead after we got the bug spray and vehicle inspection. I don't think we even saw a place to go get a stamp!! Anyway, they told us to go to the Guatemala immigration to reenter Guatemala. The Guatemala immigration said that we could not reenter until we could show that we had entered a different country. So....back to the Mexico side to see if we could get them to stamp the passports. After Morgan said a wonderful prayer, Chris was able to get somebody to stamp our passports showing that we were leaving the country so that we could take them back to Guatemala immigration again and have them allow us back into Guatemala. What a hassle but at least we learned something new!!
The drive home was windier than the road to Guatemala City!! Every kid was required to have a "throw up bag" with them the whole drive! Somehow though we managed to have our first trip without somebody throwing up! It was great! We took a different route home since the easier way didn't really work for us on the way to Mexico! It wasn't too bad. Leaving one of the towns, this is the "highway" that we were on.
During our whole trip we saw many LDS chapels. It gave me a new perspective to think that the temple that Chris is building is going to serve all of those people, not just those in Xela.
As fun as the trip might have been, I am so glad we're living in Xela. It is so nice to be back at our house and to be somewhere where we feel a little bit more comfortable. It was especially nice to be home because the kids cooked dinner tonight while I spent the entire afternoon/evening trying to catch up on this blog!! Ah, now I can go to bed and hopefully get some rest.
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