Mexico Days 5 & 6

Sunday October 14th our previous tour guide Arni and Miguel (a newly returned missionary from Arizona just 3 weeks earlier) picked us up for church. We enjoyed going to a Playa del Carmen ward and the members were so welcoming and loving.  That day there were 8 new confirmations that took most of the sacrament meeting. It was such a neat experience to be there.

The rest of our Sunday was spent relaxing at the resort. Lots of time on the beach and delicious food!

The kids loved all the animals around the resort. Including cats, raccoon, turtles and parrots.

For dinner we had reservations at a Brazilian grill (similar to Rodizio but much much better). The food and atmosphere were divine. The wild cats were sure friendly and Rachael loved it.  From dinner the kids participated in the kids disco night. What a riot it was to watch them dance on stage.

Monday October 15th was my favorite day there. We started the day at Coba, It was beautiful and only 1.5 hours from our resort (a nice quick drive compared to our previous days there).

After learning some neat things around the entrance we literally took bikes into the jungle. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! Aaron rode his own bike with Joseph in the backpack carrier (a little risky, I know...) and I rode on a bike taxi with Josh and Rach. We were all giggly the whole time, it was amazing.

Once we reached Coba we were in awe. This long bike ride through the dense thick jungle and we couldn't see anything, but then all of a sudden there was this beauty right in front of us. The main Coba temple is the tallest in the Yucatan and was built around 600 AD. It was 120 steps (about 42 meters) high.

I was a little nervous about climbing it with the kids but Josh and Rach started the climb without a second to spare. They did amazingly well climbing to the top on their own, it was very steep.

Once we reached the top we could see for miles, it was breath taking. It was so hot that Josh and Rachael were scrambling to find shade, they were exhausted. Joseph didn't make a single noise the whole time.
They were the only kids there and a lot of people couldn't believe that they actually climbed to the top.

The scariest part was yet to come, the climb down! Josh was the first one down with Arni, they were speedy. I was most worried about Aaron with Joseph in the big backpack carrier. He went steadily and slowly with sweat literally dripping down his arms. Rachael followed with me one step at a time. The key was to not look down and keep taking one step at a time. If you took one wrong step, there was no turning back.

Josh and Rachael looking exhausted ready for our taxi bike ride back to the car.

The two pictures below are of some unique things we saw. First the tree has rubber leaves, yes rubber. They used these trees to make the balls they used for their games. The tree leaves almost felt fake they were so thick and rubbery. The second picture is of the bee's they would get their honey from. Coba was known for the honey and is what they would trade to other lands. The bee's were actually too small and fast to get pictures of but the hole in the tree is where they were entering and exiting. They made their honey in these hollow trees. These bee's have no stinger and are native from Australia.

From Coba we took a quick drive to a Cenote. Cenotes are underground fresh water inlets where they would get their fresh water for drinking.
It was an interesting experience as we continued to descend deeper and deeper into the earth.

It was so quiet and calm down there it was almost too creepy to go in the water. Other then a few drops of water here and there, it was dead silent. The water was a turquoise blue, crystal clear and you could see the bottom (it was really deep). Josh was the first to get in, I then followed. The water was pretty cold.

I took Rachael and Joseph back up to the top while Aaron and Josh jumped in a few more times. There was a high jump that Josh recorded Aaron jumping off.

From the cenote we ate at an outdoor Mexican buffet overlooking a crocodile infested lake. Minutes after sitting down to eat a heavy rain storm came over us, what a site. A couple minutes passed, the rain was gone, sun out and more humid then before.

After a yummy lunch Arni was kind enough to take us to see the crocks.
The guy seen below had taken over this little dock and charged a small amount to feed the crocks some chicken. Aaron called him the crocodile hunter :)

Our last stop of the day was at a true Maya Village. What a truly humbling experience to see them in their actual hand build homes cooking and farming.

This one particular family had 8 girls and 6 boys. All the older boys were out hunting and the girls were cooking and making jewelry. Above is a picture of the mom making and cooking tortilla's for dinner. They started having a lot of tourists so by making jewelry to sell they made some extra money. One interesting thing was how they valued US dollars. We didn't have enough Peso's but when we pulled out our US dollars their eyes lit up and they were happy to take whatever we had. This happened on numerous occasions during our trip.

The girls were all fascinated with Joseph, at one point he felt a little overwhelmed and started to cry. They had kids our kids ages and their youngest was the same age as Joseph and had the same name (but in Mayan).
There were lots of cages with wild animals they had caught for food etc. This particular family raised wild pig that they would trade other families for chicken etc. 


We got back to the resort with enough time to eat and relax before ending our day. Josh and Rachael went off to the kids club at the resort. I was nervous about it but they had a really good lock down and secure system. We had a buzzer at all times so they could contact us. They loved it there and didn't want to leave. With so much to do and getting their faces painted who wouldn't want to stay :)
Joseph stayed with us while we watched these mischievous raccoons run around. 

Mexico Day 4 - Chichen Itza, Uxmal & Merida

Saturday October 13th, 2012 - our longest tour guided day in Mexico! 6am to 1am

We began our morning bright and early meeting our tour guide at 6am. Arni was our tour guide and was with us the remainder of tours. He is from Mexico City and served his mission in Arkansas. He has gotten a history major and is very passionate about the ruins in Mexico.

Our first stop of our long day was at Chichen Itza (one of the seven wonders of the world.) 

Chichen = mouth of the well  

Itza = sorcerer of water 

The Maya had incredible mathematicians, astrologists, scientists and engineers. The temple had incredible symbolism and represents the Maya calendars in a most spectacular way.

Chichen Itza was known as the temple of Kukulcan.

Kukulcan was representative of the feathered serpent.

The serpent being the most feared animal on the earth and the closest to the earth. 

The feathers representing the birds meaning the closest creature to the heavens. 

Kukulcan was the God who created the heavens and the earth, Jesus Christ.

The temple has four stairways, each has 91 steps, equaling 365 days of the Solar calendar.

The main temple on top represents the last day (making it 265 days in a year)

There is a smaller 'mini' temple build inside of the larger one that is built to represent the Venus calendar, 65 steps = 260 days.

Their whole calendaring system was intense and very fascinating, we have a journal full of incredible facts and symbolism.

Every 52 years the Venus and Solar Calendars sync up. This is known as the Mayan Calendar Cycle. They had 4 different cycles; earth, water, wind, and fire. Each phase had different meaning. Many believe that December 21, 2012 will be 'the end of the world' but it is the date in which the two calendars sync up. We are currently in the 'wind' cycle and on December 21, 2012 will be the last day of that cycle and we will move into the 'fire' cycle. The fire cycle is related to human kind & empire changes. It was in this same cycle that we had the restoration of the gospel. 

The Mayan prophesied that Christ will come in the next 52 years during this fire cycle.

They built this so precise that on the equinox  (March 21) and solstice (Dec 21) of every year you can see the serpent descend from the temple. 

On March 21 you see the whole serpent, from March 5 to April 6 (equaling 33 days) you can see parts of the serpent. This is symbolic of the age of Christ when he died. April 6th is also considered the day that Christ was born and the restoration of the Church.

Another thing is that on March 21 you see 7 triangles of the serpent but on April 6th you can see 8. This symbolizes Kukulcan (main God) coming down to earth.

April 6th is also a special day for me because it's the day that I first went through the temple....

In the picture seen above they have recently discovered foundations that date back to as early as 200 A.D.  I found this absolutely fascinating to think that this was beginning to be built during 4th Nephi in the Book of Mormon.

The panoramic picture above it shows a temple on the left called The Temple of the Warriors. Interesting enough there were thousands of pillars to represent two thousand warriors. A few years later they added another 65 pillars. I seriously could not get enough of this stuff.

Above is where they would play their ball game. It was a solemn experience filled with ritual importance.
The picture on the bottom left is where religious leaders would sit to watch. The picture on the bottom right shows up closer in the structure where you can see a carving of the white bearded God that was facing west because they believed he came from the east. It's one of the only preserved blocks in there (i've drawn a square around it)

More of the vast green jungle, government security check points and other shops seen throughout our journey above.



Our next stop was Uxmal. We first ate a traditional Mayan dinner, I had the lime soup and it was delicious.  Probably my favorite meal of the whole trip. Below you can see our guide Arni speaking to the restaurant manager (it was so nice to have someone take care of us the whole time.)

Uxmal, which means built three times, is the temple of the dwarf who out witted the king after he picked on him. 

The acoustics here and at Chichen Itza were incredible.  The steps were engineered in such a way that any noise would bounce back louder then they were made. Now I can understand how so many would have been able to hear King Benjamin on the top of his tower... 

Example of sound bouncing back at us.

We were able to explore around this area and climb some of the structures. 

Rachael carried an umbrella for temporary relief from the scorching heat.

Below is what is called the temple of the witch (the dwarfs mother). Aaron, Josh & Joseph climbed to the top while I stayed on lower ground with Rachael. I get a kick out of seeing the bottom right picture of Josh after climbing to the top. The dripping sweat says it all.

Another Yaxche tree and many many iguanas.

Incredible workmanship seen on all the buildings. Their buildings were may different colors using a variety of plants and bugs. The red hand print you can see below was done using mercury and it was their way of 'dedicating' the building once it was complete.

Here in Uxmal they worshiped Chaac, the Rain God, because they needed rain for their crops to grow. The profile seen in the top right picture below was their symbol for Chaac. The 'X' was used to create a snake like skin on the buildings representing the feathered serpent. 
In another picture below you can still see some of the red and blue coloring on the stone.

In the 1840's John Lloyd Stephens (an American explorer from New York) and Frederick Catherwood (painter from England) were the first ones to discover Tulum after is was abandoned 300 years earlier. After that they went on to find Uxmal. 

An interesting episode in the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unfolded during a thirteen-month period between September 1841 and October 1842. The Prophet Joseph Smith was given a two-volume set of books written by John Lloyd Stephens that told about Stephens’s travels in Mesoamerica and the discovery of ancient ruins and vanished civilizations. These books were filled with pictures that were drawn by Frederick Catherwood, an artist who accompanied Stephens. The pictures revealed temples and cities that had been lost in the jungles of Mesoamerica for centuries.

Several lengthy extracts from Stephens’s volumes were published in the Times and Seasons between February and October 1842 while Joseph Smith was editor of the paper. These extracts and the accompanying editorial articles linked the discoveries of Stephens and Catherwood with the Book of Mormon, declaring their findings to be evidence of the validity of the Book of Mormon. Through the years since their publication, these editorials often have been cited by some researchers as evidence that Joseph Smith believed Mesoamerica was the geographical setting for the events in the Book of Mormon.

This is from the letter that Joseph Smith wrote to Dr. Bernhisel who sent the books to him from New York while he was in Navoo:

I received your kind present by the hand of Er Woodruff & feel myself under many obligations for this mark of your esteem & friendship which to me is the more interesting as it unfolds & developes many things that are of great importance to this generation & corresponds with & supports the testimony of the Book of Mormon; I have read the volumes with the greatest interest & pleasure & must say that of all histories that have been written pertaining to the antiquities of this country it is the most correct luminous & comprihensive.

-Dean C. Jessee, comp. and ed., Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2002), 533.

There are some incredible accounts i've read from Wilford Woodruff's journal including this one while he was traveling with Zion's camp:

May 8, 1834: While on our travels we visited many of the mounds which were flung up by the ancient inhabitants of this continent probably by the Nephites & Lamanites. We visited one of those Mounds and several of the brethren dug into it and took from it the bones of a man. . . . Three persons dug into the mound & found a body. Elder Milton Holmes took the arrow out of the back bones that killed Zelph & brought it with some of the bones in to the camp. . . . Brother Joseph had a vision respecting the person. He said he was a white Lamanite. The curse was taken from him or at least in part. He was killed in battle with an arrow. . . . His name was Zelph. . . . Zelph was a large thick set man and a man of God. He was a warrior under the great prophet /Onandagus/ that was known from the hill Camorah /or east sea/ to the Rocky mountains. The above knowledge Joseph received in a vision.

-Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal,1:10.


Carrying on....

Our last stop was in Merida where we enjoyed seeing the temple. The temple president there is from Arizona and had only been there a few weeks. He poked his head out the doors calling us over because he was so excited to get to speak English again :)
It was literally a little piece of heaven there. In the bottom left corner of the pictures below you can see the street we were on when we came to the temple. You could not see the temple until we got to that point and then the entrance was on the right.

We walked around the central part of the city learning about it's history and seeing some magnificent cathedrals. There was a quinceanera celebration about to begin that we got to see and hear all about.

Before our 4 hour drive home we ate at a traditional Taco restaurant. We arrived back at our resort at 1am. After 10 hours in a car we were all ready for a relaxing Sunday.

A few thoughts...

I have not even had a chance to finish blogging about our trip to Mexico (or the many things that have happened this year) but here I am, wanting to mark down a few thoughts.

Today was a hard, very hard day. As I see friends around me beginning a challenge to find something they are grateful for every day until Thanksgiving and post it, I decided not to take on that challenge publicly. Now here I am wanting to express what I am grateful this day.

As I sit here in a quiet house, kids fast asleep and husband out playing soccer I sit listening to a song from Josh Groban that I haven't heard for awhile. I first heard it when we went to his concert last year and Aaron and I both fell in love with it. The music (and Josh's voice of course) are very moving and this particular verse is what struck me the most tonight:

"And there is a light from a higher window
Shining down on you tonight
And the music floats on the breeze
Bringing an easier time"

Parenting is Hard, I never expected it to be easy but today was particularly hard for many reasons. Aside everything hard and challenging it was still a beautiful day. I am so grateful for family, for the three children we have been blessed to have in our lives and under our care, for a hard working husband who provides so much for our family, for loving friends who support a hard day of mothering, for my fil who took hours out of his busy day to spend time with his grandchildren, for a mother of my own that is willing to take a late night phone call to just chat and help ease my stresses.

As I heard the chorus to this song I melted. There IS a LIGHT from a HIGHER window SHINING down on ME. As Aaron always says "We CAN do hard things", I must remember that! Today is but a small moment, and how did I endure? Well, I could have done much, much better. How did I react when the kids were fighting? Or when our 1 year old threw a train at me that cause my tooth to go through my lip? How did I control the situation when trying to give two hair cuts and baths etc when sister tries dunking younger brothers head in the water? These were very minor examples from today...

If today was my test, did I fail?   I guess we all need days like this to remind us what is most important. To look past what society feels is important and focus on what IS important. 
Am I teaching our children to respect, love and serve? Or are they learning to be greedy, rude, prideful and selfish? It is SO hard, but today has helped me to refocus my attentions, to try and speak calmer, more politely to them and help them (and myself) see things in a different light.

It is all a work in progress, if we didn't have trials how would we ever improve ourselves?
Our week long trip was never 'easy' but also never found a day like today filled with heart ache, disappointment and failure as a parent and child.  So here I am now trying to re evaluate my parenting and focusing on what I AM thankful for and what I should be MORE thankful for.

Mexico Day 3 - Tulum

Friday 12 October 2012

Today was the first day of our 3 booked tours through a company called Alma LDS Tours (i'll tell you more about them later). We started our day early and took our journey to the Mayan ruins called Tulum. These ruins date back to 400 AD and are literally right on the coastline. 

As you can see from the pictures below, the jungle is super thick, even on the roads and walking into the Tulum ruins you can't see much of anything accept for green trees. It's such a different feeling going from mountains and hills where you see much of the land to a flat jungle area where you only see what is immediately around you.

There we learned incredible symbolism about the tree of life and it's protectors or guardians. Each Mayan city has three areas; the temple (considered celestial  the surrounding areas within the walls of the city (terrestrial) and then the outside of the city walls (underworld)

Our first stop before we got to the ruins was at this tree. This Yaxche tree is symbolic of the tree of life and was the only tree that grew straight up and was large. It was also hollow and held water inside. The spikes you can see were a protection and everywhere you would see a Yaxche tree in it's natural environment you would also find two other trees. One was poisonous and the other was the antidote and together they protected the sacred Tree of Life.

The Mayans had two entrances into their village. The entrances were build in the form of an arch which represented entering sacred or holy grounds. Something I found very fascinating was that the Mayan people were very short. Yes, the women averaged 3.5-4 feet and the men 4-5. So the arch was actually very child sized, the kids and I fit perfectly through them. Aaron had to crouch and make sure not to hit his head :)

The pillars you can see in the picture below represented power or nobility. The more pillars on their house the higher ranking. This was a house to the Halach Huinik (high priest or religious leader; highest position in the city)

Just off the coast from Tulum is the worlds second largest coral reef. Interesting thing is that just in front of the Tulum temple is and opening free from reef where the underground river flows out. All throughout the Yucatan peninsula are underground freshwater rivers and this was one point where the river joins the ocean and broke through the reef. So this location became the trading point because ships would align their boats with the temple (which they would light up at night) and then could bring their ships to shore. Otherwise they would get stuck in the coral. 

There is a lot of other symbolism relating to the laying on of hands and how Jesus (they referred to him as the white bearded God) came to visit them coming from the east, gave them power, healed them, taught them ordinances and said he would come back. There was a building that was all about birth (seen below), specifically about Mary and the birth of Christ. They built the Tulum temple so precise that on April 6th every year the sun would shine through a specific hole on the temple and illuminate this building. Seriously mind blowing how they were so specific and thorough that long ago. These people were incredible intelligent!

From Tulum we went to Xel Ha in the Riviera Maya. It is considered the largest natural aquarium park in the world. There was SO much to do there we could have spent days at that park, it was huge! With the time we had there we were not able to even half of the activities. 

Entering the park the first thing we saw were the dolphins, I was so excited to watch them that I didn't pull my camera out. From there we got settled and ate lunch (another all inclusive resort). Right from the restaurant we saw these beauties.

Josh continually talked about how cool it was that he got to hold the iguana. Rachael was not too thrilled that a bird was on her head but once Josh did the same thing she thought it was funny.

We took a ride to the top of the river and entered what they called the 'lazy river'. It started in the thick jungle and by the looks of it you'd think the water would be murky but it was crystal clear. It was such a slow moving river that we had to use the trees to pull us along. Once we reached the end of the trees and to the open river we slowly glided along.

Rachael and Joseph fell asleep on Aaron's tube so while they relaxed me and Josh jumped in and explored. We enjoyed a fun zip line and watching people jump off the cliffs. There was so much to see and do.
It was nearing the end of our stay and we still had a ways to go. Josh helped me push Aaron's tube to the end (it took 90 minutes) and I was SO sore the next day. Everyone slept so well that night.

Mexico Day 1 & 2

In the early hours of the morning on Wednesday October 10th, 2012 (4am to be exact) we began our anticipated journey to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. We got to the airport around 6am and began the check in process. The kids were so excited! This was Rachael and Joseph's first time flying.

Everything went so smoothly and Rachael giggled as the plane took off. Joseph fell asleep almost immediately after take off.

The flight was just over two hours and it went so well. Once landing in Dallas we knew we had 4.5 hours to kill before boarding our next flight, so we relaxed and let the kids wear themselves out. This airport was huge so we took our time getting to our departure gate. Riding the tram was a big highlight.
Unfortunately we had to check our stroller in with our luggage so we had to do without that luxury but after finding our departure gate we got lunch, found a quiet empty spot and let the kids play. Thanks to McDonald happy meals toys the kids were entertained for awhile.

Lots of time to make silly faces

Our next flight was only 2 hours and 10 minutes. Once again the kids did so well. We never had any problems while flying and they were all on their best behavior. We arrived at the Cancun airport around 7pm. Once we exited the airport we did not expect what was coming, it had been raining, was dark and extremely hot and humid. Whew, kinda took our breath away as we all had just come from a colder drier climate and had jackets on.

Our shuttle picked us up and drove us 45 min to our resort, the Sandos Caracol Eco Resort near Playa del Carmen.  Once arriving  everyone was so friendly and helpful. They loaded us all onto an over-sized golf cart and drove us to our suite. Our resort is in the middle of a dense jungle and it was quite dark so thankfully they were very helpful that way, otherwise I don't  think we would have found it. We unloaded and more or less went to bed, we were all really exhausted.


The next morning the kids got up so excited. We ventured out and spent the day exploring the resort.

Our first stop was at La Laguna for breakfast. Just outside of the restaurant were these beautiful Macaws.   

After breakfast we took a quick stop at the front plaza (the only place with wifi for Aaron to check in on business stuff) and to pick up our welcome package. We were also given 3 dinner reservations so I made those.

As we explored the resort we came across many different animals. Here were two very vocal and friendly Burrows. 

After visiting the Burrows we looked up and saw this gorgeous spider monkey in the trees. It was so fascinating to watch him climb around and eat the berries. Incredible how they use their tail to hold them in place. They use their tails to hold them steady so that they can have both hands free to collect food.

We also saw peacocks, iguanas, geckos and turtles throughout the resort.

First stop after visiting the animals was the beach of course! The water was warm and the sand was so fine it was hard to get off. I try to compare it to a texture of something between white sugar and powdered sugar. 

The only issue in the water was the current. It was so strong that I didn't dare go into depths past my stomach. Even just a couple feet into the water you could feel the pull. So the kids more or less stayed on shore and jumped around the waves.

From the beach we went to the resort pools (the kids enjoyed this a bit more than the beach) and then had a nice buffet lunch at La Toscana. We then ventured at bit more into the jungle around our resort for exploring. Because of the humidity the mosquitoes were a little crazy. Rachael ended up with numerous bites on her legs that day. Out game the bug spray for the rest of the trip.

Our first dinner reservation was for our first night at La Riviera, a Mediterranean cuisine. We got to eat with view of the beach as the sun set behind us. The food was delicious and the best part is the all inclusive part. It took a lot of getting used to not having a check at the end of meals.

Our first day was so great and we had so much still to come...