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Glorine took up hiking the Sierra
Madre mountains with a group of dedicated hikers. Unfortunately, her
hiking boots were not broken in and the end result was a lost big toenail.
Maybe next season? |
There is no shortage of holiday
activities to attend in Ajijic. Here the Los Cantantes Los Lago, a local
singing group performed A Jazzy Christmas, along with a children's choir from San Juan
Cosala. |
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Game night is back in full swing
with five couples playing Hand and Foot. We rotate from house to house
with the host couple preparing the main dish, and the rest potluck. |
The
Christmas 'Behind the Walls Home Tour' was the best ever. Four couples
open their magnificent homes to the public. This awesome home overlooked
Ajijic and Lake Chapala. |
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last home on the tour hosts a Christmas Social with munchies and wine.
On the right is a one-bedroom casita that rents for $100 per night--and comes
with views to die for. |
The Spotlight Club is a new club
featuring different acts each week. We enjoyed listening to music by the Gabriel
Hernandez Trio featuring Saxophonist Alfred Thompson, winner of two Grammy
Awards. |
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| The
Lake Chapala Society hosted its annual holiday party for board and committee
members, which we got invited to this year. Here are the three most recent
presidents of the Society. |
We celebrated our 50th wedding
anniversary along with friends Chuck and Jean--same day, same month, same year.
We met them shortly after our 39th wedding anniversary back in 2007. |
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Friends Lil, Norm, Quinton, Rose, Maureen (our maid of honor), Wayne, Jean
and Ron joined in on the celebration. |
Michelle, Glades, Maureen, Hans,
Chris, Barbara and Carol also join us at Adelita's Bar and Grill with cocktails,
dinner and live music. No Polkas though!! |
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We cut the traditional anniversary cake and had enough to share with the
band and our waiters. |
Glorine made up a huge card (for both
us and Chuck and Jean) with pictures of us then and now for our guests to sign. |
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Chuck and Jean hosted their
annual Christmas Eve party, which included singing Christmas carols and
opening white elephant exchange gifts. |
Christmas Day was spent at Armando's,
a cozy little restaurant on the back streets of Ajijic. It came with
turkey and all the dressing. |
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On December 27, we flew to Cancun
to spend a week at the Crown Paradise Club Resort, an all-inclusive resort
where none of us had to cook or do dishes. |
By the 28th, everyone had arrived and
were ready to start celebrating the holidays. Our grandchildren were so
excited to see each other. My, how they've grown. |
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We sent Carmen the picture of us
cutting the cake and she surprise us with t-shirts made up for us. As
we walked through the resort, dozens of people stopped to congratulate us. |
The evening had arrived and here we
are celebrating 50 years of marriage with our daughters Denise and Carmen.
This would be one of many peak moments from our week together. |
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Grandma Glorine is helping the boy
transform themselves into Mermaids. It only worked while they remained
still in the sand. |
Beach volleyball was one of several
popular activities going on at the resort. The kids had the run of the
resort and spent time at the kids club. |
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Our first day trip took us to
XCaret, a private theme park that went all-out to create eco-tourism that
captures the essence of Mexico. |
Our first activity was floating
1-1/2 hours in this underground river. Cameras were situated throughout
the river to allow us to capture the excitement. |
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The river ran into the ocean,
where they delivered our clothes, posed for more pictures and time for a
grand buffet, which we needed for our hike back to the entrance. |
On the way back the kids got to climb
this Mayan ruin, dating back to the early 1400s and said to be one of 4,400 ruins spread
through Mexico and Central America. |
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The park had extensive collection of species including butterflies, deer and other wildlife, tropical birds, anteaters, and sea turtles--from
hatching eggs to this monster. |
Carmen and Denise got these front row
dinner seats for the evening entertainment, starting with ancient Mayans playing
a ballgame by putting a rubber ball through a stone hoop without using their hands. |
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It took the conquistadors awhile
to conquered
the Mayans, but when they did they destroyed their temples and sacred sites and installed
Catholicism as the religion throughout the country. |
The
Mariachi players and Folkloric Dancers were the last entertainment of the
evening and the crowd got into it by clapping and singing to the Mexican
ballads. |
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| Time
to celebrate New Year's Eve and where better than a Mexican restaurant and
Margaritas!! This would be the beginning of many more. |
Cheers all around! We made dinner
reservations for 5:30 which gave us lots of time to enjoy the countdown till
midnight. |
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We changed the character of the
restaurant when the Mariachi Band started playing, first with dancing then
Glorine started a Congo line snaking through the restaurant. |
When we arrived at the evenings
entertainment, dressed up version of KISS, the rock band of the 70s and 80s,
greeted us with load music and more Margaritas. The kids loved
posing with the band. |
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Grandma and Grandpa were getting
into the mood of shedding the old year and ringing in another exciting New
Year! |
All-inclusive meant all inclusive.
The booze and music flowed past midnight and we danced to some good old rock and
roll that all three generations loved. |
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resort had zip-lining, rock-climbing and giant water slides,
which the kids took advantage of throughout our stay at the resort. |
We staked out this spot as our "hang
out" during the days we stayed at the resort and played games, told stories,
went swimming, played volleyball and napped. |
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Mike and Carmen got married 15
years ago about an hour south of here, in Playa del Carmen. |
Craig, Denise and kids are hardy
Minnesotans, but are truly enjoying the sun and warmth of 80+ degrees. |
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Most days were partly sunny, but
the wind was pretty constant, which kept most us close to shore. |
The
girls love playing in the ocean, even though RED flags were out during most of
our stay. |
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We filled four days at the resort
with time at the beach playing in the sand, in the ocean or taking advantage
of all the activities the resort had to offer. |
The
resort had five restaurants--Mexican, Italian, French, Fishermen's, and
Steakhouse. With five of us being vegetarians, they all had menus to meet
our needs. |
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western theme steakhouse, came with its own mechanical bull, which Denise and
Craig each took a turn riding. |
Our last day together was a day tour
through Mayan country. Our first stop was at a Mayan village (including a gift
shop) where we posed for this picture. |
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on to a Cenote (pronounced cen-oh-tay), which is a deep sinkhole of collapsed
limestone unique to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. |
Equipped with our swimming suits and
towels, we posed for this picture in front of what looked like a picture window into the
natural pit. |
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Dozens of people were jumping
into and swimming in the cool waters at the bottom of the sinkhole, which
are interconnected as underground rivers. |
We each took our turn jumping 15-20 feet from this platform into the "cold" water.
With the humid air, it was
a refreshing dip. |
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After a quick lunch we were off
to our final destination of the day, which is the pre-Hispanic city of
Chichen-Itza. Each stairway has 91 steps--time four sides equals 364,
one for each day of the year. Coincidences?? |
The city dates back to 600 AD and was
built over centuries. Each of the pictures on this building are a part of
their alphabet--telling stories of their history and culture. |
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This
is the Great Temple of the Warriors built in 950 AD with over 200 square and
circular columns. While conquered in 1542, over 6 million Mayans still
live in Mexico and throughout Central America. |
We had a couple of rain showers while
we toured Chichen Itza, but that did not stop us from taking one final photo op
with the pyramid in the background. The next day we said our farewells
till our next adventure together. |
