Mexico Adventure

okay this is a bit backwards in time here... WE had a very relaxing morning. Lazy. Then packed some things for a lunch and started out for Cusarare Falls. Its past Creel aways. Again mountain driving. Stopped in Creel cause we have service there and merv needed to make some business calls. We others sat in the plaza and bought some postcards and brochures... then on our way to the falls. Went off the main road where the sign told us to.. Paid our fare and then Merv and the three oldest took off hiking the trail to get to the falls. I was to take the sub and Erika and nicholas and find the way there by the road. I tried to follow the directions  we were given but soon realized that i was not where i wanted to be. So back i went to the Tarahumara man and his son who were at the gate, and the boy came with me to show me the way. i had turned the wrong way when i got back to the main road! whatever! Anyway we bumped and lurched our way along the river and through the river and alongs...

okay here is going to be todays update. Wednesday i had the whole day typed out but somehow it lost itself!? so I will post this one and then catch up here later tonight. we tried to get up and around early this morning... well "early" is dependent on who is talking! but we did leave for Maguarichi fairly early. The road to Mguarichi sure has improved since we have been here last!! Wow! Paved almost all the way there! Doesnt make one feel nearly as tired by the time you get there!! Stopped first at Leticia's. She wasnt there but her son stopped on his way by and said she was at the store and we should go there. She has a store there now and so we went over and spent some time just catching up and passing the time. Alfredo soon was there too and he and Merv sat out on the curb chatting for a while. Carlos soon came by too. Made plans to go to Leticia's after stopping at Lupe's and then we would gather at the mission house for a time of singing. Wound our way up ...

up early to be ready for our taxi by 7. Got to train station in plenty of time. Found Mabel and her children who are going to the border to try to get visa or permits to be in the states for several weeks. So of course the children continued with having a good time with theirs. There was also a lot of sleeping done by some of us. Back through the rugged beautiful canyon country. There was a man on the train selling popscicles and burritos and I don’t know what all. And then after a while here he came through the train dressed in more traditional Tarahumara dress dancing and jumping and twisting. Shaking a rattle of some sort. And holding something that had his music recorded on it that he was dancing to. Was quite amusing. He does this every time the train comes through I think. He gets on at one place and off at another. The train seemed to be clipping right along and came in a bit early. The lady who we rented out AirBnB from was waiting on us at the station. She took us over to whe...

Up in time to get to Cruz’ place for breakfast. No matter that the men work and can’t be there, we are still invited for a meal.  Had more scrambled eggs with hot dogs and beans and torts. Coffee and milk. After eating we finished packing our things and were just ready to heft the backpacks on to our backs and here came Adan, saying I will take you to the bus stop in my car. Ok, sure. It’s not so far but the sun was shining brightly and was warm already.  Waited for maybe half hour for abus and came back here to El Fuerte. We decided to just come back here again because Mabel needed time to get ready to leave on Tuesday and also wasn’t sure what we would do for another day here really. Really  had several other choices , but Merv also has some business he needed good internet service for. So we got another hotel here. A gorgeous lovely place. Designed the way they are here in the south. Rooms all open onto a open air patio. There is secure fencing surrounding the outside ...

 Plaza in El Fuerte Front of motel Pics of train

Up and around to another breakfast of hot dogs cut up with scrambled eggs. Beans of course and torts. Then I helped Mabel a bit with getting lunch ready. They were having potluck since we’re here. Joel took Merv and nicco and I to church in the little red car. The girls walked and Andrew went with Ervin on the moto. Joel was with us too I guess. They have a small block church. One by one the members arrived. I think there are maybe 12 members here. Two of those are under 40. After a couple songs led by whoever chooses them (men), we had a very long Sunday school. With every person who talked giving a mini sermon!😜 at the end of the Sunday school since it was the last lesson in the book the teacher then asked a few what they got out of this quarters lessons. Another song, an opening, and then Merv had a short sermon followed by a long addition by Joel Luna!😂 actually the addition wasnt so long as I thought it might be. There was some discussion where the meal should be. Decided here a...

Saturday May 25 No sleeping in when roosters crow early and goats being noisy outside windows.!! The sun shone so brightly and the women were out sweeping their yards. We left Joel and Mabel’s around 10 maybe with Lucia, Eva, Marvin, and Joselyn. Walked to the bus stop and hopped on a old bus with a driver who obviously had somewhere to be in a hurry! We went pell mell over these bumpy roads. Screeching to stops to pack on more people. The 5 oldest kids got off the bus earlier than we did so the could walk to wal mart and buy some trunks. Someone had forgotten to put theirs in! The rest of us got off the bus in Los Mochis and had a little time to do some shopping in the stores there before the rest caught up with us and it was time to hop another bus for the beach. This one was one of the nicer small van- busses. Like the one the other day. But the A/C didn’t reach the clear back corner seat that I got stuck with. Took all my will power to overcome the attack of claustrophobia that wa...

Day 4. We walked around the city of El Fuerte for awhile after breakfast. The square is beautiful. Many palms and pink and orange bougainvilleas. The sky was blue. Mountains in the distance. Joel and I walked through some hotel lobby’s. All these hotels have an open patio in the middle on multiple levels. You walk through these big wooden medieval doors with wrought iron locks and down this cobblestone pathway to the bottom level. The walls are lined with ivy. It opens up at the bottom and you walk into this tropical rainforest. If you look up, you can see the sky and the lush green palms. The roof around the edge is covered with that grass-looking thatch. You follow this rock path up steps and around, see dining rooms on patios set with goblets and pink table cloths, red napkins. There’s shady spots to sit and read or drink a margarita on comfy red couches. We walked out of the hotel and then up to the top of a hill to an old stone fort that has been turned into a museum. Beautiful...

Ok not sure what happened there. Seemed like I ran out of room... anyway we took cold showers and I hung out the clothes that had been washed but not rinsed! Oh well. We had to have the clothes for today. We were all wearing our last clean ones. And there wasn’t enough water to rinse them. During the afternoon Joel and Merv went to do some work he needed to do. Andrew went along. Mabel and I sat outside under the tree and visited and washed the clothes... Nicholas played and played and got extremely dirty.

I am going to take a bit of time here early this morning to write about yesterday. Also to try to see if I can figure  out how to post some pics in here. This tech handicapped lady can’t always figure things like that out. We left our motel and headed up the street towards town centro. Needed to find some breakfast. Found a neat restaurant where we had a good breakfast while swatting many little gnats. We soon realized they were leaving big red welts and we would leave here with souvenirs of El Fuerte!!!! We were offered bug spray which we gladly accepted. (And soon bought our own.) the town of El Fuerte is very old and there is much history there. Andrew had been begging for a haircut from a Mexican barbar so he got one this morning.  While he and Merv were off doing that, the rest of us walked around town looking at the beautiful hotels and museums. Ate paletas and drank cold cokes... and enjoyed the gorgeous plaza.There are tall palms, bougainvillea in full bloom of reds p...

Thursday Well Carlos had told us to plan on an 8:00 breakfast this morning, but by 7:00 I smelled the eggs cooking. And sure enough Ophelia had the food on the table by 7:15 or so. I felt badly that she had to heat the eggs up again…. But we just were not ready to eat yet… some were showering, and the girls were not back at the house yet. Anyway, we got all packed up again (somehow our packs are not getting any lighter! Or less full?) and headed out in the suburban for San Juanito. Climbed and twisted our way up the mountain…. And yes here was SJ!! Seems like the town just keeps growing and changing. We drove to Pasqual and Socorro’s place. Our neighbors when we lived here. To ask them if we could park our sub at their house while we are down south. They were very happy to watch it for us. We didnt see Socorro who was bathing…. Was a funny feeling to see our house and know that someone else lives there…. Didnt have the nerve to go and ask if we could come in! Merv walked over to...

The quick version: Yesterday, we left our Air BnB in good time, grabbed a bus and headed for Cuauhtemoc. There we met Kendall and April Peachey at Tacos y Salsas for lunch. After lunch, we went to Lorena’s and visited and sang. Well, mostly we kids just listened to them visit. No hablo espanol! Mom, April, and the kids went to some tall slides and had fun with a bunch of wax paper. Dad had a dentist appointment to get a crown on his tooth and Kendall went with him. Joel, Andrew, and I walked around town, bought a charger, and stopped in different shops. On our way back through, we will have to stop and get Andrew a pair of Mexican cowboy boots. There’s not enough room in our backpacks to carry them for the next week and a half! We took Kendall’s suburban and drove to Carlos and Ofelia’s house for supper and the night. We had a huge supper. Pork stew, tortillas, frijoles, fruit, salad, and brownies for dessert. The country. Words seem rather small to try to describe thi...

I just have to add something about our AirBnB we had booked. Well from the outside it just looks like these town houses do here. A gated door in a wall of doors.  Opens into a nice house. We have three bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor. Stairs go down right inside the front door. Only the room with three single beds that the boys are using has a A/C in it. It’s nice, appears relatively clean, and painted like these Mexicans like to paint their houses. Our room has three purple walls and one bright pink wall and purple ceiling. And well worn orange bedspread. 😁 We had supper at a restaurant where we spent too much money. But didn’t have much choice anymore by the time we got here. So it goes.  I wish I had stuck in a pillow case for everyone. 🤔

How does one begin to describe the feelings of the day? We were on the road by 3:50 or so this morning. Drove to the airport and parked the van. Sent a pin to Kevin, left the keys on the tire, and some cash to pay the parking fee. He will pick it up later today. Just felt like a long time to have it parked at the airport. Also quite early to have someone else take us.... we got to the gate, after a few bags were riffled through at security, with only time enough to get in line and walk on the plane. I had a container of expensive LemonGrass balm along. Thought it would be considered a solid, but they said it’s a cream and trashed it!😢 Long flight to Denver. Very glad to not have to go outside there. Snow on the ground and 30*. Had a nice layover with time to eat some breakfast. On to El Paso. Since we just have the backpacks, we walked off the plane, met the Uber car and piled in for a ride to the border. The children thought it took so long there. In reality, it really wasn’t a long ...

We were quite the chattery bunch this morning at 3:00!;) for my own reference and interest sake, our backpacks weigh: Mervs 21.5, Mine 21, cherith 19.8, Joel 17.5, Andrew 17.5, Nicco 5. So we hope we didn’t leave anything important at home. Cause that means we have something not important! We are stuffed to the gills.

Here we are... all backpacks packed and waiting by the front door for 3:30AM To come. Several of the children thought this was the longest day ever.... Merv and I thought it went by quite quickly!🤪 Anyway most of the family’s in bed and I need to shower and then switch one more load of laundry around. Don’t want things to sit and mold in the hampers you know!!! MEXICO HERE WE COME!

Here we are, Wednesday before we leave.... 1 1/2 days of school left. 6 days before our trip.... haven’t found anyone yet to take care of greenhouse while we are gone, Merv is swamped with things to do and list and put up on auction etc... before we go, last night was youth, tonight we have youth, Thursday night produce auction, Friday night is program, Saturday is play day, Sunday is Sunday, and Monday is packing and getting house ready to leave...   this all will somehow get done right?! And early early Tuesday morning we all load up with our backpacks and breathe a sigh of relief and say “We are on our way!”  Our first leg of the trip consists of plane leaving around 6 from Columbus, layover in Denver, and get to El Paso around 11. Uber to the border, taxi to the bus station, bus to chihuahua, and sleep in an Air BnB we found there. Wednesday we will bus to Cuauhtemoc and then Merv wants to see a dentist there. The rest of us will tour around with plans to be with some of o...

Ok. Here we go. I will try to keep a diary or journal of sorts here and whoever is interested can see what we are doing. Be aware it may be quite boring! But rest assured even if it’s written in a boring manner, we are having having a great time and making memories that will last a lifetime.   It’s nearly 3 weeks till we leave. I have been buying things like bar shampoo and little flashlights and battery powered chargers.... since we are only taking backpacks, I am trying to keep things as airline friendly and as lightweight as possible. Time will tell which things were a waste of money and what I am going to wish I had thought of!!!! Thanks to my good friend Del, we have a couple of big backpacks and we also bought a couple that we will use. Anyway, excitement is running high and we talk of this trip almost every day.... departure date is May 21.