Las Chiapas

Well, I made it to a major checkpoint in my Mexican adventure... THE FIRST VACATION! I can't even explain how much it was needed. I love the kids I teach, but they know how to wear a person down faster than I scream when I see a spider.

For our first vacation we went to the Mexican state of Las Chiapas. Chiapas is about as far down south in Mexico as you can go, it borders on Guatamala. It is a pretty traditional state from what I heard and saw and there are a lot of nature-y things to do and see there.

We left Pachuca on Thursday night right after we finished with school and got to our hostel in Tuxtla (a city in Chiapas) at about 10:30 at night. The next morning we decided to go to the zoo because we got as excited as a five year old would have gotten when we found out there was a zoo close to where we were. It wasn't the most exciting zoo because it didn't really have and big animals, but they grounds were beautiful and it only cost us 20 pesos (less than two dollars) for admission, so it was totally worth it. Funny story: As we were waiting out side the zoo to have a taxi come pick us up, a family was walking into the zoo and one of the little girls looked at her mom and said "Mama, why are those girls white"? I guess we had the pleasure of being the first un-tan people she had ever seen. I consider it an honor.

After the zoo we decided to do some typical tourist shopping in a town called Chiapas de Corzo. There was shop after shop of some many cheap and awesome souvenirs and clothes and you bet your butt I bought a shirt and some shoes that are totally Mexican looking, and I love them. I also realized my dream of drinking horchata in a bag. So it is safe to say that I was one happy girl.

The next day we took a boat tour through the canyons in Chiapas de Corzo. It was a two hour tour and it was probably one of my favorite things. The sun was on my face and the wind was blowing and the canyons were super pretty and it was just relaxing and fun. We also saw a crocodile super up close, I wanted to pet it, but I still have all my limbs so I obviously didn't do that.

Later that night we walked around the center of Tuxtla and ate ice cream and then walked some more. Then for dinner we went to one of those places that shaves the meat straight from the massive hunk of meat that cooked on a spit. Holy crap. They were fantastic. Like hands down the best tacos I have ever eaten and probably will ever eat in my life. Each of us ordered two to start out with, foolishly thinking that would be enough, but it wasn't and we had to each order another one to make ourselves happy. After dinner we went back to the center of Tuxtla because they had live marimba music playing and there was dancing and a bunch of people just sitting around and enjoying the night. It was a lot of fun!

The next day, on Sunday, we had planned on going to some lagoons that were about three hours away from where we were staying, but that didn't happen. At about 3:00 am, Maddie, one of the girls I teach with, got super sick. she was throwing up and crying in pain because her stomach hurt so badly. So we decided to just stay in our hostel for the day and let her relax so that she would hopefully feel better the next day. Plus, we were all kinda sick with coughs and runny noses and headaches so it was probably all for the best. But I really wanted to go see the LDS temple that we in Tuxtla just a few minutes from where we were staying so the three of us who weren't on our death beds decided to take a quick trip to visit the temple. It was gorgeous. I mean all temples are gorgeous but this was the first temple I had seen in a month and so it was really beautiful. Sadly the grounds were closed but we still had a really good view of the outside and it was nice just to be on temple grounds to feel the spirit that the Lord's house has to offer.

Luckily Maddie felt better on Monday so we decided to go to the lagoons anyways. We took a three hour bus ride to a town that I totally forgot the name of and then from that point we took a taxi about forty minutes outside the city. When we got to the entrance of the park, like ten people surrounded us and offered to take us on a tour of the lagoons and so we took one of them up on that offer. Don't worry, it was totally legitimate, they all had official park tour guide passes, and I mean, we didn't die, so it was totally safe, haha. So we hopped in the back of a guy's pick up truck and started out on our tour. One of the lagoons was on the border of Guatemala and Mexico so our tour guide asked if we wanted to go to Guatemala for a few minutes and do some shopping in the shops that were on the border. Obviously we did. So we went to another county for like ten minutes, pretty dang cool. I bought an apron there and I love it. Then we went to see the rest of the lagoons and we even got to swim in one, it was fantastic.

And that was basically the end of our vacation! Our flight left at 7:00 the next morning and it was back to Pachuca and back to teaching. Even though it was kinda hard to come back, it also felt like coming home, and it is always good to come home.