The Church

Victor has been installing air conditioning systems. This week, his team moved to a new site, where they will be working for several months. The apartments they are working in just happen to be right across the street from where we will be married! Standing by the church, it is impossible to fit the whole thing in a camera…but my fiancée has the perfect view! Also, we are now working close enough to eachother that we can go out for the occasional lunch together!

Acapulco

Victor and I ventured to Acapulco this weekend with Domingo and Lupe. It was a short but refreshing trip. The scenery on the way was breathtaking. The seafood was delicious. Once I had the most amazing garlic-battered shrimp with rice and a salad for 5 dollars. However, the rest of the trip wasn’t particularly cheap. The tolls totaled 50 dollars…and that is only one way. There is always the option of taking the free highway, but it’s curvy, a little dangerous and more time consuming. I hadn’t remembered that Acapulco had so much night life. After going to see the cliff divers, we looked for something to eat. It was almost midnight and we found ourselves stopped in traffic! We spent one full day just enjoying the beach. We rented an umbrella and chairs and played around most of the day. I took an hour-long nap on the beach! Domingo found 2 huge blowfish tumbling in the surf. At one point, I was tempted to go paragliding, but the landings of the other courageous tourists always looked a little rough. Victor and I had a dunking competition and he only beat me like 10 - 4!

Strawberries & Cream!

This weekend we went to a delicious strawberry stand just outside of Caujimalpa. The stand is famous for its strawberries and cream, which it serves 365 days a year. The luscious strawberries are smothered with layers of rich cream, sprinkled with sugar and topped off with nuts, raisins, chocolate, vanilla and wafer cookies. It was my fourth visit to this amazing place!

Ismael

Victor and I were asked to be godparents several months ago by one of his cousins. Ismael is now 2 months old. We went to visit him last night and brought him a gift for Three Kings' Day (Dia de los Reyes Magos). Three Kings' Day is celebrated on January 6th, twelve days after Christmas. Also known as The Epiphany, it is a celebration that commemorates the story of the three kings who followed the star of Bethlehem. Gift-giving in Mexico is centered more on this day than Christmas. While children know about Santa Clause, it is the Kings that bring them gifts and leave them restless the day beforehand.

Cuernavaca

Victor and I traveled to Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos last weekend with some friends who have a vacation home about an hour and a half south of Mexico City. Cuernava is know as the city of eternal spring, and it was indeed very warm! We spent the weekend grilling outside, playing soccer (barefoot!), and throwing the losing teams into the swimming pool. I taught our friends and their family how to play Spoons and Marco Polo. The Spoons loser had to take a spoonful of Tequila with every 2 losses (not my idea)...luckily, I only lost twice in our 2-hour long competition.

The New Year

We ended the new year frantically calling the firemen when a neighbor's workshop cuaght on fire and no one was home! Everyone was running and hauling buckets of water until the firemen finally arrived after about 10 minutes. The fire truck didn't fit into the street and the first hose they stretched out didn't even reach the fire. The second hose did and by 11:30 p.m. everything was under control...but we bearly made it in time for the New Year hugs!! Victor's parents invited us to an excellent seafood restaruant on New Years day. Afterwards, we went to the Lion's Dessert (Desierto de los Leones). This picture was taken there.