March: Final Fencing match, Vocces 8, Julian driving!, Chocolate tour, Spring Break around Portland, My birthday and Easter!

Julian's final fencing tournament, the North American Cup Youth Fencing Tournament.  Kids from all over the US came to Portland, Oregon for this fencing tournament.  It was by far the biggest fencing tournament we had been to. Sadly, Julian wants to quit fencing to focus on other things but I'm really glad he got this experience and that he tried a new and difficult sport.

Hyrum, Julian and I went to see the Vocces 8 singing group in a concert they performed at Reed College in Portland.

My hiking buddies...we are starting to come out of hibernation now that the sun is coming out more here in Oregon!

Julian got his drivers permit and is excited to learn how to drive!

My friend, Birgitte, organizes a chocolate tour somewhere near Portland every year. This year we went to Woodblock Chocolate and had a fun tour of the shop and some yummy samples! If you look closely you can see the owner of the company (the only guy in the photo) is wearing chocolate hair!!

Look who came home for Spring Break! It's so fun to have the whole family all together:)

We bought tickets to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo as a family but Hyrum wasn't feeling well so it was just me and the boys.

These guys put on such a great concert! It was so fun watching them sing and dance and share part of their culture and heritage with us all.

The boys helped get the Easter tree decorated. I love this tradition we brought home with us from Germany:)

Hyrum bought me flowers and chocolates for my birthday...he's the best!

I had a great birthday this year.  I had lunch with one of my book club groups. We discussed the book "The Sun Walks Down"

Because it was my birthday the boys have to do what I want...so I made them play pickleball with me.  It was such a gorgeous day!

I have wanted to try out this restaurant in Portland for years so I finally got my family to go for my birthday dinner. It's called "Marrakesh" and we tried some yummy Moroccan food and even got to watch some belly dancing!

After dinner we walked down to Cinema 21 for a Japanese subtitled movie called "Perfect Days" It was a lovely movie about finding joy and connections in everyday life. We got home around midnight and I just have to say it was a great birthday!

The Easter Bunny left some treats outside the boys bedroom doors:)

We hosted Easter dinner at our house and invited the Doxey's and Jason to join us. Then Hyrum surprised me with this delicious chocolate cake he made to celebrate my birthday:)

 

Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula

 Katrina and Steve Doxey spent about a month touring around Argentina and Uruguay. They spent the last part of their trip in Mexico and Hyrum and I sort of invited ourselves to join them for the last little bit of their trip. I had been to Mexico before, but just over the border from Arizona, so this was my first real trip into the country. We had so much fun visiting Mayan ruins and swimming in refreshing cenotes!

Our first night in Merida, Mexico. We went to Parque Santiago for some live music and dinner. Merida is known for having live music and dancing each night in different squares around the city.

Beautiful church lit up at night

Walking around Merida...it was HOT!

In the main plaza with La Catedral de San Ildefonso in the background. This church was built using stones from Mayan structures and completed in 1598, making it one of the oldest buildings on the Continent.

Inside the Cathedral. There is supposed to be an amazing 8 foot wooden sculpture of Christ at the Altar but it was covered for the weeks leading up to Easter Sunday.

In the courtyard of the Governor's Mansion. 

These benches were all over the city. They are set up so that two people can sit and chat with one another but it makes "snuggling" pretty hard, which I guess was the point in this very strict Catholic town.

Funky artwork

Outside a museum we visited.  Half the fun of walking around the museum was being able to see this cool old mansion from the inside! Merida became wealthy in the early 1900's from plantations growing henequen (a plant whose fibers were used to make rope and other things)

Our first cenote experience, X-Batun. I thought the water would be murky and unpleasant but it was so fresh and inviting. Definitely wonderful on a hot day to cool off in a nice cenote!

Some cenotes are easier to access than others. This one, Dzonbacal, had a nice wooden staircase leading down to the water.

The water is so clear. We had fun with our snorkel masks looking at the fish.

These snack shacks were all over and they all had the Coca-Cola sign painted on the outside. They were pretty sparse inside, usually a small rack of chips and a cooler of soda.

A very cool old church in what looked like an abandoned town (I believe it was called Cacoa) but there were some people walking around and lots of stray dogs. Very cool to wander around and look at the old buildings.

Abandoned or lived in? Hard to tell

Our second night in Merida we saw some dancing outside Casa de Montejo

Got up bright and early to be the first people at the Mayan city of Uxmal. We paid for a guide to take us around and explain some of the ruins to us. It was a beautiful day and so nice to be there without a million other people!

Our cute guide (he has been giving tours for 53 years and remembers when this site only cost one peso to visit!)

A handprint (in red) left from the construction of this building (some believe structures were here since the 6th century but the heyday of this place was between 800-900 AD)

These iguanas were everywhere!!

Ancient sculpture of a man emerging from a snakes mouth

People were allowed to climb the stairs of these structures until just a few years ago when they closed due to concerns about damage caused by too many visitors. Something about these stairs just makes you want to climb them!!!

From a platform you can see the great city of Uxmal

So cool to see these amazing structures and to imagine the work involved in creating them in a time when metal and machines were not involved!

Hoop used in a sort of ball game where you could only use your hips, elbows and wrists to hit the ball. I don't know how anyone EVER got the ball through that hoop!

Our next Mayan site was the city of Kabah. We climbed the steep steps up to the Codz Poop temple.

The Codz Poop temple is famous for its facade which is covered in 250 Chaac masks. Chaac was the god of water and very important to the ancient Mayans.

Enjoying a bit of shade when we find it...It was over 100 degrees

Our next stop was the ruined city of Xlapak. This area had a nice shady trail between structures but not many grand buildings to see. We were the only people here so that was kind of cool

I wanted to see the ancient city of Labna because this arch has stood through the ages (perhaps constructed in 862). This is not a rebuilt arch. When people uncovered this site the arch was still standing!

It was so cool to stand in a place that has been around for so long!

Hyrum found a fun vine to swing on in Labna:)

We drove into the town of Mani to see this church but it was closed for the afternoon siesta.  I would love to come back and see the interior some time but the main reason to visit this church was because it was the site in 1562 that Friar Diego de Landa had thousands of ancient Mayan texts and pottery and artifacts burned. We would know so much more about this ancient civilization if this Priest hadn't done this!

This cenote, Kankirixhé, was absolutely amazing after a long, hot day of traveling in the car and walking around in the sun and old Mayan cities!

It's so crazy how off the beaten path these cenotes are. Down crazy dirt roads with just one or two other people around...so cool!

Relaxing on the couch at our cool air bnb after a long day:)

The Merida Temple was about 2 blocks from our house so we took a minute to walk over and check it out.

THIS was a crazy experience! The tour was called "Los Tres Cenotes De Cuzama" We got on this little railroad car and then a donkey pulled us for about 25 minutes to a cenote. You end up going to 3 pretty cool cenotes on this little cart but the jostling and rickety cart make it kind of a crazy adventure. We didn't leave the house thinking we would do this very touristy thing but after about an hour searching for a "less known" cenote we finally gave up and took the tourist trap donkey ride 😜

Heading out with our donkey

The entrance to the first cenote was a bit of a tight squeeze and those steps were pretty steep!

So cool to swim in a cave with the sunlight streaming in and the long roots of the trees above coming down to access the water:)

The 2nd cenote didn't even have steps...just a long, long ladder

What a treat at the bottom of the ladder!

The 3rd cenote was more like a cave river. You could swim about 50 feet into a cave before you had to turn around. It was by far the smallest and most narrow cenote we experienced.

You got to walk through a pretty cool cave to access the water.

The entrance to this cave cenote had a pretty cool tree at the opening.

There is a Mayan ruin in the center of the city of Izamal (called Kinich Kakmo). We were lucky enough to get there before they closed at 5 PM. You are actually allowed to climb on this structure and enjoy the view from the top!

On my way up some pretty steep stairs

The view from the top.  On a clear day they say you can see all the way to Chichen Itza!

Making our way back down the structure

The beautiful Convento de San Antonio de Padua in the city of Izamal. The sun was going down and we had such beautiful light for our walk around the church.

Stained glass inside the church

All the building in Izamal are painted this same mustard yellow color.

Found some yummy gelato on our last night in Merida!

We left Merida around 6 AM so we could be at Chichen Itza as soon as they opened at 8 AM. Even though we were some of the first people there we had to stand in a pretty long line to get in. This site had so many more people than any of the other Mayan ruins we visited.  This main temple is pretty impressive so I guess I can see why so many people want to come.

This structure is so amazing!

During the summer equinox the sun hits the side of the stairs just right so it looks like a serpent is slithering down the pyramid ending with the giant snake head at the bottom.

I thought this wall of carved skulls was pretty cool.

Another Mayan ball court...still have no idea how they got the ball up and through that hoop!

Ancient Mayan pillars

The sacred cenote at Chechen Itza. When divers went down to explore the bottom of this cave they found many bones from women and children that had been sacrificed at this site.

After walking around in the hot sun at Chichen Itza we decided to stop at one final Cenote (Cenote de Hacienda San Lorenzo Oxman) This was definitely the most tourist cenote we had visited. There was a pool and restaurants and a proper change room. A wonderful way to relax on our last full day in Mexico

View into the cenote from the top

Inside the cenote

Relaxing in the shade

With the pool and cabanas. We really did enjoy a few hours here just relaxing and eating yummy food (the guacamole was super yummy!)

We made one final stop at Iglesia y Ex-Convento San Bernardino de Siena in the city of Valladolid. This church was built by Franciscan missionaries in the 1550's. We had the place to ourselves and enjoyed wandering around the beautiful church and it's attached convent

I could have wandered around this city for a few more hours but everyone was tired and anxious to get to Cancun which was still 2 hours away. I had to console myself with some delicious gelato before getting back in the car to head to Cancun.

Last night in Mexico. The view of the Caribbean ocean from our hotel room in Cancun. We walked down to the beach and dipped our toes in the ocean but it was pretty late by the time we got here so didn't really go swimming. 

These few days spent in Mexico were so fun. It was great traveling with Katrina and Steve and Hyrum was a fantastic tour leader and always had ideas mapped out for our next days adventures. It was a lot of walking and some very hot and humid days but I'm so glad we made this little trip and explored a new part of the world!