Cool Stuff...

One of the things I had read about Puerto Vallarta is that there are a lot of sea turtles and they like to nest in the area. That is something I really wanted to see, but didn't know if I would get the chance. Well, the first week we were there, we were walking along the beach and there were a few people gathered watching something. Of course, we had to see what it was too, and I am so glad that we did! It was a turtle laying her eggs on the beach!! So cool!!!

Sorry the picture isn't very good. It was almost dark and all I had was my phone to take a pic and I didn't want to get to close and disturb the turtle. So this is as good as I could get.

The next day, I went to see what was there, and all there was was a small hole in the sand. I think they most likely moved the nest to a less populated area.

This baby turtle was hanging out in front of a little pond. There were a whole bunch of them in the water that kept popping up their little heads.

Right next to the Grand Mayan is a golf course called El Tigre. The story is that the owners rescued 2 tigers and took care of them. Since the first 2, there have been many more, including 2 leopards they have in another cage on the other side of the course.

One thing I don't have a picture of yet is a cocodrillo (crocodile). They show up in the ponds on the golf course on a regular basis, but they have people to move them out. Needless to say, people don't fish their balls out of the water, and the birds are all really cautious.

Church...

I have had a few people ask me how church is. And yes, it is all in Spanish. Well, it is just like at home, but in Spanish. :) The people are really really nice, and there are two American families that I know of so far, and there are quite a few people who speak English pretty well. People have really gone out of their way to make sure we feel welcome. My first week in RS a sister who spoke a little English went out of her way to sit by me and try to tell me a little of what was going on, and my RS President who speaks no English came to visit me right away even though it was not easy for her. It is easy to tell that everyone works at being "united".

Cole is doing fine too. He was a little scared the first couple of weeks, though. I found out that they moved him up into the 8-year old class because the teacher for that class speaks pretty good English. That was a huge help for him. He was also really happy to find that one of the American families has an 8-year old boy so he found an instant friend.

While it is a little hard to sit and not understand what is being said for 3 hours, it is so nice to go and feel the same spirit that I felt before I came here. The people are truly humble and trying to do their best, just like us. I feel at home when I am there. I am so grateful for how the church is organized so it is the same truth wherever I am.

Real Life Mexico

My last post was all about the vacation side of Mexico. Definitely not day to day real life, but part of it at least sometimes. The biggest differences between home and Mexico are that things are always done slower and things are almost always smaller. The houses are smaller...

This is a picture of our townhouse. Most people live in houses like this. From what I have seen so far here, only the very rich live in houses.

The kitchens are small and very very few have dishwashers. Most people have a washer, but not very many have a dryer. I decided that a dryer was a luxury I must have and it was a little hard to find one. The stores would have 10 different washers and 1 or 2 dryers.

Speaking of small...check out our our mini-fridge! It is the only one we could find that would fit under that shelf. And it wasn't the smallest one either. Not quite the side-by-side with ice/water in the door we are used to.

And this is our mini hot water heater. It is a HUGE 10 gallons!!! But I haven't had a cold shower since we got it lit...it took us a few days to get it figured out how to light it. The knob is broken so we couldn't tell where settings were. It's a good thing the water isn't ice cold here!!

And this is our little TV. We had our internet and cable installed, but our boxes with our TV's aren't here yet. So we broke down and bought the cheapest one we could find.Just 19". It is really funny because we are so used to our giant flat screens.

All of this makes me realized how much we think we need to get by in the US. We think we need big houses and fridges and TV's and I used to say that I could not live without a dishwasher. Well, here I go...I think I just might survive without one!!!