The Taylor's!

Sorry my loyal fans (all 3 of you) for the long break in blogging. Not a whole lot was going on and then on Saturday evening we went to Cozumel for a few days. We took a bus to Playa Del Carmen and then took a late ferry to the island. Our friends Ash and Johanna let us crash at their place. On Sunday Josh gave to Public talk and then we just hung out for a couple days while waiting for the Taylors to get off their cruise ship on Tuesday morning.

Ash and Johanna


Josh with Finley and their little french poodle


Dijon, Carla, Gage, Brooklyn and the little baby in Carla's tummy all arrived to fairly sunny but slightly cool weather. We picked them up in this authentic VW bug.


And we drove around the island and checked out a bunch of beaches.
















We saw them off at about 6pm last night and then started the trip back home to Tulum. We were glad to be "home".

I've got gas!

No pictures of this one.

Early Saturday afternoon I had some chicken stock simmering away on the stove when I noticed that the flame had gotten very tiny even though the burner was on high. Then it gave out a little burst of energy and just died. We have a large gas tank on our back patio and so we checked it and tried to figure out what the problem was. We did not want to believe that we had run out of gas b/c we were told by the owner that it was full and we should have gas the entire time we stayed here. Well, we ran out. Everyone is like "Have you been taking hot showers?". Of course we are taking hot showers! We are American! And our company took lots of hot showers too! We got disapproving looks from our Mexican friends and I am sure they were mentally rolling their eyes and thinking to themselves "stupid gringos". Anyways, the gas truck had already gone by for the day and the next day was Sunday and no gas truck on Sundays. Then on Monday we flagged the truck down as it passed and they took our tank to fill it and said they would bring it back "manana". Josh and I look at each other in panic. Tomorrow?? They bring all the tanks to Playa Del Carmen and fill them and return then the next day. Aaughhhh!!!

So we were without gas for 3 days which meant no stove and no hot water. It's not that big of a deal except we had been going out to eat like crazy with our company and I had just grocery shopped so that we can go back to making cheap meals at home. And the weather had gotten a little cooler for a couple days so taking a cold shower was, well COLD.

I wanted to kiss the gas man when he came with the tank today. I held myself back.

I was thinking about how backwards Mexico is. There is a lot of red tape and corruption here, and so if you wanted to buy property or if you wanted to try and find a way to work here it can cause a lot of frustration. The stories run rampant. But life here can also be very easy. For Josh and I it's much easier that in the States b/c of the obvious reason of us not working here. At home we would be working a lot. Also we are just renting a house here and so if something goes wrong it's someone else problem. But there are also other funny things that make living here easier in some ways. Did you know I don't do laundry here? We haul all of our laundry around the corner to the "Lavanderia" twice a week and it comes back to us in a few hours all folded and smelling clean. It's not even that expensive! It costs about $10 a week and when considering the electric, water, soap, and the labor that's a good price in my book. (We can't do laundry here b/c the house didn't come with a machine like I was hoping it would. Yeah, I was REALLY hoping :) Also every single day the trash people come and pick up all of our smelly garbage, the water trucks go buy numerous times so that we can buy water whenever we need it, and the gas truck stops by daily (just not on Sunday). We even have people pedaling by on the bicycle carts offering us food all day long! That would be great if we liked ears of corn dipped in mayonnaise. Oh and we live right behind the biggest grocery store in all of Tulum so I can walk over multiple times if I need to (and I do).

So I guess you are all feeling sorry for us right now. We have sacrificed so much to be here because of the very difficult living conditions.

I promise the next post will be mostly photos again Karle! Not like you'll read it anyways....

Just the two of us...

It's so lonely being here just the two of us. We don't know what to do with ourselves. Cor & Em, Karle & Alyssa, please come back.

Just kidding, we are coping okay. I went out in service today (Josh wasn't feeling great) and I think everyone gasped in surprise when they saw me. It had been a while.

Before our company came we spent some time with a couple from our group that we wanted to get to know a little better. Their names are Juan Carlos and Veronica and they have an interesting story. They went to high school together in Los Angeles and actually dated even though neither one of them were witnesses at the time. One of them moved to a different area and they lost touch until Juan Carlos showed up at a witness party one day (he was a study) only to find Veronica there! Veronica was about to get baptized and Juan Carlos progressed quickly and got baptized too. They eventually got married and now they have left their families in California and are serving where the need is great. English in Tulum, Mexico!

So we took them out for lunch on their one day off and we really enjoyed it. We went to an Italian restaurant for pizza and pasta (I figured they were tired of Mexican).







We also went for gelato after b/c they had never tried it before (they decided they like regular ice cream for 1/2 the price just as much) and met up with a sweet little girl who goes to our Spanish congregation. She did not want us to leave.




Juan Carlos and Veronica support themselves by selling a few items at this food stand. They have a couple different kinds of nachos (one with cucumber and jicama), hot chocolate, and a sweet, fruit slushy drink. Alyssa and I each got a fruit drink one night and we were a little skeptical since it consists of A LOT of sweetened condensed milk but it turned out to be delicious.


They work at the food stand from 2pm-10pm every day except for Monday. Their goal in order to pay their necessities is to make about $5000 pesos a month which comes out to be approximately $375. Last month was a little slow though b/c the "colder" nights keep the Mexicans in their homes. They also are both regular pioneers.

I am back from the dead!

Whew, that was a rough couple days but today I am feeling MUCH better. Yesterday I just laid around all day and watched a billion shows on Hulu. At least I am all caught up. But today I got up and felt tons better. We went to Grand Cenote on Cory and Emily's last day and then got shrimp tacos (Karle and Alyssa, Em agrees that they are better than the fried. Finally someone on my side!). I did only have one but Josh still yelled at me for putting too much hot sauce on it. Whatever.

I am posting some random pictures that I got from Karle and Alyssa's online album.

This one is funny. Please notice my purse and flip flops on the sand next to me.


And now notice they are about to float away. Alyssa rushed and picked up my sandals only to immediately drop them b/c HER own were floating away. Priorities.


We went out one night and got delicious Tacos Al Pastor for just a little over $1 each. Yummy pork tacos with cheese, onions, and pineapple.


And Emily (she's a vegetarian) kept asking for more of Cory's


This is a really weird picture. It seriously looks like a poster for Coke


Street dogs. My aren't they vicious!

A rough day

Karle and Alyssa have left us but I will post a few more pictures of all of us.

I was the one who had a rough day today. I was up early doing some housecleaning and my stomach was feeling funny. I was getting cramps in my upper belly. But I was trying to ignore it and Emily and Cory and Josh and I went to breakfast before going to see the Tulum ruins. I ate a huge breakfast (b/c food makes everything better, right Lynn?) and we drove 5 minutes to the ruins. As we were walking up to the entrance I could tell that good things were not happening down in my belly. We stand in line for tickets and I ended up just buying one for Josh b/c I didn't think I would be able to walk around in the hot sun. I took a taxi home (I was very close to our house). I laid around a little but my stomach pain was getting worse and worse. I was also in the bathroom vomiting and doing the other thing (to put it delicately). Josh, Cor, and Em stopped by and I told them they should go hang out at the beach while I rested. Then some friends stopped by and saw how much pain I was in and suggested going to a doctor is a couple hours if it did not get better.

After about an hour of writhing in pain (I actually am not exaggerating) I start trying to get a hold of someone to take me to the doctor. Josh was not answering his phone but I finally got an answer from Priscilla and she and Jennifer came and picked me up.

Long story short I ended up with an IV in my hand and was pumped full of saline solution, antibiotics, and anti-vomiting and pain medicine. Two hours and $115 later I did feel a lot better and my three friends did finally show up to offer me support. Of course Josh was frantic and felt horrible that he was not there for the whole thing. Oh well. Tonight I am laying low and just trying to catch up on internet stuff. I am still not eating but I am improving. BTW...it was probably food/water related. And Cory did get some pictures of me that he claims he's going to put on his own blog.



Dinner at an awesome seafood restaurant(my conch)


Alyssa's shrimp Diablo










With tip it came to $40/couple and we feasted on fresh seafood!

The ruins that I did not go to:

Cory and Emily's debut...

Okay here is lots of pics with just a little bit of explanation.

Our first day at the beach all six of us


Cory and Finley


Josh decided to dig a hole (??)




Saturday night meeting, our Grupo de Ingles


The dance party that followed at our house after. I hate taking flash pictures at night so this my attempt to mostly not use flash...blurry, huh?


















The next day we actually went to a big cenote called "Dos Ojos" but we didn't bring our cameras in so I have no pictures. Actually Karle and Cory went back in with theirs after we snorkeled but I stayed in the car b/c the mosquitoes were eating us alive. So you will have to ask to see their pictures. It was amazing though. The river runs through these huge caverns with gigantic stalactites which are these drippy looking things that are actually minerals. We just snorkeled but people were scuba diving in the caverns below us. Here is a link to "Dos Ojos" if you want to see.
http://www.cenotedosojos.com/photos.htm

Then we spent some more time on the beach. The day turned out to be a little gray and rainy but that was fine for going to the ceote b/c it was in a cave and later it cleared up as little.








So handsome