Mexico Adventure

Who's ready for some pictures?? 
For those of you who love pictures, I'm sorry that I haven't been giving you a lot of them recently. Picture-taking is not my thing - BUT - I have given myself a challenge of taking at least one picture every day, starting on Monday, so that I have a better collection when I need it. So there. I've made a public declaration and I intend to conquer this challenge :D

Anyway, let me fill you in on why we went to Mexico the first part of this week. Guatemala only gives visas for 90 days (or 3 months) unless you file for residency or do a lot of paperwork for another type of visa. After the first 90 days are up, we can get another 90 day visa at the embassy in Guate. City. However, every 6 months we are required to leave the country for 3 days before we can, once again, get another 90 day visa. All this to say, the Binduses and Pattersons have been here since January, so their second 90 day visa was almost expired. This past week, we purposely didn't book any teams so that they could take a mini-vacation to MX for the required 3-day leave. I went along with them so that my visas are now on the same schedule as theirs. (Otherwise, I would've had to take the trip by myself in Oct. Every time we leave the country, our 6 month allowance is automatically renewed.) Another missionary couple who comes to our church, Erv and Sally York, and their daughter, Sarah, were also due for their renewals, so they collaborated their schedules with ours to come with us. Ron, our 'jefe', also decided to tag along for the trip, which made a grand total of 13 people! On Sunday, June 8, we loaded up two little trucks and one suburban with all our luggage and food for our little getaway. 

I got all the kids to come up to my apartment on Sat. night to make a bunch of doughnuts for the trip. 

deliciousness! 

the minions and company dipping the round, deep-fried, chunks of goodness into powdered sugar and cinnamon :D

have I ever mentioned that Guatemala is beautiful??

we had a 4 hr. drive to the border

at one point we traveled from 9,000 ft. above sea level to 2,000 ft in a little over an hour

Less than an hr. from the border, the brakes on the suburban gave out. The Pattersons, Ron, and Abbey (Bindus) were all riding together. Sarah (York), the rest of the Binduses, and I were behind them and saw the suburban go 'four-wheeling' over a few low cement barriers before finally stopping in the ditch. 

The only injuries were one case of whiplash and a chest bump. So much more could have gone wrong! We were so thankful for God's protection and that we weren't next to a cliff or hit anyone else or anything bigger that would've caused more damage or even deaths. 

the cement 'walls' that slowed the vehicle down.

The under body got the worst of it. Our insurance covered everything - another reason for thankfulness. 

Sally (York)'s first language is Spanish. She handled all the dealings with the insurance company, tow truck, etc. Her shirt says it all - Just Do It! 

We loaded all the luggage from the suburban into the back of the open-bed truck. Sarah squeezed in with her parents in their lil truck; the kids, Craig, Ron, and Lauren all squished into the cab of ours...  

...while Trish, Lance, Maddie, and I rode in the back with the luggage. It sprinkled a few times. The rain actually felt good in the muggy heat. One of the neighbors at the crash-site very generously gave us a small piece of plastic to cover our belongings as much as possible. 

"Welcome to Chiapas (Mexico)"! 

from the border, it took an hour (or less?) to get to Tapachula, MX

We stayed at a small hotel outside of town on the beach. The kids spent more time in the pool than out! 

walkway to the Pacific

garden gate next to the pool/patio area

Erv (York) was such a trooper; he let the kids put stickers all over his head - they were only half-way done here! 

the waves were too strong to really go swimming, but we had a blast getting soaked anyway

Sunset on the Pacific

s'more night!

I caught part of the sunrise on our last morning 

packing up on Wed. morning

our 'head of operations', Meme, met us at the border with a van and driver so that we wouldn't have to drive all 5 hrs. in the hot sun on the back of the truck 

Once we got back up into the mountains, the air turned cool again - a welcome change for us 'mountain dwellers' who aren't used to the sticky, muggy heat! We got home right before the evening rain-shower started. It was a fun, adventure-filled, not-soon-to-be-forgotten vacation, but it's always good to be back home in Chichi :D