Mexicans love their dead...

Although you can't tell from the state of their cemeteries. A cemetery in Mexico is a Panteon. This one is near a little village called Mezcala. It looks a mess, but it just because every tomb is different, individual and special. And as with all publicly owned areas, hard to keep tidy.
But what a gorgeous setting!

Easter and Guachimontones

The kids have this week and last week off of school for Easter and thus far have been pretty bored.

We tried to prepare for Easter by making our own baskets. I'm no weaver so I thought this easy fabric and paper one would be just right for us from Family Fun:

Cute, right? A lot harder than they look when you have no printer, no fabric and like I said no weaving skills. We used some old T-shirts for the fabric and tried to copy the pattern from the website. Ours didn't look quite the same. After Riley saw how Jane's and Amelia's turned out, he chose an old ice cream container for his basket. I let Charlie follow suit.

But even though Milli allowed hers to be thrown away after Easter morning, Jane said she wanted to use hers next year. Who would have thunk? The power of doing it yourself.

During the last week we also did some cleaning, swam, went to Tobolandia for half a day and relaxed.

As a last minute trip, Saturday, we drove up to an archeological site near Tequila called Guachimontones. Round structures used for sports, performances and worship ceremonies.

Then ate at a seafood restaurant near the Lake. Laura bought some sugar cane fishing poles and the kids fished in a little, dirty pond at the restaurant.

Next week promises to be just as exciting with dentist and doctor appointments, more swimming (it's getting very hot), and a church party at our house. Maybe we'll have to take another trip to Selva Magica to add at least a little fun.

I'm going to miss this place...

Last night Dave and I went out to dinner. We got a babysitter, Martha, we know her from church. She doesn't speak English, but she does a good job anyway. And boy you can't beat 35 pesos an hour. About $2.50. That's the first thing I started to miss last night. #2 We went to a restaurant high on a hill in San Juan Cosala. You could see the mountains, the lake and the town lights. The weather was awesome, some wind since we were so high, but so nice. At least once a week, it hits me how relaxing this place is. So much like a year long vacation, sometimes. #3 We ate a wonderful meal. There are so many great restaurants here, some holes-in-the-wall but others, like this one, 4 and 5 star restaurants. We ate crazily good food for about the equivalent of $30. Valet parking and live music. And no special occasion needed because it was sooo cheap. Just Saturday night. Oh, am I going to miss that.

I know it's still 3 months till we go home, but I already miss it here and am going to soak it up as much as I can.

Day trip to Tapalpa

Tapalpa is a little mountain town similar to Mazamitla, a town we visited last fall. The thing that made me want to go to Tapalpa are these flowers.

They are made by kids at a school for the underprivileged and are made from recycled 2 liter bottles. I just think they are so cool and you can only buy them in Tapalpa.

Tapalpa had some other things going for it too. This church is pretty cool.

There are supposedly some cool rock formations to the north of the town and a waterfall to the south, but the kids opted to go to "Ecopark". One of those adventure parks where you zipline through the canopy of trees. Dave, Riley and Jane enjoyed that experience while Milli, Charlie and I enjoyed some slides and overpriced snacks.

I was really proud of Jane. She usually gets pretty nervous about things like this, but she was a pro. I mean, look how high she was. I wouldn't have been so brave.