Blogging from a Far Away Country

I got up early this morning, or, early for a weekend. We drove to the air port where we met the rest of our group. There are a total of 7 people in our group. There's me, my little brother, my dad, my sort-of-step-mom, her mom, my big brother, and his wife.

We went through all of the security stuff in the airport and got to the gate and boarded the plane. There were some really cool TV screens that came down from the ceiling, but they were not showing anything interesting. There was the GPS thing that told everyone where the plane was, but then they started showing a movie about football. I fell asleep and woke up when we were landing.

The airport we landed at was not as large as the one we left from. In fact, it was only a long building with several large rooms and a runway behind it. In total, I saw 1 plane other than the one we arrived on.

The first thing I realized as I stepped out of the plane onto the ladder (yes, they had a big ladder that went from the ground to the door) was that it was hot. Really hot. I was wearing long pants and a jacket because, as some readers may know, it was cold in Georgia that morning. I took off the jacket as soon as I could, which was while we were waiting in line to enter the building. We were in a total of 3 rooms while in the airport. There was the room we entered from the runway where they checked our passports. Then there was the baggage claim area. Before we could go into the next room they had to X-ray our bags again. After that we reached the door to the entrance room There was a big traffic light infront of the door. Unlike a normal traffic light, this one only had a green and a red light. Beneath the lights there was a button that looked exactly like the button you press to cross the street. A large sign pointed to the button saying "El Butón." We each were supposed to press the button, but my dad pressed it for the half of our group that I was in. The green light lit up and said "pass." I never saw what the red one said but I was later told that if the red one lit up then your bags and person would be searched. It was a pretty clever way to randomly screen people.

We left the airport and got into a white taxi truck. There were not enough seats in the truck for all seven of us, so I had to sit in the front between the Mexicanan driver and my dad. Apparently, the car was made to seat a person there because there was a small seat. This was probably because most Mexican families are large, with many kids. However, the car was also made under the assumption that most Mexicans don't wear seat belts because there was no seat belt for my sad excuse for a seat. I had to sit very still, with my legs forced into the small amount of leg room I had, and hope that this driver knew what he was doing.

There are two other members of our party who have not been introduced yet. Our two dogs, Milo and Adam (<- He was named that by his previous owners) are papillons. Papillon is french for butterfly. These dogs are called that because they have huge ears that perk up when they are excited (Apparently someone thought they looked like butterfly wings). Papillons are small black and white dogs with long fur. Adam has brown eyebrows like most other papillons, but Milo is something of a collection of "bad genes." He is too big and his bones are too dense for him to be a show dog like most papillons, and he doesn't have the "cute" brown eyebrows.

Milo and Adam had been sitting quietly in their doggy bags under a seat on the plane for 4 hours. They were very excited about being in a new place. While we were in the taxi going to Zihua, both of them were climbing around the truck, wanting to see everybody now that they were out of their small prisons. Adam climbed into my lap and stood on my legs to look out of the windsheild. After a little while he bent his head down and sneezed on our driver's leg. The driver made a weird sound, something between suprise and anger. He contained himself though, but he flinched when Adam sneezed again, even though I had repositioned him as to not upset anyone.

We drove up to the big wooden gate in the back of the house and unloaded the bags. Elio, one of the house's caretakers, let us in. We entered the courtyard while Elio took some bags to the upper house. So my readers aren't lost in the folowing paragraphs, I will give a breif description of the house.

The house is named "Villa Del Mar" and is located midway up a hill next to "La Ropa Beach." The house is divided into two sections. There is the lower house, which is accessible from the courtyard behind the house. Included in the lower house is a large room with two long couches. That room links to the dining room, a bedroom, and the front porch. The dining room connects with the kitchen and the porch. The porch has some couches and chairs. On one end there is a ciesta (Spanish for nap) bed. It is open to the air and a good place to sleep during the noon hours of the day. The area of the porch behind the bed connects with the bedroom. Infront of the porch is the swimming pool, a new adition to the house. It is a small pool, only 4-5 feet deep. It is an infinity pool, that is, one end of the pool does not have a wall so the water seems to blend with the ocean beyond. The water falls from the absent wall and is recycled back into the pool.

The upper house is connected to the ground by a long stone staircaise that winds through the courtyard. The staircase ends at a doorway to the kitchen of the upper house. Beyond the kitchen there is a living room with a lot of windows that can open to give a great view. Unfortunately, Elio had to nail those windows shut because some previous guests had gotten drunk and decided to walk on the roof. Beyond this room there is a bedroom. Past that is a hallway with a bathroom off to the side. At the end of the hall there is a master bedroom.

The courtyard has a stone path connecting the gate to the upper and lower house. Along this path is a well house. Inside is a telephone and a well, which has not seen use for who knows how long. There is another bedroom that is considered part of the lower house, but can only be reached from the courtyard. This is where my brother and I stay when we come here. Elio and Yanet, the house caretakers, live in a little house near the back of the property. When I first came here the caretakers lived in a single room hut with a small bed for two adults and two or three children. Seeing a huge spider crawl across the ceiling was not an uncommon thing. When my dad bought the house he had the little hut torn down and a new, better one built.

For a more detailed depiction of the house go here or here.

We settled into our rooms and then went out along the beach to find a resturaunt for lunch. Once we ate we strolled along the beach until we came to the crocodile's lair. There is a crocodile that lives on the beach in a lagoon that is seperated from the ocean by a thin strip of sand. I have been told that the crocodile will sometimes come out across the beach and go into the water. He will eat fish and he's been known to snap at a swimmer or two. The crocodile was not showing himself so we left. We returned to the house and got into the swimming pool. My big brother, Jon, is 26 but he still acts like a kid. He did cannon balls into the water and grabbed people's legs to pull them under.

Once everyone had had their fun in the pool, it was dinner time. Yanet had cooked some kind of chicken for us. Accompanying the chicken was a thick molé sauce and rice. We had water to drink and, of course, tortillas. Someone once said that if you want to make a Mexican meal all you need are tortillas, cheese, and meat. Almost all of those ingredients were present at tonight's dinner.