MEXICO!!!

While Mexico, Missouri is quite the hot spot, I endorse Playa del Carmen as a nice vacation spot.

Trying to sum up a delicious week of Mexican vacation is difficult, so difficult that it has taken me over a month to do so, even though I have promised Carrie I would do it multiple times. I do not want to do a day by day journal entry because I can't remember what happened on which days. That being said, this blog entry will become a sequence of great pics with accompanying explanations and interspersed, must-hear stories. Brace yourself---

This picture was taken after we finally ALL arrived from different parts of the country, convening in Playa del Carmen. This beach was 100 yards from the back door of our villa. Carrie and I got to Mexico first and waited over 4 hours in the car rental shop for the rest of the family to arrive. We had left early in the morning from Kansas (thank to the Cranes for their kindness) and were tired. We were so incoherent that we did not notice that our new laptop computer had disappeared...NOT the way to start a successful, relaxing vacation with a budget expert wife let me tell you, but Carrie was great about it.
We explored the area around our home and met our neighbors when he or she fell out of the tree and startled us. Being from Massachusetts, I think I speak for the whole John family when I say that we Massachusetts-ites are not used to any sort of exotic animals, and I was intrigued by the variety of iguanas, salamanders, and R.O.U.S.'s we saw scampering around our neighborhood. Our home for the week was beautiful, and my mom did a great job of finding such a bargain. We had four bedrooms, 2.5 baths for 11 of us. The "glue" of the sleeping arrangements were my younger siblings who were troopers about not getting their own rooms and slept on hide-a-beds and mattresses. Carrie and I salute them! Our home had a private pool and underground cenote cave. The pool was strangely critical considering how close we were to the ocean, but we had to cool down often and rinse off quickly, and the pool was a center of activities. We had a full kitchen which we used to prepare almost all of our meals. We also were lucky to have a bottled water dispenser that allowed us to avoid "Montezuma's Revenge"...though Carrie did experience some gastrointestinal distress our last couple nights. If we weren't out at the beach we enjoyed our villa, especially me as I dominated everyone in ping pong who dared challenge me. I am glad I took a break to take this sweet action shot. We ended every night chanting "Frappes! Frappes!", and in response my father would make Cookies'n'Cream Frappes for everyone.

Our first tourist stop was Tulum, a large site full of Mayan ruins. It was WICKED hot, and we all were affected by the humidity and sun. The strange picture of my sister Carly and her husband Daniel actually has an obvious explanation: exhausted by the heat, Daniel could not help but succumb to the local custom of human sacrifice by ripping out the heart. Luckily for us, and I think every national monument should be similar, Tulum was built on a cliff, overlooking the beach and the Gulf of Mexico. Don't worry- we did spend a lot of time on the beach, but there will not be gratuitous swimsuit shots in this blog. I decided I wanted to add this one of Carrie because I think she is gorgeous.
Our next stop was Xel-Ha, a water park with all naturally occurring attractions. We started the day snorkeling in the ocean, which was fun. It was amazing to swim around with fins on, and we made multiple allusions to Harry Potter when he sprouted gills and webbed toes and fingers. In the first picture of that day it is important to point that the person in the top left of the picture is my mom who seemed to floating away during the picture, which made our family laugh afterwards very much. We also ended the day snorkeling, and that time we were a bit more off the beaten path and saw multiple sting rays and some GIANT fish. The first strange fish we saw looked like the barracuda from Disney's Sword in the Stone (It's one of the good "boy" Disney movies, like Robin Hood). The fish was long, we could see its teeth, and it had a very serious underbite. It didn't seem to be afraid of us, which seemed to make Carly especially nervous so she screamed. Xel-Ha also is a resort which caters to a lot of Americans, so our tickets included all you can eat food, which was great. For those in the know, Carrie's favorite ride at any water park is the lazy river, so Carrie and I really enjoyed tubing down a short river to the inlet of the ocean. It was grown over with brush on the sides and above us, so it was like we were in a cave of bush (the picture is needed to understand what I am describing). Once the brush ended, the river widened and there occasional cliffs on the side, which were fun to jump off of. The funnest moment was to hear Matthew's genuine scream of fright as he flailed his arms and legs. It was scary for me too, and i think that it we may have a family tendency to be afraid of heights. Carrie didn't seem to be bothered too much, so I hope our kids have her sense of adventure. We also went exploring in caves that were on the sides of the inlet where the ocean water had worn through. It started pouring rain only after we decided it was time to go home, just like every year at the Palmyra Pageant.

Our final big tourist stop was Chichen Itza, the largest group of Mayan ruins. It needs to be said that my father did a masterful job of navigating around strange highways without ever being pulled over or infuriating the locals while chauffeuring a large sunburned, sleepy family. Chichen Itza was very very cool. Rumor has it that not too long ago people were aloud to climb up the ruins, but now everything was roped up and we could only look and imagine. Carrie, while still looking so good, had a horrible headache but was a trooper about it. The ruins looked like something out of the movies. The tall pyramid with snakes coming down it was very cool. There were also a giant ball court where they played some sort of ball game, though they are not sure how it was played or who got sacrificed to the gods afterward, the winners or losers. You can see from the picture that Carrie instinctively picked up the sport as she does with every athletic endeavor. We managed to take a family picture up in some of the ruins that were not roped off. Hope that was not illegal, but if the Mexican authorities start chasing me I am taking that picture off the internet. I have heard that while they may appear lax in the real world, the Mexicans have a very aggressive virtual police. Chichen Itza was littered with local merchantmen who claimed to handmake all their goods, but everyone had the same goods. Carrie and I bartered with many of them and did not buy very much, so they probably all talked bad about us in their weekly meeting. The funniest purchase award has to be given to Matthew, though we did by some drug paraphernalia for Melanie for BYU, who bought a hand knife carved from obsidian and a skull on it. After seeing all the sites there we ate at the closest restaurant after realizing it may be one of the only places with air conditioning. The food was good, and they had dancers there.

We did some relaxing when we were not busy being tourists. The beach near our house was picturesque. We all went out for dinner our last night at a hotel on the beach. It was great. Both Carrie and I had so much fun laughing and catching up with everyone, as we have missed being around everyone at BYU. I also really enjoyed being around my younger siblings. I have been away for so long I sometimes forget that they have grown up so much, and they surprise me with how funny they are. It was also great to drive past my little sisters in the late Mexican evening and witness Daniel catcalling to them in a thick accent. It was one of the funniest moments of this year. Although Carrie got sick as we left that last morning, we did end up finding our computer, so the trip ended perfectly. Many thanks to the John parents!