You know that song that says, your love is my drug? Mexico is my drug. The second we cross the border I feel like the weight of the world is off me. The second I step outside and feel the hot humidity and look at the beautiful ocean I feel the happiest I ever do. Words cannot express how much I love it, especially with my family there.
People often ask me what we do for a week on the beach. I usually reply, nothing. Actually the answer is, nothing and everything! I decided to recap a typical day so that I never forget the nothing and everything that we do.
My 3 rules about the trip
1. Never leave the compound, what a waste to leave the water!
2. Never go on the side of the house not facing the water, 15 degrees hotter there.
3. Only go inside when absolutely necessary.
The meeting point in AZ…loaded up cars with no room to spare.
That blessed moment of crossing the border.
Arriving on Sunday and trying really hard to not “get in” the water.
Home for the next week!
Our days begin anywhere from 6:30 a.m. (the young, young kids) to 9 or 10 a.m. (Jen and Nikelle). I fit in around the 7:00 time frame. Wake up and immediately go outside. 3 of the mornings I went for 3 mile runs on the beach. The other mornings were spent searching the coral and tide pools for sea life. We find very interesting things: lots of crabs, sea slugs, sea urchins, sea horse, millions of shells of course, octopus, sea snails, sponge and so many more things that I have no idea what they are.
The tide change here is the second largest in the world. It changes 25 vertical feet. So twice a day the tide goes out about a mile or two (this dramatic during the full moon, which is when we like to go).
After an hour or so of perusing the coral we would go in to eat breakfast, and I of course ate it outside. Back out to the ocean we would go and spend the next 3-4 hours either in the water, playing baseball, building sand castles, flying kites, snorkeling, talking while sitting in the tide pool, or really any number of things.
Usually around 1:00 we would go inside and eat lunch, outside. The babies would take a nap and some of the older kids and adults as well. The next few hours were spent reading in the shade or inside, playing in the huge waves, talking, playing games. The crazy people, like the Dad’s, would leave and go to town.
Around 3 or 4 everyone would head back out to the water. We would spend the next several hours kayaking, floating in tubes, body surfing, building more sand castles, more time talking in the water, collecting crabs and seashells and sand dollars.
We would stay out until sunset and then drag ourselves in for dinner, showers and putting kids to bed. Some nights we had the energy to sit outside as adults and talk, but mostly we had the energy for going to bed at 9:30.
I can’t find a picture of low tide from the house, someone will have one. This is from the bottom steps.
And here is high tide from the house. That railing is the same one in the top picture. It is amazing the difference.
We had 2 1/2 days without water in the pipes. Water levels in the city are low and you have to conserve it very carefully. Our house didn’t start with a full cistern so we ran out and then since we were in a third world country it takes some time to get it back. It really didn’t bother me, we had the ocean. We would haul buckets of ocean water up to the house to flush the toilets. It really bothered some of the other people, it was a pain to wash hands but it could have been a lot worse…..like no electricity.
The only bad part of the trip is……..
leaving.
*my camera must have gotten sea water on the lens, the first pictures are so clear and the last…not so much.
