Nuns and Caves are the Perfect Combination

After our awesome Halloween party, the next day we said HELLLLLLLO to Taxco, Mexico.  The trip there was kinda sucky, but not at the same time.  You see, we spend a great deal of time on buses here, considering that is the main transportation in Mexico.  So first we had to go to Puebla which is a two hour drive, then from Puebla to Cuernavaca.  That bus ride was 3 hours.  :/  This bus ride was the most different because of the bus itself.  It was a superturismo bus, which sounds kinda fancy in Spanish if I do say so myself.  You kinda get super touristy from it right?  Well, super nice it was!  Check it.

The seats were the comfiest chair I have ever sat in!  They were like recliners.  I am always grateful for leg rests, cause my legs have a hard time reaching the floor most of the time, and it's so uncomfortable.  The extra price was worth it...but once was enough for all of us.  :)

 The ticket we bought said, "boxed lunch," included.  Well this is what our lunch consisted of.  :/  Not my ideal lunch, more of a snack if I do say to myself.  It didn't even come in a box, it came in a bag.  That was probably more disappointing that spilling my coke on my pants.  :/  Even on vacations things go wrong!

 
 
Kaylie was super excited about our small sodas....It cracked me up.  :)

After our bus ride to Cuernavaca, we got on another not as nice bus to Taxco.  We arrived at like 8ish I do believe.  So when we got there, we went straight to where we were staying.  You will never guess where we stayed.   That's right at a monastery. 

Monasterio Betania that is.  :)  It was probably the highlight of my whole trip.  It was really pretty too!                                                                                                                                                    The downside to this place was ALL the spiders there!  There was one on our bedroom wall above my bed when we arrived.  I sucker punched it with some toilet paper, and I didn't see another one there again. :)

 







There were even bigger ones outside waiting for us when we woke up.  They looked super gross.

They did feed us super good food, and I was grateful for their hard work in preparing it for us everyday!

   The main kitchen area. 

They had little orphans running around everywhere.  I was really happy that  they had good food, and a warm place to sleep at night.  I would someday like to run my own orphanage.  It will totally come true one day.  :)



 I almost forgot one important part of the whole trip though!  Before we arrived at the nuns, we had like an hour to chill in Cuernavaca, so we wandered the streets to pass time.  Well we came upon a lot of people dressing for some big occasion.  This occasion we would later find out was a parade.  The parade looked super cool, and the people dressed up in really cool costumes. 

 Stilts are just awesome.  Need to get me some. :)

 In liked these costumes  The hair on the man not so much.  :/

 Scary lady ;)

 Well about 5 minutes of walking along the parade this creepy thing dressed in a costume comes and crabs my arm.  He just kinda broke all rules for me.  First, guys don't just crab at me.  And second, guys in mask especially don't grab at me.  Well when I said no, and screamed him off, he went for one of the other teachers.  Before I know it, all the other teachers are in the streets dancing with these "things."  Their masks consisted of these long nose things, which looked kinda creepy. 

 I was really impressed that they were dancing with their backpacks, and hot chocolate.  :)

Cassie and Amanda.

They were kinda clingy, especially Miss Madi's "thing."  Not gonna lie, I kinda wanted to punch him in the face for  her.

However, I do love Amanda's face in this pic.  ;P  The funniest part was when they asked Amanda if her hot chocolate cup had whiskey in it.  Her response was, "NOOOOOO!  No whiskey for me!!"  Bahaha! :)

 That was definitely an experience they will get to tell generations to come, and I am glad I was there to capture it on film, and video. :)  Not to mention the clown story...but that is a totally different story.


 





So yeah, back on track, after one night at the monastery we went to visit some caves about an hour and half away.  It was soooooo cool!!!  I really loved going caving in Mexico.  Here are some pictures from the tour:

Yup that is a stuffed pig.  

They had a bathroom that they made inside the cave.  It was cool, but it smelled really bad.  The experience was one in a lifetime I'm sure though. 

So I planked....in a cave.  This is so 10 years ago, but this is the first planking picture I have ever taken.  It was hilarious, not only cause I was doing this, but because when I got off the rock I almost gave an elderly woman a heart attack.  She probably thought monster zombies were coming to get her.  ;P 

The caves were for sure the best part of this vacation!!

Our trip to Taxco ended when we took a taxi to the top of this huge mountain.  There we got the most epic view of the city.  My camera sucked, but this is what I got.  Also, there was the Jesus statue at the top.  It was huge!

So overall, this vacation was a success.  It didn't beat others, but a great time nonetheless!!

Halloween Fit For A Queen

I must say that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays ever to be invented.  I love the costumes, the candy, the boogie woogies, but especially the candy.  :)  It is so much fun too!  Well in Mexico I was expecting Halloween to be rockin' and I would be lying if I said that it wasn't.  It was one of the greatest Halloween's I have ever had.  Let's get started on the festivities.  First, my family set up this really awesome ofrenda.  This is a table of the dead, which looked super cool.  

It's one thing that I love about Halloween here, which by the way is called Dia de Los Muertos.  It has more symbolism than the regular Halloween in America. 

After prepping, the 31st finally came around.  :D  I was soooo excited!  That morning I had the opportunity to teach at Discovery.  We played pin the parts on Frankenstein, and the bonnet was the best blindfold I could come up with.  :p

Not really sure who this little rascal is.

 I love these kids!! 

After Discovery we decided as teachers to dress up as Angry Birds since our children LOVE them so much...and maybe cause I have a slight addiction to the game.  ;P  So we started our makeup, and about an hour later this is what we looked like...

 Thanks to Cassie's host sister we got awesome face chalk that worked wonders for our costumes.  Feathers, 79 peso shirts, and black pants completed our bird look.  We really can't forget the combs that made our hairs look like birds nest!

I just love this picture.  It cracks me up every time, like a birds egg cracking on the floor.  I must point out that in this picture I got the highest jump...not bad for being a small egg in a half dozen carton + one.  :)

After our makeovers we got ready to have one heck of a party.  We all had little stations, mine being the food.  ;)  I was only supposed to do face paintings, but since the children brought food like any child would want to do, I was the concession/face painter for the night.  I was excited!

The children were too!!













The other teachers had a mummy wrap, pin the face on the pumpkin, ghost suckers, the donut challenge, and danced the Thriller.  Here are some pictures from the night.

I loved watching this game.  Great job Cassie!! :)

                              Sibling rivalry at it's best.  :)

                                 Our children have amazing abilities in dance!

I love little Hector!  He was a great Mummy!

We figured out that tying donuts on a string took too much time, so what did we do?  We saran wrapped a table and made them eat them with no hands.  It was a great idea!

                                   Our 4-6 class.

                                         Our 6-8 class.

After 8 o'clock was clean-up time.  We left the place a slight mess.  :)

Our main room.  

My room. 

 This is where I did the face paintings.  It kinda got full of garbage in the process.  :P

The remnants of our food.  I never thought I wanted to see another chip in my life, but I think I could use some right now.









Well after that priceless party, I walked home to eat bread and atole with my host sister.  We were having a great time, when the doorbell rang.  It was our next door neighbor.  We live next door to a beauty shop, and this guy works there.  From what I got from my dad was that he was a nice, transvestite that likes to dress up in heels and long wigs.  Whatever makes a man happy I suppose.  He did have the best costume of the night!

After this day of awesomeness I had to go upstairs to pack for our vacation the next day.  This will be one Halloween that will always be on the top of my list!!  I absolutely love MEXICO.