When we were planning the joint holiday with Kate’s parents a huge Hurricane had just swept through Yucatan. Nevertheless we thought the Caribean coast would be the ideal holiday area and thanks to Kate’s mother’s persistent efforts to find out which hotels had been badly hit and which were the ones operating again we managed to plan for a 10 holiday including historical sightseeing and beach fun!
Anna’s account:
We were at a hotel with grandma and grandpa. There was a very nice lady who had 12 parrots. I managed to take one in my hand and stroke his hand. His name was ‘Precious’. There was a lot of good food and we played a lot of cards ("New market"). One night we went on Moto Guzzies (Ed: Anna’s language for little three wheelers) in the dark to a restaurant. It was very exciting.
We were at a hotel with grandma and grandpa. There was a very nice lady who had 12 parrots. I managed to take one in my hand and stroke his hand. His name was ‘Precious’. There was a lot of good food and we played a lot of cards ("New market"). One night we went on Moto Guzzies (Ed: Anna’s language for little three wheelers) in the dark to a restaurant. It was very exciting.
On December 4th we arrived in Merida a big old town in the Yucatan and Kate went to pick up Linda and Francis from the airport that evening. We stayed in an old Hacienda where we could park the campervan while the grand parents had a nice room (that was obviously used more by the children than the grand parents, in particular the shower!!). We visited (and shopped) the old part of the town and spent most of the time at the pool while Linda and Francis got acclimatized to Mexico (we obviously took them immediately on a very bumpy bus ride to save on taxi cost).
Unfortunately, we had parked the camper in a swamp and had some of the worst mosquito nights of the entire trip (so far). This did not make us feel more comfortable about our decision to delay taking the Malaria pills to after our stay in the highlands of Guatemala.
Unfortunately, we had parked the camper in a swamp and had some of the worst mosquito nights of the entire trip (so far). This did not make us feel more comfortable about our decision to delay taking the Malaria pills to after our stay in the highlands of Guatemala.
I had pushed off going to the hairdresser since Vancouver - which meant for more than three months. I know you had started making nasty comments about my hairdoo. Since I knew I would have to go to a central American hairdresser at some point I took the opportunity to enter the shop when Kate, mother and children went to the next door hammock shop. And I was right I made it back out before they had finished just in time to help them negotiate, and I managed to communicate to the hairdresser (who seemed somehow nervous?!) how to cut my hair!
After a couple of days we drove on. Kate had heard something of a fiesta in Izamal. We went there but the fiesta had not happened yet. The trip in the horse carriage reconciled everybody. Our horse loving family got some odd looks when grandma fed apples and carrots to the horses and Kate offered a tip to be used for buying food for the horse!
