First campsite in Mexico, where we realized we don’t have to move on every day – we stayed until we ran out of food and water!
Beachside restaurant
Getting into the homeschooling routine
Cooking breakfast in my underwear
Full moon rising at our Bay of LA whale shark camp – Lilly and Tai playing in the low tide
Sun rise 12 hours later – a different orange ball cresting the same horizon.
Lilly snoozes in her tiny bed in the morning until it’s too hot
Here I’m sitting in the van preparing lunch while John and Lilly swim just a few feet away – we stopped just for lunch but ended up staying the night!
We drove an hour down a dirt road to get to an even more remote beach
It was worth it – best campsite so far! We stayed until we ran out of food and water again.
We pumped up our inflatable kayak and went exploring
This is the bay where Lilly had her snorkeling breakthrough
Chapter 5: In Search of Turtles
We walked down to the hatchery and one of the biologists lifted a box off a nest that they expected might be ready to hatch. He gently pushed some sand away, and… little heads started poking out!
He handed one turtle to Lilly, then kept digging to pull more and more turtles out.
They pulled 108 turtles out of this hole! There had been 114 eggs in there. They said they’d return in one hour to check for more babies coming out. They only remove turtles above a certain depth because the turtles aren’t ready to come out if they haven’t climbed up far enough yet.
Close-up on my hand
Lilly was so intrigued. She stayed right next to the biologist at all times and kept asking her questions
Turtles are carried in a big plastic tub down to the water, and we point them in the right direction
How do they know to head for the ocean? I don’t know
The Asupmatoma people are smart, dedicated, and patient. They work literally night and day to help improve these turtles’ chance of survival.
La Paz
Cecilia’s after-work activity
Ferry from Baja to the mainland. Here’s Vancito about to get sandwiched between huge semi truck trailers. It was like a giant game of Tetris – the men working on the boat directed each truck to maximize every nook & cranny of space on the ferry.
Luckily, our friends had gotten a spot on the edge of the boat with fresh air, so we hung out with them until bedtime.
Chapter 6: Midnight Evacuation from the Top of a Volcano
Typical house in Patzcuaro
Lilly loves having pets for a few days. The donkey comes within arm’s-length of our fold-up table when we’re sitting outside doing school every morning, making it even harder than usual for Lilly to concentrate on her math problems!
One of dozens of food stands (comedor) in town, a 15 minute walk from our campsite
Market – note creative use of egg cartons to hold up the bags!
Friendly food-stand owner
Driving up to the volcano where we had to evacuate in the middle of the night
Chapter 7: Dancing with Skeletons (Dia de Muertos)
One of many spontaneous parades
Decor at the library!
Altars usually include photos of the deceased and samples of their favorite food and drink, as well as an intricate design like this one, entirely created by hand from rice, corn, beans, and seeds.
Close-up view of an altar. Made from rice, corn, beans, many types of flowers – so detailed!
The only other patron in the night club we stopped at
Exhausted little party girl making her way home
Chapter 8: Trapped by an Angry Mob then Welcomed by Strangers
Vancito tucked into the family’s kitchen and dining area
The amazing Edu and family
Chapter 9: Mayan Villages of Chiapas
I feel rude to take photos of someone’s daily life, so here’s just a couple quick, through-the-window shots! Typical house on the side of the road as we drove north-east from San Cristobal de las Casas to Palenque
Enterprising locals selling gas in front of their home
Agua Azul – Mary’s favorite waterfall at sunset – see me standing on that sand bar?
Misol-Ha – where we walked behind the falls at night and found a bat cave
Colorful San Cristobal de las Casas where John almost got Vancito stuck between a wall and a parked car
I don’t recall exactly where in Mexico we took this photo, but it’s a great example of the lack of warning signs and state of the roads in some of the remote areas we drove! Imagine coming around a bend and seeing that most of the road has fallen off!
Chapter 10: Howling Tree Monsters amidst Ancient Mayan Ruins
Labyrinth at Tonina
Tonina viewpoint
Calakmul – see tiny Mary standing at the top?
I loved the trees that have grown right out of the stone
Palenque
My little jungle monkey
Chapter 11: Swimming in Meteor Holes, and Final Days in Mexico
The story goes something like this: 65 million years ago, a meteor crashed into Earth in this area of the Yucatan. It killed all the dinosaurs, but also created thousands of deep underground sinkholes along the circumference of the crater impact zone in an arc across the Yucatan Peninsula. Over time, these sinkholes filled with fresh water from deep within the earth, creating some of the most unique swimming areas I’ve seen. These are cenotes.
The most interesting cenotes are those still mostly underground but with enough erosion over the years to have created a skylight opening to let the sun in – this one has a huge “skylight”
There was often a fairly dodgy ladder or staircase to get down into them!
Our favorite one – Kankirixche – from above it’s just a hole in the ground with a ladder poking out
But inside is beautifully clear water
The sun cast an incredible shaft of light through the narrow opening up top.
It’s incredible to swim from the cool, dark water into the warm, bright patch of sun and out the other side.
Some cenotes require spelunking through underground tunnels before you reach the pool at the end
