T minus ten days to go. The first blog posts had a countdown to going away, the next ten will be a countdown to coming home. We have one more full day I’m the Yucatan, and then we head out to take a couple flights back to our home in Mexico.

We slept in again and Bonnie made an amazing breakfast for me and her.

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After breakfast some of the kids swam, while some fought over electronics. Bonnie took child 1 and 4 out to the beach to make a sand castle. Child 1 was over it after trying to put the first castle together. Child 4 watched his mom create the masterpiece below.

We kept seeing lights out in the ocean far in the distance and thought maybe it’s Cuba. It isn’t that far, but we finally got a very clear shot. It looks like a few large ships and a shipping crane. It’s odd because of where we are at, those all must be floating and not on some peninsula.

Child 4 didn’t really eat lunch, and I negotiated a price for dessert for dinner. He had to do ten torpedoes in the water with his mom. He still isn’t in a place where he likes the water exactly. Below is a video of his reaction after he finished his tenth torpedo. Keep in mind, he was never even close to being in danger, his mom was with him the entire time.

As a running theme, I took photos of the sunset. ***

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Today we were going to go on a tour around the Yucatan. But it got cancelled due to the pandemic. I’m pretty sure the tour guides were planning on bribing some officials. One of the sites they were planning to go to is definitely a national archeological site that is closed. I’m not going to say the name of the site or the tourist agency, but it’s a big one down here. 😀

The kids were on screens most of the day. But child 2 wanted to go for a swim with his mom. I’m really proud about how much he wants to go into the water. I have never liked swimming or the water in general. Bonnie loves the water and commonly complains out loud frequently about how it’s sad that I don’t like swimming.

We had a thunderstorm roll in fast on us. Afterwards the clouds formed in such a way as to partly block out the sun but reflect on clouds above it. I took as many photos as I could. The sun set fast. Our kids were on screens but as soon as Bonnie said “who wants to see the sunset?” All four of their screens down and ran outside to look. It was nice to see they were excited to watch the sunset.

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I woke up before dawn and took some photos of the sunrise sort of. As I walked on the beach I noticed some people already swimming in the ocean. A couple pelicans were fishing and then flew onto a near by post, a remnant of what must have been a small dock.

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I got curious about the abandoned house next door so I walked into its backyard to take some photos as well.

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We made the kids have a no screen day today and we all just hung out by the pool. Child three has been doing great in the water. Child four has been very angry about his swimming lessons. But he is doing very well too. The sunset was really pretty so we got photos of that. Unfortunately our tour around the Yucatan was cancelled. The places we planned on being taken to we’re having police checkpoints and they weren’t allowing foreigners to enter into these places. Oh well. We fly back Sunday, and then pack up for our final move home.

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We slept in this morning. The kids woke us up clinging and clanging their cereal bowls and spoons. After breakfast we literally did nothing. I actually fell back asleep for no reason at all. Bonnie spent most of the day jumping in the pool and then drying off to cool down. It’s very warm and humid here.

At night if we go to the beach and look right, there are what looks like lights in the very far distance. I’m pretty sure that’s Cuba. If we looked straight out, if we saw far enough (but we can’t because of the curve of the earth, sorry Flat Earthers) we would be looking directly at Louisiana.

I drove in to Progresso to buy tomatoes, avocados, and cilantro. I came back with way more than those three items. We are looking into taking a private tour around the Yucatan.

When I got back from shopping, Bonnie already had the meat on the grill, she has become a real bbq enthusiast. The real reason she wants to bbq is because using the oven makes the house heat up.

Bonnie has me watching The 100. It’s an alright show. We are on season 2, I can’t take this show seriously but I love my wife. The writing is just,… bad.

While I was talking with Our youngest during lunch, he grabbed my face and turned it around to see the lizard that came into our house yesterday. He didn’t want to scare it and wanted me to get it out of the house because Bonnie was freaking out all day. It didn’t help that I told her the lizard would most likely crawl on her face at night and lick the salt from her eyes.

You can see the lizard on the screen door. My youngest pointed it out immediately because he has the eyes of an eagle.

When he made it outside, I held my sons hand and we sang the song “Born Free”. I noticed a silent tear drop from one of his eyes. It was a beautiful moment, if it had actually happened. *

I forgot to mention in the last post that as I was driving on an errand, I saw an iguana crawling on a tree. That evening I saw a moth the size of my fist with a one and a half foot wing span.

This morning a lizard ran into the house we are renting and now we can’t find it.

We bbq’d a chicken and guess what we made? Tacos. Lots and lots of tacos. Then I drove the car into Mérida to run an errand. Before driving back, I went to a restaurant named Chaya Maya. It’s a well know Yucatan cuisine restaurant. I didn’t know what to get, so I looked at the menu of entrees and said “todo por favor”.

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I drove back home with the food after that.

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When I got home Bonnie was making a casserole and the kids were watching a screen.

We ate the food from Chaya Maya and it was different. 😃 Very hearty, and grainy tortillas, the meat had a very rich flavor as if it was cooked in a cast iron grill. Probably won’t be craving this food ever.

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On my way back to our house in Chelem, I saw a food stand on the highway. They were selling coconut custard meringue pies and I bought a whole one. It tasted great and the best part is the rest of the family hates meringue. So it’s a win win for me.

After dinner, some of the kids played in the ocean with their mom, while I stayed by the pool with the other kids. It was a beautiful sunset on the Gulf of Mexico this evening. *

Today we did the same as the day before. Hung out by the pool, ate fish tacos and just enjoyed ourselves. I drove into town to buy corn tortillas for the tacos, they were freshly made at a torteleria.

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Out of nowhere a thunder storm rolled in. It was pouring and thundering for twenty minutes and then it stopped.

The past few days have been slightly stressful. We bought separate tickets here and separate tickets back to the city we are living in. The tickets to fly back to the city in Mexico were cancelled because the airlines we bought them from I guess didn’t have enough customers. So we bought super expensive tickets so we can get home. Driving back was never an option because the roads between here and there are strictly controlled by the cartel(s).

I was worried our flight back to the states In mid July was going to get cancelled. And low and behold this morning at 530am our time we were emailed saying our flight was cancelled. The airline is Volaris, I think they decided to cancel it a few weeks ago but just sent the email out now. It would have been so much cheaper if they emailed me a week ago to get flights back to the states, but we are fortunate that we have just enough resources to make it back with another airline. 🙂

We got a massage today from a “massage therapist”. Easily the worst massage I’ve ever gotten, but that’s fine really. She needed money and she didn’t really charge all that much. She used a lot of massage oil. I feel like I was dipped in a vat of oil by my heels. While Bonnie got her massage I called Volaris and asked for a refund. They gave me a refund but didn’t refund $660 pesos equivalent to $30. I asked why and I could hear an audible sigh.

I have never chewed a person out over the phone in a long time, but today I was tempted. The customer service person on the other end of the phone told me the airline charged me a fee for changing a name on the itinerary. I disputed this. I never get my own children’s names wrong. Or any of my wives. 😉 Another sigh from her and I asked to speak with her supervisor and got her name. The supervisor got on the line and I disputed the fee. He said it was in the computer and couldn’t be changed. So I got a “full refund” and will never use Volaris ever again. I hope they don’t go bankrupt for the sake of their workers.

The kids stayed in the pool all day long. We ate lunch and dinner and then decided to go to the beach during twilight. We asked the kids to pose for the next photos of course. It wasn’t an impromptu photo. One of the best photos I’ve taken of them.

Its hard being a parent. The days are very long, the nights very short. Every moment I feel like I’m screwing them up, and it’s in these times where we heavily bribe them with brownies and other sweets to stand hand in hand for one photograph that I realize, they can just pay for therapy later on in life. *

Today we did the same as yesterday. We were a little more relaxed on our rules about screen time. We ordered out from the restaurant we ordered from on the first night we were here. It was a nice lazy day.

I made brownies for desert and while we had desert, we watched the movie “Multiplicity” me and Bonnie’s all time favorite movie. The Saharan sand storm is subsiding and we got to watch a great sunset.

Below is a video tour of the house we will be at until next Saturday. *

We hung out by the pool all day. The Saharan dust cloud made the entire area look overcast. It isn’t clouds above, it’s one of the largest dust clouds ever recorded from the Saharan desert

Some of the kids got sunburnt today. Despite me or Bonnie chasing them around to put sunscreen on and reminding them to put sunscreen on. It was inevitable. In some ways, a sunburn is Gods way of telling children to listen to their parents.

I bbq’d a whole chicken for lunch. We made tacos out of them.

Bonnie never really bbq’d so she bbq’d ararachera meat. I’m not sure I’m spelling that right. Any guesses what we made with that meat? Yes tacos again. If the weather wasn’t so hot and humid, this would be a perfect vacation. But it’s still in our top ten. Below is a photo of the “overcast” dust storm. *

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The kids let us sleep in this morning. They love vacations, not because of where we are but what we let them do. On vacation, we let them have whatever cereal they want. So they chose their own cereal at the grocery store before we came here. Their choices were all wrong, but far be it from me to correct them in how to choose a sugary cereal.

They all immediately jumped in the pool after breakfast and stayed there all day. Bonnie made bacon and eggs for breakfast. We used the remaining bacon for BLT sandwiches for lunch. Occasionally we would walk on the beach. It was a very low key day. I even swam a small amount.

Our kids don’t know how to keep the sliding black door shut and we were visited by, oh… every single f$@#ing fly in the entire Yucatan peninsula. Bonnie was on a mission and killed every one of those flies with a fly swater. When she was done, she turned to look at me and it was as if she had a blood lust wash over her face and her eyes were so filled with rage, I couldn’t look directly in her eyes. It was like the time I made fun of Gone With The Wind (her favorite movie).

Something happened today after lunch that was just so amazing that I cannot not mention it here. Our third child was wrestling our second child and it was obvious after a while that they weren’t really wrestling as it was our third child trying to push the second child into the pool. Both of them know how to tread water child 2 swims far better, but child 3 can hold his own.

Well, child 3 was successful in throwing his older brother into the pool. This all happened in a matter of 5 seconds. Child 2 made his way out of the pool and Bonnie shoved child 3 into the pool. He was freaking out, legit terrified. Bonnie then calmly took her shoes off, and dove into the pool. Brought child 3 out, and told him to never, ever push anyone into a pool ever again. Child 3 was never in any danger, and I will never forget that. It’s a good lesson. And I’m glad he learned it now.

I made pan fried tilapia with roasted garlic and salt and pepper with some chili’s for fish tacos. Dinner was amazing, almost 50% of the kids loved it. 100% of them loved my brownies. After dinner we swam in the pool for a couple hours and then went to bed. *

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