Trip to Mexico

September and October were the months of Ashley and Joe! After we’d booked our trip to Chile, Joe got invited by his aunt Laura Lee and Uncle Benji to come with them to Mexico to visit family friends they have there. They have been friends since Joe’s grandpa and their father met in the agriculture business years ago. They ended up trading exchange students back and forth over the years including Laura Lee, many kids who Benji and Laura Lee hosted, one who lived at Joe's house for a while, and they are who Joe stayed with for a couple of months one summer when he was 15.

He loved that summer. Anyway, we were both invited to come along and after some hesitation and figuring out if we could make another trip work, we decided to go. So we called up Christine and she was willing to come watch our kids for the week while we were gone. The kids weren’t too excited about another trip, of course, but they were excited to see Christine and we promised them no more trips for a while. :) It ended up being a wonderful trip! Relaxing, but with lots to see, great food and excellent company! I was so glad I came, if only for the chance to meet a lot of the De la Vega family who are wonderful people.
We flew out of SFO to LAX to Guadalajara. The flights went well and with the 2 hour time change we got in by about 6pm. It was much easier than Santiago. We drove straight to a restaurant that was owned by a son-in-law in the family and the food was amazing! I think it was called Fornino. It wasn’t really Mexican—more like Italian—and Joe had the best steak I’ve tasted in a long time. I had some authentic Neapolitan pizza that was delicious. Plus it was cheap! The owner’s parents came from Italy. A lot of the family came for dinner and everyone was very kind and I worked hard to pick up as much Spanish as I could. They spoke a mix of English and Spanish for Joe and I (mostly me). After dinner, they took us to Bibi’s apartment in Guadalajara where they stay when they come to visit their kids. It was super nice and with a great view and we were very comfortable there.

The view:

The apartment:

Original artwork by Bibi:

The next day, we went out exploring Guadalajara:

We toured a huge building there called the Hospicio Cabanas that used to be an orphanage and is now a cultural center. It had these amazing murals by Orozco there:

A model of the building:

We loved this marimba band:

Delicious lunch:

That evening we went to a folklorico performace--basically different folk dances and songs from different parts of Mexico. We loved it!

The next day, we took it easy in the morning and then went out to lunch at a super delicious torta place. I discovered strawberry horchata:

So good!

The sandwiches were super spicy but super delicious:

After that, we walked around a really nice mall for a couple of hours. It was fun spending time alone with Benji and Laura Lee. We had an early dinner at another restaurant owned by Marco called La Moresca. Another really delicious meal (so much good food):

Benji ordered some of this special Spanish pork that was raised on acorns:

Bibi, Loré and Maria picked us up from there to head out on our trip to the coast.

It was about a four hour drive and then we made it to Maria's in-laws' beach house in Manzanillo. We LOVED it there. It was very comfortable. It was a shared pool and outdoor eating area right by the beach but we were the only ones there. It was warm but wasn't the peak season. The waves were too strong so we couldn't swim in the ocean but I did love wading a little bit.

Joe and I went walking along the coast looking for fish and crabs:

 I was sitting on the beach reading and they brought me fresh coconut with limes:

We had a really relaxing day followed by a fun night eating dinner together at home and talking around the table for a long time. 

 Joe and Benji got up very early the next day to go deep sea fishing. They ended up being really successful! They both got sick, though, Joe after eating some fish they'd caught and cooked on the boat. Here are their pictures:

 They even caught a sailfish:

 I had a relaxing morning at the beach. We had a really delicious meal of fish tacos and ceviche. We also had the best shrimp and octopus I'd ever had--I actually loved the octopus.

We spent two nights in Manzanillo and then we drove back to Guadalajara. 

The next day we visited Tlaquepaque, a really fun area close to the city that has a bunch of shops. I loved the yellow buildings so much:

There was a shop full of art by Bustamante which I fell in love with:

We had lunch at this place and it was delicious with such a fun atmosphere:

The next day, we drove to Zamora where Maria lives. We spent some time at her beautiful home (and had some delicious tacos) and then explored downtown.

We visited the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a beautiful church there:

Maria told us the story about her mother donating money to restore the church and they were able to talk to builders into putting her name on the book under the foot of this saint she loved:

 We stayed at a hotel that night and then went to local park the next day called Camecuaro. It was a beautiful lake with cypress trees all around.

We got to go on a boat ride:

Can you spot the tree that looks like Mary:

 Oscar and Diego:

(From l to r) Maria, Oscar, Joe & I, Mariana, Beatriz and Diego

After that, we drove out to the country to see this home that had tons of little sculptures:

There were so many!

I love this one:

 We headed back to Guadalajara for the last night, went out to eat with Oscar, and then flew out early the next morning. We had a great trip! It's hard to even put into words how great it was, mostly because we felt really humbled and grateful to even have the opportunity to spend so much time with the De La Vega family and their kindness in showing us around. I was so impressed with all of the members of their family that we met. They are obviously very wealthy and yet very down-to-earth and just all busy doing good things.
It felt so good to be home, though, and see the kids again. Unfortunately, Elizabeth and Nate both came down with a stomach bug and had been sick while we were gone. Christine did a great job watching them, even with the sickness. They all had so much fun with her there. We were so glad we were about to go.