Roca Partida Part 2 (Paparazzi)

The adventures of Roca Partida continue! As I remember we are still at THE ISLAND OF THE BIRDS!!! DUN DUN DUN! So we decided to get out the boat for a while and swim around. We needed to keep our sandles on because sharp rocks were all around us. We spent some time with our goggles swimming around and looking at the rocks, fish, and sea urchins. We are calmly swimming when this boat comes wildly splashing towards us. Imagine with me… A small boat like ours meant for about 6-8 people but this boat has like 15 people piled in and they are all screaming and wild! They all quickly realize that we are gringos and they all pull out their cameras, start taking pictures and saying, “hello” and, “how are you?'” in English. I think I know now what it feels like to be a celebrity and stalked by the paparazzi. At first, I kinda liked it… I felt special. But then, it got really annoying and I was happy when they drove off. Sadly, this is not the end of my paparazzi tail. More to come later in this blog. We jumped back in the boat after I had explored the island a bit and then drove away. Say goodbye to THE ISLAND OF THE BIRDS!!!



And now for some more scenery on the way to our next stopping point,



a lighthouse to keep us safe, and…



a private beach for our swimming and hiking leisure!



Well, I must admit that the beach wasn’t “private” until about 15 minutes after our arrival. Do you remember our paparazzi? Well, it seems that they had gotten to our private little beach before we did. Upon getting out of the boat we quickly made our way to the mountains to climb a trail and avoid the commotion. Of course the moment I get to the top of the ridge and turn to see an incredible view, I realize that I left my camera in the boat. That’s when I commenced as stealthily as possible back into enemy territory. I knew what I was getting myself into by going back to the boat, but the camera was worth it. I had nearly made it to the boat untouched and undisturbed (except for the fact that they were all staring at me like they’d never seen a gringo before), when a couple of teenage girls look at me with puppy-dog eyes and ask if they can take a picture with me. Well, you guessed it! I couldn’t say no to that display and so I obliged. That was my first mistake. The girls both through their arms around me in a very friendly manner and the very flamboyant (gay) guy started to take pictures of us. At this moment it was as if everyone else was invited and they formed this line to get pictures with the GRINGO!

I barely made it out alive and climbed back up the trail to get some pictures of my own.



Camm makes fun of me every time he sees this picture because of the way that my legs are positioned. We get a good laugh together. Take careful note that their are no people on the beach below.



That’s what I’m talking about… mad skills! Now you know why everyone wants to take my picture while I’m down here.



Remember how there are no people on the beach down below? The reason that there are no people on the beach below is because they had all followed us up the trail! At this point I was trying to avoid any more contact with my paparazzi friends but then I had one of those light bulb epiphany moments pop into my head. I said to myself, “Shawn, you’ve got to blog about all these funny people wanting to take your picture!” I thought that was a pretty great idea. But then the thought occurred to me that no one would ever believe my story unless I got a picture of them to prove it. I mean think about it, you haven’t seen any evidence that anything I’ve told you about the Mexican paparazzi is real! Ok folks, only for you and the sake of this blog I went back down and suffered some more pictures with our Mexican fan club. Here you go…

 

If you click the above picture and make it just a little bigger you will notice how awkwardly close those girls are next to me and I just noticed the flamboyant one one over from my right side (yeah, you can see him) is holding out his phone getting ready to take more pictures. AWKWARD!!!! For this picture alone I was then forced to take like three more afterwards. Such a difficult life being a gringo here in Mexico…

The fan club left and we enjoyed a nice little swim before I almost got my feet cut up on some corral. But that is a story that Mom’s who read their sons blogs don’t like to hear about. The key word is ALMOST got my feet cut up. It was a pleasant swim. We returned to the boat and then we were off, leaving our private little beach never to return. I miss that little beach…



Well, good thing for you is that the adventures of Roca Partida are not over! The sad part is that I’m done writing for the evening. Once again you will need to save time to read more about my adventures on another day!

TO BE CONTINUED…

Roca Partida

So what a day! Last Saturday was one of those days that you could rarely find in your dreams. I took a step from my real every day life and I feel like I stepped into paradise. I guess I will just have to tell you about it. I’ve decided to tell you the story through pictures. I remember before I came here my wonderful sister-in-law, Katie, told me the secret to a good blog… Quick entries are sometimes the best and lots of pictures. Today won’t be a quick entry but I’m going for lots of pictures.



This story starts two days ago. I was all by my lonesome in the classroom where we teach English. Janet (The woman in the picture above) walks in and says, “Alex would like to invite you and Camm to come with us on Saturday to Roca Partida!” Alex is Janet’s husband and the man on the left in the picture above. I had no clue where or what she was talking about but I understood we were being invited to go somewhere special by the way that she invited me. You know when someone gets that look of excitement in their eye? Yeah, Janet had it. I’ve also gotten to know her really well while I’ve been here (She’s my other boss) and I could just sense the anticipation. That’s the beginning of the story. Now to tell you about Roca Partida!



The drive out to Roca Partida was gorgeous! Green green green! Rolling hills just like the ones behind me in the picture above but even better! We drove for about two hours before arriving at the beach of ROCA PARTIDA.



As you can see on the map above it’s pretty much amazing. Alright, you might not believe me based on one big map but I’ll tell you what goes down at Roca Partida right now. I’ll refer to this map often, so pull it up in a second window or something.

We start our journey off at that beach on the upper left corner of the map. There are these massive birds flying around and I’m just like mesmerized by them as we helped the sailor guys get the boat out from the beach and into the water. Alex leans over and says, “Just wait until we get to the island. You’ll see tons more birds.” Then I took this picture out of excitement.



So we get in this boat and start riding out into the Gulf of Mexico. Look how excited everyone is!





One guy was in the back of the boat steering with the motor and another guy was in the front of the boat watching for danger. I’m positive that the guy from the back of the boat was the servant guy from the movie The Count of Monte Cristo.




So here we are just cruising along in this little motor boat and we enter into the world of pirates! My dream came true! I’ve always wanted to be a pirate and go searching for exotic treasures in caves and stuff. I even let out a growl and an Argh while in the cave.




So you can keep following our trail on the map if you so choose. We take a straight line course from the pirate cave to THE ISLAND OF THE BIRDS!!!! DUN DUN DUN! But before we get to the island you need to enjoy the scenery along the way.



And now for the ISLAND OF THE BIRDS! DUN DUN DUN! I honestly felt like we were entering into an ancient dinosaur world. We were approaching the teradactyle nesting grounds! I had to keep my guard up because at any moment I could have been carried away and ripped to pieces for teradactyle kiddie snacks. Ok, maybe I’m getting a little carried away but it was pretty awesome.

 

Can’t you see the terror on my face?



What will happen next in the adventure of Shawn at Roca Partida? Will he be eaten by Sharks? Will he drown in the depths of the sea? Or will he be attacked by wild savages and heroically survive? Well, you’ll just have to wait for the next entry to find out because I’m tired and this entry is getting long.

TO BE CONTINUED…

At The Beach

When I’m home, the mountains are my refuge. I go there to ponder, to study, and to find inner peace. While in Veracruz, I have come to love the ocean. For now, the beach has taken the place of my mountains back home.

The other day, I was in the mood to do some thinking. I grabbed my Book of Mormon, my pen, and my journal and walked to the beach. I walked out onto a wave break and found a place to set my bottom for a while. I was amazed at the power and the beauty of nature. The ocean waves were powerful yet gentle. The wind was strong yet soothing. The sun was slowly setting but bright enough to allow for a read. Everything was just the way that it should be. What a gift we have been given by our Heavenly Father!



I have also come to love the beach for the playful opportunities that it provides. There is nothing like the feeling of a  rushing wave power over you and  envelope your body, or digging for sand dollars and sea shells, or making a sand castle just to watch the waves get past your protective wall and take it out to sea, or burying a friend in the sand for a while. I’ve had some fun times the past couple of weeks and look forward to making more memories.

Bearded vs. Beardless

Ok folks! Momentous occasion tonight. The facial hair came off! Tomorrow I’m going to go on exchanges with the missionaries and I figured I should look more of the part eh? But now for you to decide.

Do you liked bearded?



Or Do you like clean shaven?



Let me know what you think…

Toilet Paper Wars

I hope you all enjoy the movie. We were waiting around one day in the “country” jungle and decided to make a movie with snap shots. You’d think that we had nothing to do while we were here in Mexico but we’re actually quite busy. Isn’'t life great!? Simple pleasures….

Well this next story has nothing really to do with the video that we made but I find it funny. In order for this story to make sense I need to do some background explanation. Our apartment is rather small, including our bathroom. The bathroom fills with steam in the mornings when we shower and due to the humidity it tends to stay rather damp throughout the day. Anyways, our toilet paper roll was starting to feel the effects of the moisture and was more like a roll of wet wipes than toilet paper. There is the background… now for the story.

One day I used the last of the toilet paper role and Camm comically freaked out claiming that I had used half the roll. He said that when he was in there last the roll was still rather large. I had to defend myself and so I very clearly explained that the toilet paper roll had just looked big to him because it was so damp, but in actuality there wasn’t much left at all. 

Well, the fact of the matter was that we were out of toilet paper on a day that toilet paper was much needed. So we went to the store. We walked the block and a half to the little corner store and walked to the back of the store where to our surprise there was quite a selection of toilet paper. Camm wanted the pack of four cheaper toilet paper rolls. I wanted the one large roll of better quality paper. He was still kind of holding a grudge about me using the toilet paper so he wasn’t going to budge on his stance. So, needless to say, we each bought our own toilet paper in hopes that ours would not only be cheaper, but be of better quality, and last longer.  So we both brought our toilet paper to the register and got a funny look from the register girl. Good times…

Then this old lady comes in and gives the girl at the register a funny smile and a, “Eh Eh?” I think she thought we were cute. At least that’s the story I’m sticking with.

In the end I think I came out victorious. We read the labels on the walk back home and I had almost just as many squares as he did in his four rolls in my one roll. AND, his rolls are paper thin. He will deny all of this of course but deep down he knows that it’s true.

Just tonight, Hiram brings in some new toilet paper and says, “Ok guys, no more cheap toilet paper.” Maybe we both lost in the end?

Tacos and the Runs!

One night we are driving around town and Camm says, “Man, I could really go for some tacos right now.” Hiram took Camm seriously and takes us to this little taco shop. He took us here because he knows that one of the sisters in the ward owns the shop. The man in the picture with Camm and I is Daniel. He is also a member and happens to be in our ward with his wife and two kids. He is super nice and makes some pretty mean tacos. 50 cents for the best tacos I’ve ever had! Needless to say, I think this has become one of our most favorite places and we’ve already been back since the first taco trip. This might become a regular occurrence for us after a long day. I mean just look at that meat!

And because of all those tacos, Camm and I have taken up running. Our first running trip was a couple nights ago. It was great! The wind was pretty strong and helped to keep us cool. We ran down to the beach and ran by the ocean for a while. What a perfect place to run! I think I’ve fallen in love. Can’t you see it on my face? The following picture was taken right after the run and for some reason it got a lot hotter once we finished the run. I was dying! A cool shower made everything better.

Pigs From the Hood

This is our friend Manuel. He is starting up this little restaurant just outside of Veracruz. Hiram is helping him get started so we occasionally go out to visit him. The restaurant is in the “country” as Hiram likes to say. I guess when Hiram says “country” what really goes through my mind is "jungle”! It’s gorgeous!

When I read the Book of Mormon and think of Nephite-Lamanite battles, this is forever going to be the place that comes to mind. There are open fields but also spaces of complete overgrowth. And it’s incredibly GREEN! And….

He’s got PIGS! See all those little oinkers back there? They are the Gansta pigs. Then there is one lonely little guy all by himself separated from the Gangsta pigs by a small wall (which you can’t see in the picture above). As I understood the explanation, the separation is because the loner pig came from a different part of the hood than the Gangsta pigs. There isn’t any hood crossing round these parts of the jungle and so the Gangsta pigs used to pick on the loner pig and push him around. Manuel was gonna have none of that so he gave the loner pig his own pigsty suite.

Maybe I should re-write the 3 Little Pigs story for the hundredth time… Gangsta pig style…   What do you think eh?

Veracruz Temple

This is the Veracruz temple! We get to hang out around the temple quite a bit because our ward building is on the temple grounds to the right of this picture and our classroom is right across the street. The temple is located in a very convenient location on a very busy street right next to the world trade center. It's also a nice area of town. Our apartment is only about 4 kilometers from here.

We haven't been able to go the temple yet because it is currently closed for a couple of weeks. (I think for construction purposes. As you can see there is a wheel barrow on the bottom left side of the picture.) It will open up again next Tuesday and Camm and I are excited to go. What a beautiful place eh?

What a Bear!

I didn’t have a picture to go along with my stories tonight but I figured this was the most bear-like picture that I could post. This was taken in a tiny little hotel the first couple of days that I was here in Veracruz. Now for the fun stories…

So we went to Luz’s house for lunch. She prepared for us a very delicious soup with some incredible bread from the bakery just down the street. I was enjoying myself and eating hearty when Luz came over and asked me a question. Well, my Spanish is still rather rusty and I’m adjusting to the way that the natives speak. (I’ve found that older woman are the hardest to understand. Just like in Russia.) I was positive that she was asking me if I wanted some cheese. I really didn’t need any cheese and I was feeling pretty good about what I had in front of me so I declared, “No”. MISTAKE! She looked at me with glaring eyes and said, “Que OSO!” or “What a bear!”

Everyone started laughing and I was just confused! The real story is that she had asked me, “Is the food good?” I had told her, “No”

We all got a good laugh out of that one for quite some time but at that very same dinner table just a few minutes later another comical thing happened. Luz offered both Camm and I some suckers. I was not feeling the sweets at that moment so I put mine aside. Camm opens his sucker right away and starts chomping on it. A few short moments later Camm gets this really funny look on his face and looks around apprehensively. He was checking to see if Luz was in the room. When he found the coast to be clear he looks at me in all seriousness and almost with haste says, “Dude, Don’t eat that sucker!”

The look on his face and the ways he said those words was hilarious! Again we looked around and finding Luz preoccupied in the other room we snuck my sucker back in the cupboard where it came from. I can just imagine the other suckers being so happy for my sucker’s safe return.

In writing I can’t relay the expression on Camm’s face but every time I think about that experience I start laughing out loud. A cherished moment in the first few days of my Mexican experience.

Josephina

I saw this picture for the first time in Luz’s house and I fell in love. I don’t know what it is about this picture that absolutely moves me inside; maybe it is the coloring, maybe it is the facial expression of Josephina, or maybe it is the idea of ancestral legacy, or Could it be something deeper…? Could it be the home that this little girl has watched over for so many years? Could it be the love of the people and the depth of soul surrounding this picture day in and day out? Could it be the signs of charity that no one sees except for Josephina?

One such experience was seen just this afternoon. But first, let me give you a quick background of what I have gathered about Luz (the owner of this painting). Luz is an older woman that physically is rather similar to the middle woman in the picture above. Her husband died when her two boys were still rather young. One of her sons was hit by a car in his early twenties and survived a two month coma. He now requires constant care for basic everyday needs. She still works during the day and takes care of her son at night. A truly amazing woman.

I learned the word for drunk in Spanish today and I decided to rather humorously tell Luz that I was “drunk on life.” What started out for me as a joking moment turned into a profound experience. She smiled at first but then got a serious look on her face and said, “Life is a privilege,” she paused and quietly breathed, “we should be grateful every day.”

The words that she said are common. Something heard and repeated often. It wasn’t the words that were as striking as the way that she said them. It was the look in her eye and the love that I felt from her. She finished by looking me in the eye and saying, “You should thank your parents! Your biological parents too!”

Maybe this is what strikes me most about this painting… what would it be like to look through the eyes of Josephina for a day?