We spent the past weekend, March 5-7, in Tapachula, Mexico. Our family needed to leave the country and then return in order to renew our visas.
It was about a 5 1/2 hour drive to the border. The drive went well and the children did great - even Tony. Thankfully, we had no problems getting through immigration. I simply walked into the building and up to the window, handed the official our stack of passports, and he stamped them. He never even checked to see if we had people to match the passports. We had to pay 50 pesos to get the van "fumigated". The officials waved us through every other checkpoint. Here, Maria and I are just past the border, on the Mexican side.
We stayed in a fairly large town called Tapachula, about 17 km from the border. Our hotel was a very nice Comfort Inn, the nicest place we've stayed at since we're down here. We ate breakfast Saturday morning at the hotel. Tony enjoyed his Fruit Loops; I think he had three bowls!
We then visited Wal-mart, which was only five minutes from our hotel. What fun! I think the employees were amused that we were taking pictures of the store.
Ok, it wasn't quite like Wal-mart in the States. We discovered a huge display of fresh octopus in the seafood department. I didn't buy any seafood, but I did stock up on shampoo, soda, and breakfast cereal, as the stuff was cheaper than in Guatemala.
Alisha and Emily relaxing in our room back at the hotel. Once again, Nick and Ben got their own room while the rest of us shared. We had an extra single bed in our room, and Tony was content to sleep on a blanket on the floor.
The hotel had a lovely pool...and, boy, was it hot and humid in Mexico! Much different from our mountain climate. We spent both Friday and Saturday afternoons relaxing by the pool.
Saturday evening we visited downtown Tapachula, walked around the town square, and had supper at a tiny, tacky little restaurant with surprisingly good food. This photo is one of the fountains in the square. We thought the town very much resembled a Guatemalan town, but noted there were far fewer guards and less barbed wire.
Charlie, Maria, and Tony graciously posed for a picture in the town square.
Sunday morning we headed back to Guatemala. We breezed through the border crossing in a matter of minutes. They didn't even fumigate our van, although they still collected the money for it.
We spent a couple of hours at a wonderful water park called Xocomil on Sunday. Previously, Charlie had taken an orphanage on a field trip here, and when we realized that we were going right by decided to stop. It was really nice, nicer than any park I've been to in the States. We had a fun time. Praise God for a great weekend!
It was about a 5 1/2 hour drive to the border. The drive went well and the children did great - even Tony. Thankfully, we had no problems getting through immigration. I simply walked into the building and up to the window, handed the official our stack of passports, and he stamped them. He never even checked to see if we had people to match the passports. We had to pay 50 pesos to get the van "fumigated". The officials waved us through every other checkpoint. Here, Maria and I are just past the border, on the Mexican side.
We stayed in a fairly large town called Tapachula, about 17 km from the border. Our hotel was a very nice Comfort Inn, the nicest place we've stayed at since we're down here. We ate breakfast Saturday morning at the hotel. Tony enjoyed his Fruit Loops; I think he had three bowls!
We then visited Wal-mart, which was only five minutes from our hotel. What fun! I think the employees were amused that we were taking pictures of the store.
Ok, it wasn't quite like Wal-mart in the States. We discovered a huge display of fresh octopus in the seafood department. I didn't buy any seafood, but I did stock up on shampoo, soda, and breakfast cereal, as the stuff was cheaper than in Guatemala.
Alisha and Emily relaxing in our room back at the hotel. Once again, Nick and Ben got their own room while the rest of us shared. We had an extra single bed in our room, and Tony was content to sleep on a blanket on the floor.
The hotel had a lovely pool...and, boy, was it hot and humid in Mexico! Much different from our mountain climate. We spent both Friday and Saturday afternoons relaxing by the pool.
Saturday evening we visited downtown Tapachula, walked around the town square, and had supper at a tiny, tacky little restaurant with surprisingly good food. This photo is one of the fountains in the square. We thought the town very much resembled a Guatemalan town, but noted there were far fewer guards and less barbed wire.
Charlie, Maria, and Tony graciously posed for a picture in the town square.
Sunday morning we headed back to Guatemala. We breezed through the border crossing in a matter of minutes. They didn't even fumigate our van, although they still collected the money for it.
We spent a couple of hours at a wonderful water park called Xocomil on Sunday. Previously, Charlie had taken an orphanage on a field trip here, and when we realized that we were going right by decided to stop. It was really nice, nicer than any park I've been to in the States. We had a fun time. Praise God for a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment