Ek-Balam and Chicken-Izta Tuesday September 28th

Meet Juan Carlos, our tour guide, his wife, and baby Paron. We sat in front of him at church on Sunday and he let us know what he did for a living. When Mike found out he did church tours, he called him up and asked if we could take one. It was the chance of a life time.

A little about Juan. His dad was a lawyer. His mother, he is not sure what happened to her. He's been told she died. He's been told she left. All he knows is that he didn't grow up with a mother. The only mother figure he had was his grandma.

When he was 17 he joined the church. When his Grandmother found out she disowned him along with his dad. Juan left and for three years lived on the streets. One day, when he had not eaten a bite for 3 entire days, he sat down on the curb, in front of a house and prayed. He poured out his heart for the Lord's mercy. Immediately after his prayer, the door opened and a lady asked what he was doing He hurried and made up a story. He told her he was waiting for a boy next door but he wasn't home. She asked, "You're waiting for Robert?" He said yes. She asked how Juan knew Robert. He said, "Well, we work together." She said, "That's interesting because Robert is only 8 years old. He then told her the truth. She immediately invited him in and feed him. He said he ate everything on the table. Then he asked what he could do to repay her. Clean her house, fix her car, do her dishes. She said, "Nothing." Juan Carlos then took out his Book of Mormon and said, "If you won't let me do anything then I want you to take the only gift I have to give." He said, "You are a lady of God and I know that you can become even more like him if you read this book." She began to cry and asked where he got it. He told her his conversion story. She began crying and said, "I already have one. I'm a member and our church meets at 9:00 this Sunday. Will you come with me?" She then offered him a room for rent. Before, because he didn't have an address, he couldn't get a job. The very day he had an address, he found work. Not long after he served a mission with the money he earned from that job.

During his interview to be released as a missionary, the stake president told him he needed to start looking for a house. Carlos said, "My number one concern is finding a bed to sleep in tonight." He'd extended his mission as long as he could because he had no place to come home to. His testimony was incredible.

Welcome to Ek-Balam

Ek-Balam is one of the oldest and most recent finds in Mexico. It is a Pre-Classical city found only 14 years ago. There is still much to be uncovered. Ek-Balam was named after a Nephite missionary who taught the Lamanites that in years to come, Christ would be born in Jerusalem and then appear to his people in America. We got to see a stone of the Nephite missionary, and a stone of Christ with a beard. The beard is very significant because, Lamanities and Mayan's can not grow facial hair. So any bearded person carved on stone is white.

Ek-Balam was a city that once had the truth. They had all the temple ordinances and were living the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a very neat feeling there. Almost a sacred feeling. Carlos loves this city.

Only 7 years earlier, one of Carlos's archaeologist friends was standing on the temple when rocks began to fall everywhere. Only he couldn't see the rocks until he noticed they were falling underneath him. He was standing on top of a room, which was actually a tomb.

The tomb was added hundreds of years after the city was originally built. On both sides of the tomb are two life size statues. So 4 statues in all. They are doing 4 different signs you see right in the temple. Juan pointed out that at one time they had the truth but began to fall into apostasy. No one should use those signs, but they understood you needed them to return so they placed them at the entrance of their underworld.

Carlos explained to us about the Mayan calendar as he took a stick and drew it on the ground. He divided it into 7000 years. It ended in the year 2010 or 2011, I can't remember. Forever people thought that this must be the end of the world because the Mayan calendar is the most correct calendar. Juan told us the Mayan's didn't believe it was the end of the world. They were only about to calculate for that amount of time, or were only willing to work that far into the future and then assumed that their prosperity would begin a new calendar. But the Mayan became extinct before that happened.

Here Tate and Taylee sit on a bed that was made for royalty. Carlos said, "Usually we think of Royalty as having so much, but this bed and room out of stone was everything to the Mayan. Other lived in grass huts, unprotected from the wind. Their grass hut only lasted about 8 years.

Another shot of the bed. My camera died and so you don't get to see the beauty of this city, the temple, the stone of Ek-Balam and Christ, and there is not a pamphlet on it because it is so new.

Chicken-Itza will not be seen either but that was quite the experience. Chicken-Itza was built during the Classical time when Kings thought they were Gods and their cities were built with elaborate work and gems, and jewels. They used stucco to cover their walls and they painted the stucco red. The stucco was made out of lime stone which was melted by hundreds of trees. They burnt up their forests and the lime stone unfertilized the ground later leading to the beginning of their extinction.

We saw statues EVERYWHERE depicting the Savior laying down holding a plate, where they sacrificed thousands of men and cut out their heart. We saw a huge thick wall covered with skeleton carvings, representing the captains of the armies they had concurred. On the walls they would place the heads of the captains, cover them in honey, and watch the maggots devour them little by little trying to scare their cities into never going against anything they did.

We saw two snakes on both sides of the stair case leading up to the top of the temple. During certain times of the year the shadows show 12 humps representing the twelve tribes. We saw snakes with feathers representing the Savior and a withered snake with scales representing Satan.

Chicken-Itza was swarming with vendors selling everything! It felt like Babylon. A little suffocating, worldly, and corrupt. It was so neat to see, but almost relieving to leave.

Taylee and Tate did amazing this day. I was so impressed with them and especially Mike. He really took care of them well. I was a little too pregnant and hot to do very much.

Wednesday Sept. 29 A day at the pool!

Grandma Debbie bought Tate and Taylee a sandcastle kit and Tate was all over that. He kept asking and asking to build a sandcastle. Look at his crew! How much luckier could a little builder get. It was an awesome sand castle.

What beautiful sand!
Mike figured out the trick to get Tate to swim across the entire length of the pool and then later swim in the ocean without any floatation devise. Tate just needed flippers, goggles, and a snorkel. He is an amazing swimmer and dad is an amazing teacher. I kept begging Mike to get him a jacket because I thought he'd have a lot more fun. He assured me Tate didn't need it. And he was RIGHT!
Our other dare devil. Tate and especially Taylee became celebrities at the motel for their water stunts. Taylee found that she loved jumping off of a 5 foot wall into the water. She'd hit the water and say, "Again! Again! After 15 jumps she'd wear Mike and I right out so we would quit long before she was ever ready.
Soon she found that people were paying attention to her, so she'd get up on the wall and wave to everyone before she'd jump. People on the other side of the pool couldn't see that anyone was catching her and she scared them to death as she'd wave and jump.
Everyone at the pool noticed our children. One mother and her son told us we better put her on U tube. One man said we need to get her a superman cape. Another group of ladies said, "Oh, she's the bravest baby I've met. She's scaring me to death. God bless her."
A man approached us and told us she has no fear, is extremely independent, and she would keep us running for the next 18 years. When he'd see us around the motel and Taylee was up to something he kept simpling pointing and saying, "See!"
Worker at the motel came over and got her picture and just watched and watched and giggled and giggled. They said, "In all the time they've worked at the motel they've never seen anything like Taylee.

Again! Again!

Again! Again!

Again!

Again!

XCARET Thursday September 30

Xcaret was about one hour from our motel and little Tate and I got sick on the ride over. Poor Tate had to sit on the side of the road for about 10 minutes. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it because my hair dresser didn't like it at all. Last year we went to Xel-Hah, which is similar and the thing I liked so much about Xel-Hah was cliff diving. There would be none of that this year, so I was prepared not to have fun.

By the way, Xel-Hah reminded me that Hah means turbulent waters in the Jaradite language. In the Book of Mormon you'll notice that after they got the Jaradite plates they put Hah on the end of a lot of names. Nephihah, Ammonihah. Pretty cool information we learned in Mexico.


These birds greeted us as we entered the park.

Tate and Taylee are just not too afraid of animals.

The first show we saw at Xcaret was a Venezuela Rain Dance. If you'll notice their apron and sash, and the flowers on the apron, you might wonder if they had the truth, at one time. These men danced around in a circle while one man played a flute and a drum.

Next they climbed a long, skinny pole high up in the air and tied a rope around their ankle and their waist.

Next they hung upside down by their foot as they spun around and around. It looked like the cruelest torture treatment I had ever witnessed or could ever imagine. At this time I was so hot and still a little car sick. These men spun upside down for a very long time. They must have been absolutely desperate for rain.

The cute spectators of the rain dance.

Another cute specTater.

After the show we visited a huge aquarium. It was fascinating. We got to see sharks, dolphins, turtles, jelly fish, eels, starfish everything.

Tate posing with a very large lipped fish.

A cool blow hole. Xcaret had it all. It was incredible and it didn't take long for my attitude to change. It was 100 times neater than Xel-Hah. Mike and Debbie kept saying that they would come back to Xcaret next time they were in Mexico. Their was too much to do and see in one day.

Tate's first experience in a hammock. They had the most amazing area filled with butterflies. I didn't know places as beautiful as this existed anywhere. I don't think the Garden of Eden was this beautiful. It was spectacular.

Tate was a little discouraged he hadn't caught a butterfly yet.

Wow! Look at the butterfly whisperer.

Like father like son. Mike spent a lot of time helping Tate learn how to catch a butterfly.

Just a glimpse of the Garden of Eden.

Even Taylee got to hold some.

A Juagire

An Iguana

We got to snorkel in an underground river that was indescribable. We would go through caves and then it would open up in to fascinating rooms where they had stain glass windows, carvings, etc. Just amazing. Tate is quite the snorkeler. He's a pro. Taylee loved it for most of the river and then she was so tired she began to cry. She was reaching for tourists that were walking above us to take her out of the water. She fell asleep in my arms as soon as we wrapped her in a towel out of the water.

A Mayan friend Tate made while snorkeling the underground river. It was a good thing he didn't find an enemy.

Posing with the birds.

A huge tortuga. (Turtle)

Doug getting reprimanded by the bird trainer for taking pictures. No photos allowed. It worked. We bought one of his.

When it got dark they had a huge arena where they put on a Mayan show. We didn't get any pictures of the ball game because it was too fascinating to watch. But another game they use to play was fire hockey. They would drench a hard ball in some kind of fire starter and roll it to the players. The fire ball represent the Sun, power, deity. It was coo

The rewarder of death. To the Mayans it was an honor to die.

After the Mayan show we walked to a different arena to see a Mexican show. A long the way they had Mayan dressed up doing different rituals, ceremonies, etc. It was very entertaining getting from one place to another. There was always something to see.

Along the way.

This was a beautiful arena with a cave behind them filled with water. Some of the performers would ride on boats to get to the stage. At other times in the program they would sent candles floating on the water behind all of the performers.

I was sure we would not have very happy campers this late at night that would want to sit still and watch entertainers. I was so wrong. It was so beautiful it completely captivated them.

I've seen the BYU dancers perform a lot of these tradition Mexican dances but they did not compare to the dancers and entertainers in Mexico. I was completely shocked. I thought BYU dancers were the best in the world but I was proven wrong. It was amazing.

Taylee wanting to be a movie star. She made friends with a couple behind us that were on their honeymoon. Usually honeymooners don't notice anyone around them but each other, but they really liked Taylee. This man did not mess up once. He didn't skip a beat. It was perfection!!!

Bravo!!! I just kept wishing my dad, who served in Chile, and Matt, who served in Mexico, could have been there. Xcaret was an A++++++.