We saw six bulls and three matadors, what is typical for an afternoon. Each showdown was pretty short and I don’t recall it lasting much longer than 15 minutes. Each time a bull came out, the matador greeted the new bull with some maneuvering of his large cape.

Throughout 2003, we did so many fun things together including trips to the beach, wine nights, salsa dancing classes, shopping, spin classes and so so much more. And she helped us out when we got ourselves into pickles and was even there on the scariest night of the big earthquake after we had just arrived in our new city.

Later, we were swimming next to the sailboat in this vast blue ocean when Paul exclaimed, “Ow…jelly fish.” We all franticly swam back into the boat. As we stood on the boat looking out at the water, there was a single loan jellyfish about the size of a pint glass all by itself next to the boat. It felt as though the only jellyfish in the entire ocean had someone found an unlucky Paul.

The best parts of the vacation are the beach, of course, but also watch Belén blossom into an independent-minded, intelligent and determined little toddler. She mimics everything we do and is practicing besos (kisses), belly zurbers and the art of a beach vacation.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over a French Army in the Battle of Puebla. The holiday is only celebrated in the city of Puebla and the United States. Today is more of a U.S. holiday than a Mexican holiday.

León is the fifth largest city in Mexico with about 1.2 million people and it is the shoe making capital of the country as well. While León was interesting, the real gem of the area is the smaller, historic, capital town, Guanajuato, Guanajuato with around 70,000 people and a very unique underground maze of roads. It is a World Heritage Site. Most of my very favorite photographs and paintings of Mexico are of Guanajuato, Guanajuato.

It is so amazing here and I do not think Andy nor I had any idea how much we missed it. We love the beach. We love Puerto Vallarta. And we love México! Even though it is quite a bit more challenging than when we were two, it is great to share this with Little B.

This will be our first beach vacation with a toddler to keep our eye on. I am sure when we return we will have all sorts of advice on traveling with a one-year old. Wish us luck!

We are looking forward to some much deserved R&R and plan to tell you all about the trip when we return!!

While the second day was interrupted with a negative experience, the second to the last day was as well. My mom woke us up with the words, “we’ve been robbed.” Come to find out four Mexican guys had walked into our house and stole two cameras and about $600 (USD) cash. We were stupid to leave the doors unlocked but it is easy to be relaxed about such things when the weather is hot, the beer is cold and the view outside is out of this world. The scariest part of the robbery was that they actually went into my parents room to steal their camera and charger while they were sleeping. We were very lucky that nobody woke up while it was happening. Apparently, it is quite common in that area to get robbed before your last day because they do not think you will do anything about it. Andy did go and file a police report simply for insurance purposes but, of course, it is possible that the police could be in on the whole thing. You never know in Mexico. Luckily the robbers decided not to take Andy’s and my mom’s passports, which had been left out! I guess they only wanted things that were very easy to get rid of.

Update from Mexico