Day 1:
3:30am We woke up and sleepy eyed made it it slowly to the airport on icy roads making it safely through the first step of our journey. We board in Missoula at about 6:00am and took our nice little 2 hours flight to Denver where we scrambled to get some food and board our plane to Puerto Vallarta. The flight were mostly uneventful and we found ourselves in Mexico about 2:00pm. We got off the plane and made our way through immigration and customs. The bags and Bibles made it through without any issues and when anyone asked what was in the bags and I told them they were very grateful and happy for what we told them we were doing.
After we made through customs we met up with Kevin McDaniel and took a taxi ride to a bus station where we took a bus to Tepic. The trip was about 3.5 hours until we got to our AirBnb at about 6:00pm. We dropped off our bags and drove to Kevin’s house (which is about 2 blocks away) and had Hamburgers for our first official meal together in Mexico. We met the other missionaries that work here with UIM and their families.
We hung out with the families an McDaniel’s for a couple hours then returned to our AirBnb for some much needed rest!
Day 2:
We started this morning with our youngest member not feeling well, after some fluids and food she was feeling better quickly and we got started with our day! Shannon cooked an amazing breakfast for us which was quickly devoured before we headed off on our adventures for the day.
We set off to La Ovara to go on a boat ride and check out some crocodiles. On our boat journey we were able to see some beautiful flora and fauna. Ethan, Shannon, John, Tylah, Joelle, and Crystal all got to touch a crocodile and pet a wild pig. When we got to the end some of our party decided to swim and we all had some great Mexican food before we started to head back.
When we got back from the tour we headed to the beach and got to see the sun start to set in a beautiful setting with a couple hundred feet of beautiful sand. We hung out for a while, collected sea shells, attempted to clam with our bare hands, and enjoyed walking through the warm water.
We then headed back to Tepic to shower and go out to eat some famous tacos that we had been told all about for a long time. We all ate to our hearts content
Day 3:
We started the morning with coffee and a late breakfast. Breakfast was eggs, Mexican bacon, and toast.
Around 10:00 we left to pack the boys and girls backpacks (the backpacks we are going to bring to Gavilanes). We had a few issues while we where packing. We kept running out of certain supplies, which led to some quick improvisions. Our starting supplies included: notebooks, dolls, and Skippets, for the girls. Starting supplies for the boys included: Marbles, cars, and toy balls.
After we finished packing the backpacks we went out to the center to site see and to buy souvenirs. We walked pasted a 17th century cathedral while at an exchange. Kevin helped Shannon with exchanging money. The rest of our group stood outside and watched the daily Hussle go by. When we arrived at the Center we split up a bit and looked around. So many of the people where selling beadworks, all of which were handmade. Some pieces took a couple hours, while others took several days.
We continued on thru the Center into a market. Inside they sold a variety of items. If they where selling an animal they sold every part of it. They also sold fruits, vegetables, cheese, fish, chicken, clothes, and shoes. Kevin stopped to get a slice of cheese, the rest of a group walked slowly on to see things further. Shannon, Crystal, Hailey, and Tylah stopped to look at a candy stand.
We came home and had a big dinner because we had missed lunch. For dinner we had: Chicken, potatoes, cactus salad, avocados, tortilla chips, and something similar to taquitos.
Finally around 6:00 we went to the Christmas fair called “Bosque Encantando” or “Enchanted Forest”, we walked around for a few hours. We bought churros, and several people bought Boba’s as well.
(P.S. Huge shout out to Tylah who typed all this up today for us!!)