Viva Mexico!

Yup, finally getting around to posting about the holidays. Paul had two solid weeks of vacation, so we took advantage. The minute he was done with his final we drove 5 hours to Dallas. The following morning he and I took off for Mazatlan, Mexico. We had planned to go to Mexico back in June, but school got too crazy and we had to postpone it...and since Christmas is the only other time of year that he has a break, we squeezed it in before the Christmas craziness. Gratefully his sister Christina and his mom were willing to watch the girls, so we had 6 whole days to ourselves.

It was really a relaxing vacation. We honestly didn't do much...eat breakfast, hang out at the beach, eat lunch, walk along the beach, eat dinner...but that's what we wanted.Our first day there we walked a long way on the beach...we ended up doing that a lot.
We hiked up to the top of the faro, or lighthouse. It is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world, even though the actual building is only 2 stories. It's built on top of a hill that's on a peninsula. It was a nice hike and provided a great view of the city.
(The hill you can see to the right of me in the distance is the lighthouse.)
We did do one organized activity...we went to Salsa and Salsa, where we learned how to make a bunch of salsas and even do a little salsa dancing. Paul and I were even crowned the salsa King and Queen for our dancing skills!
We happened to be there during our anniversary...not too much to complain about a sunset like that! Happy 5 years Paul!
We LOVED the food there. We went to Pancho's twice...it was divine. Check out my steaming bowl of chicken, tomatoes, queso fresco, cactus...amazing. The bowl was still super hot to the touch when I was done eating.
We walked along the beach every morning after breakfast during high tide...we often got our pants quite soaked.
The last 2 days we spent entirely on the beach, besides mealtimes. It was funny watching the Mexicans pose for pictures...one knee is always bent.
Of course, more food...one of the best parts of the vacation!
This is called the cliff jumper tower. At high tide, jumpers dive into the water, of course when they are paid. We didn't ever come out to watch...it was cool to watch on youtube. But walking to the top and seeing how far down it was was quite intimidating.
We got a good laugh out of this building...a fine example of the South American building quality.

Of course it was wonderful to have some time to ourselves...our first vacation alone since we had kids. It went so fast, but we were ready to get back to our girls. Part two of Christmas vacation to come...