February 21, 2009

This morning started out not too early: about 9 o’clock. Mom and I went down to breakfast at the restaurant here in the hotel. We have vouchers so we get to eat for free, which is great, but yesterday there was apparently a little confusion with when exactly Mom was supposed to give the voucher to the waiter. At the very beginning, the guy went ahead and took it from her, but when she was trying to leave someone asked her if she’d paid, so there was a little confusion over the word voucher (ticket is a better known word) and it wasn’t a problem.

That being the case, when we went down there this morning, the waiter asked for the “ticket” and I asked in return about when we were actually supposed to give it because of what had happened yesterday. He assured me that there wasn’t actually a problem and I could go ahead and give it to him now. Of course, he also said, if she wanted to pay twice then that was perfectly fine as well; he’d let her. When we went to leave however, the waiter stopped my mom and the door and said,
“Excuse me, did you pay?”
My mom looked at him and began to explain but the waiter and I just began to giggle: it was a joke; he was the one that we had explained to about the ticket and was just giving her a hard time.

After breakfast we headed up to get ready to have lunch with Katelyn’s host family. We wanted to take flowers as a hostess gift so we walked about 8 blocks to the florist. Now the side walks here are very narrow and I forgot to mention yesterday I seriously escaped getting hit by a car by about an inch when I stepped into the street to give space for someone coming from the opposite direction to pass, so today instead of walking next to Katelyn she led the way and I followed. We did find the flower shop where we bought the flowers and then caught a taxi to the house. Now during the taxi ride Katelyn is getting very upset because the meter is going “muy rapido” as she tells the driver. More so than other taxi’s she’s taken. She really begins to get concerned when he takes a turn she isn’t familiar with. She’s telling me she doesn’t know where we are and that this is going to cost us a lot more than normal. So I’m thinking okay well…..we’ve made an error, mistakes happen,. As it turns out he lets us off at a Carl’s Jr. Now the meter showed we owed 230 pesos for a ride Katelyn said should have been about 50 pesos. Then he tells us that the cost is 50pesos so we were relieved but totally confused. From there we walked about 2 blocks to the host family house. Their home is very nice and we were greeted with hugs. They served us a wonderful lunch with poc chuc which was pork and then we had empeanadas filled with beans or chicken that you put this wonderful sauce and onion over. I thanked them for having Katelyn and they stated she was a wonderful guest and they enjoyed having her. I believe they do as they seek things for her they know she enjoys like today they bought her guanabana ice cream, they bought coconut for me.

After lunch Leticia, the host mom, gave us a ride to the Altabrisa, which was wonderful mall, much like Towson and nothing like the Frederick mall. Then we caught the bus to Plaza Fiesta which is a smaller mall, had a treat from the bakery and the caught another bus to El Centro. Now here’s the thing, you can catch a bus to El Centro but you never really know where it’s going to let you off, so we got off at the bus station which seemed to be the end of the route and was about 15 blocks from our hotel.

During our walk back to the hotel the excitement for El Carnaval parade had begun, people were already taking their seats and as we passed a restaurant, the maître Dee offered us a table for 30pesos, meaning you had to order that much food and drink to sit there. So we hurried back to the hotel, dropped off some of our stuff and headed back to the restaurant. Now these seats were wonderful, right on the parade route and dinner was part of the plan so ate, drank and enjoyed the parade. We did good tonight…we caught beads, a Carnaval T-shirt and a couple snacks and a cup.

After the parade we headed over to plaza grande about 2 blocks away for churros which don’t seem to travel like the other foods available on the street. Then back to the hotel for a good nights rest for tomorrow holds a day at La Playa (the beach).

A note to Clare and Bob … our magic jack connection here is very low in the room so calling is probably not going to be a possibility. We are thinking of you two and wishing you were both here to enjoy all the fun. We love you! Xoxo

Oh one quick note, here during Carnaval, the children dress up in costume and the adults where fun head pieces. That‘s what Katelyn and I have on in the pic posted.

We are having a BLAST!!

Cheers! <3 Kate & Sunny