After getting home at 11:15PM last night from dinner in Lincoln with friends, we rolled out of bed at 5:45 this morning to see Adi's first event at 8:00 in Mahomet. We were a bit early and they were a bit late getting started. We could have slept another half hour, but it was worth the trip.
Adi got 4th place in double mini trampoline, 3rd in floor tumbling and 1st in trampoline. She is in the intermediate class in floor tumbling and sub-advanced in double mini and trampoline. There are no pictures below of her with her 1st place trophy because they were running about 2 1/2 hours behind on the scoring tabulation and awards, so neither Chad & Faith nor we stayed for the presentation.
Congratulations, Adi!
We set the alarm for 8:00, but woke up at 6:00. Plenty of time to catch the bus to the airport at 10:30! We packed up last night, so after our showers, we had a nice breakfast, strolled around for a while and went back to the room to hang out in the air conditioning until time for the bus.
I saw our chambermaid working her way toward our room. I checked my money clip and found that all the Mexican money I had left was 120 pesos. I gave it to her and said, "Todo muy bueno." I think I said, "Everything very good." We had heard that the chambermaids make 76 pesos per day and they work ten hour days, so the 120 pesos ($10.00) I gave her made her smile.
We caught the bus at 10:30 for the thirty minute ride to the airport. We got there three hours before flight time, but by the time we checked our bags, got our boarding passes, and went through Immigration, we only had about an hour to wait. We got a sandwich and a drink at the snack bar before boarding the plane.
Our flight time was about thirty minutes less that the flight to Huatulco, but I had time to watch the movie Trouble With the Curve with Clint Eastwood, then grab a short nap.
We caught the Marriott shuttle back to our car and were on the road toward home at 7:00. A short stop at the grocery store for milk and few other necessities had us poking the garage door opener at 9:15.
We had a great time, but as always, it's good to be home.
We got up at 7:00 (a record for this trip), showered, ate breakfast, and were in the lobby by 8:30 waiting for our van to take the Three Level Tour at 9:00. Well, the driver was on Mexican time, so he didn't show up until 9:20. (LOL) The three levels of the tour are sea level, tropical (where the town of Santa Maria Huatulco is), and cloud forest at 4,500 feet, where they grow very high quality coffee.
We had twelve people in a fifteen passenger air conditioned van, so it was comfortable. Our certified guide, Alberto Espana Chavez, spoke very good English. There were some people in our group who only spoke Spanish, so everything he said in English he repeated in Spanish and vise versa. That would be a good way for me to learn Spanish, but taking enough tours to get the job done would be a bit expensive.
Our first stop was above the town of Santa Cruz (level one), on the opposite shore from where we took pictures of the town and the Coatimundi a few days ago. Then it was on up the road 900 feet higher to the town of Santa Maria Huatulco (level two), which is the equivalent our county seat. Alberto let us out of the van so we could walk around at our leisure. I bought a big cup full of fresh pineapple from a street vendor for 10 pesos (12 pesos = 1 dollar). We visited a church there where one of the small crosses made from the original large wooden cross of Santa Cruz is kept. It dates back some 2,000 years.
Alberto was very well educated and could explain everything about the area, the climate, the processing of coffee, the hundreds of species of animals and flowers, etc. It was really informative.
After we left Santa Maria Huatulco, we headed for higher ground. We ended up in Pluma Hidalgo at around 4,500 feet elevation. Here we visited an old lady whose hobby is collecting flowers. She has around 250 different plants in her garden, 130 of which are orchids. There were orchids from the size of my head to the size of my fingernail! She had a few trinkets for sale, but the only fee to see her garden was a voluntary donation.
After the garden, it was up the street to the coffee shop where we saw the small scale processing of coffee beans. The "real" Juan Valdez (see picture) processes about six tons of coffee in this small shop each year. After tasting some fresh brewed coffee, I bought two liters of premium gourmet roasted beans for 200 pesos.
The ride back to Secrets was uneventful. When we arrived, we ate lunch and came back to the room where Marsha fired up the whirlpool tub and we relaxed for a while. No pictures of that!
There was a Latin Soul Buffet dinner and live entertainment in the pool area, so we went down about 7:00 and had a nice dinner. The buffet was fabulous. It had to be 30 yards long plus desserts, beverage bar, and a meat carving table!
We shared our table with two couples, each from a different Canadian province. Someone said that 82% of the guests at Secrets are from Canada! This is because there was some kind of exclusive contract with a Canadian airline until a couple of months ago when direct flights from the USA were allowed.
Check out the pictures from our last day here. We are catching the bus to the airport tomorrow morning at 10:30. Tomorrow's pictures probably won't be very interesting, but you can check back to be sure.
It's been a great trip. Hope you enjoyed it.
