Cancun Mexico, Part 2 -- Sabbath Day and Xcaret With the Marin Family

On the Sabbath Day, we took a taxi so we could attend church nearby. 

President Marin, one of Glen's counselors in his mission presidency, is finishing up his last year as mission president of the Mexico Cancun Mission.

Truth be told--he has been begging for us to go visit him and his family while they are in Cancun. So, between the Maughans' offer to accompany them and President Marin desiring our visit so much--that is how we landed on making the effort to take this trip.

President Marin would be attending the same meeting and would meet us there. It was fun to watch him in mission president mode, which included getting called upon to speak.

We could both feel a big change in President Marin and could see how he has grown in his 2 1/2 years in this calling.

It was so fun to greet him at church and then drive with him to his home in Cancun.

The Marins live in a nice, gated community. There were gigantic Dia de los Muertos decorations to greet us upon entry.

I neglected to take a photo of the front of their home, but I took a few photos of their backyard. It was very private and has a small swimming pool.

Under an open hut there was exercise equipment.

It was fun to see President Marin's big transfer board hanging on the wall of his home office. 

His office also had hooks on two opposite walls where a hammock can be hung. His wife told us when he gets tired sitting at the desk reading and answering the missionaries' weekly emails, he will get in the hammock with his iPad and work on the letters there. 

The Marins' youngest daughter Natalie was showing us the nail polish organizer she had made to display all her different colored nail polish, with a place for fingernail files and other supplies under the removable top. 

This particular day of their transfer cycle was when the Marins had a group of departing missionaries over for a farewell dinner and testimony meeting. There were four sisters and four elders who were going home the next day.

This is Elder Romney who is related to Baylor Romney who was one of our missionaries. We sent this photo to Baylor and he confirmed that they are related and that this elder is best friends with Baylor's younger brother.

The Marins have two of their five children living in Mexico with them. Their son Jacob has recently received his mission call to Ethiopia (the mission that just recently was evacuating missionaries out of the area...). 

He is learning the Amharic language. He has put sticky notes all throughout the house with reminders of how to say various words in his new language. 

The older people sat on one table together. There was a senior missionary couple who had just arrived in the mission.

Jacob and Natalie sat on the long table with the young missionaries.

Look at that delicious salmon dinner Sister Marin had prepared for all of us. YUM!!!

The assistants and Jacob helped serve the food and then cleaned everything up. Jacob came to our table to take our dessert order.

Their assistants were such happy, smiling young men. Looks like they are enjoying two pie choices with lots of whip cream. After eating their delectable desserts, they were on clean-up duty.

Glen thought it was the best thing ever to be included in the farewell dinner and testimony meeting. It was a good memory of us doing the same thing with our departing missionaries every 6 weeks like clockwork. 

My favorite moment of the meeting was when they sang "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" with one of the assistants accompanying on the guitar.

It had been a lovely evening and we appreciated the Marins' hospitality. The hospitality did not end there. President Marin loaned us one of their vehicles to use throughout the rest of our week. No more taking cabs for us.

We had plans to spend the next day with Marins, so this helped us out to have transportation back and forth.

Monday morning Glen had a work zoom call. This is how he dressed for the occasion.

Once his work was done that morning, we headed off to meet the Marins at Xcaret which is a nature park and Mexican cultural center.

We saw many Dia de los Muertos shrines and decorations all throughout the park. 

We watched swimmers in bright pink life jackets floating down the river.

On this rock stage, there were people setting up a shrine and then having what looked like some kind of a ceremony going on.

President Marin was good at getting butterflies to perch on his finger. Jacob was using a piece of watermelon to try and attract the flying beauties.

I was having no success in getting a butterfly to perch on my finger. It preferred my shirt.

This beautiful, unique flower caught my eye.

I also enjoyed looking at the colorful, stain-glassed window hanging overhead in one of the structures. I kept wondering how they got it installed overhead without breaking it.

President Marin bought us various Mexican foods for our dinner. My favorite was the bread he got for us at this shop.

Something that surprised us was when we spotted two monkeys coming down the path.

They walked right past us acting just like they had every right to be using that same walkway we were on.

What really got me was when one stood up and walked like a man. Wasn't expecting that sight. They were on their way down to the cemetery where I am sure they enjoyed eating the favorite foods people had set out for their dearly-departed loved ones. 

It seems just when we think we are having a break from prison, we spied a jail house with bars at every window.

As we stepped inside the church building, we saw a big open-air, thatched-roof structure with benches for the congregants.

We spent some time in this area where there was a stage featuring various performers. We amused ourselves eating and watching a show in a nearby covered pavilion while Glen got on another work zoom call. This time he was wearing all casual clothes.

Little stands were set up all around the stage area for people to be able to buy food or buy trinkets and souvenirs..

After Glen finished his zoom call, we walked around a big area where many Day of the Dead decorations and shrines were set up.

When I say they REALLY get into decorating for this holiday, do you believe me now???

There was an area where you could light a candle and put it in one of hundreds of sconces on the walls lining a pathway. 

Another interesting sight was these bigger candles perching on their individual ledges with masses of candle drippings going down the side of the candle ledges.

A beautiful sight to behold was when we came out of the trees and into a clearing where people were swimming.

Here we have some pyramid ruins.

We were anticipating the evening's entertainment. 

We walked down a long walkway to get to the stadium. Along the way were small groups of people wearing very colorful costumes.

Once in the arena, we spotted the Marin family who had seats for us down close to the stage. 

I really enjoyed the warmup music being played on a hanging bottle xylophone. There were two of them and on each one two people were tapping on the bottles. It was beautiful.

Can I just tell you how AWFUL it was to wear masks!!!!!!! I was already waaaaay overheated and then to put a mask on was more than stifling! 

We marveled at the native Mexicans who seemed to all be wearing masks no matter where they were--inside or outside. The workers at our resort were fastidious about always wearing masks.

The show began and the title of the show--Spectacular--was just exactly what it was. The music and dancers took us through 500 years of Mexican culture. The costumes were very colorful. It was very entertaining. 

All of us were anxious to see how the car the Marins had loaned to us was faring. We were very unimpressed with the parking spot that we had been directed to pull into. 

The three of us had to get out first before Glen pulled way in. He had to pull in far enough to avoid the tree as he was getting out. There was no way the person driving the other car would be able to get into that car. 

Good thing we got there first and our neighbor was none the wiser to how ridiculously close we had to park to each other.

All in all, I would say we had a good time experiencing nature and the Mexican culture that day at Xcaret.

Lynn was in a festive spirit upon returning back to our villa. She threw her sombrero on the ground and wrapped around her the shawl she had just bought and did the Mexican hat dance for us. 

She is such a cute woman! This may possibly be my most favorite Lynn moment of the whole trip!