the tadje family: Mexico!

Nate and I had the BEST trip to Mexico last month! We enjoyed seven days relaxing by the most beautiful beach, swimming, eating yummy Mexican food, exploring Mazatlan, and spending quality time together. Nate used to go to Mazatlan every year until he graduated high school so being there again brought back a lot of good memories for him. And he loved getting to show me around Mazatlan this time too. Mazatlan is such a fun city and now I see why it was the Tadje's favorite vacation spot for so many years.

The trip was especially fun because we got to be there with Steve and Rayane (and Savannah). Long story short, Rayane's visa process still isn't finalized for her to come to the US (it finally should be in a couple of months!) and since Steve can't go back to Brazil for another 7 months because of a different visa mix-up - Steve can't be with his little family right now. So in order for them to be together in person, they needed a neutral location that didn't require travel visas for either of them - so Mexico was the place! I am so glad Nate and I went to Mexico with them - not only was it a perfect getaway from our normal hectic life, but we finally got to meet Rayane and Savannah too.

I took lots of pictures from our week there, so here goes...

{Pueblo Bonito}

We stayed at the Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan right in the heart of the city. The hotel is amazing and it reminded me a lot of the Marriot we stayed at in Costa Rica. I loved having our hotel so close to the beach. And that view from our balcony could never get old!

{Downtown/Market}
Since this was my first trip to Mexico, I had never been to an outdoor meat market. The smell was so strong from the meat and it was definitely a new experience for me, but it was so fun to walk through the market and see all of the stuff being sold.

The pig head sitting next to the pork was unique.

There are lots of taxis in Mazatlan, but even more pulmonias (open motorized carts) that would take us from place to place. The drivers usually blasted their Mexican music and most of the drivers were a little wild in their driving skills. Nate still remembers Spanish pretty well from his mission so he was able to talk to a lot of the drivers. It was always fun listening to them converse...even though I could only understand about 10%.

{The Inn}

Nate's family used to stay at The Inn hotel when they went each year so Nate and I went to eat at their restaurant Papagayos a few times. Nate remembered some of the waiters from ten years ago when his family came. And some of the workers there remembered his dad too! Oh, and as you can see, Nate LOVED drinking Sprite for every meal. He claims the Sprite in Mexico is better than the Sprite in the states.

Sadly, the beach at The Inn had been ruined from the remnants of Hurricane Norbert. We were almost going to stay at the Inn when we first booked a hotel but I'm glad we didn't because there wasn't much left of the beach there.

{Parasailing}

I had promised Nate I would go parasailing in Mazatlan. I had never been before and was a little nervous to go, but decided to do it anyway...and it was so amazing! It was nice because Nate and I went together so I wasn't scared at all as soon as we were in the air. It was awesome to see a birds eye view of Mazatlan. That was definitely a highlight from the trip!

Steve and Rayane went right after us and they loved it too.

{Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay}

Our hotel has a sister hotel on the other end of town so we checked it out one day. There is a gorgeous infinity pool there so we spent a big portion of the day hanging out in the pool, laying out, and walking along the beach. The hotel itself is so huge you have to take a golf cart from the lobby building to go to the pool.

Little Savannah loved the pool. It was so fun watching Steve and his little family. I can hardly wait for them to immigrate to Utah!

{Stone Island Tour}

One of the days we went on a boat tour and then went to a beach on Stone Island. We had the funniest Mexican tour guide ever. He kept us laughing all day. Our favorite lines he said was, "How about that!" and "Take a freaking picture!" On the boat tour, we looked at some caves on an island off the coast and we also got a close-up look of the bird-poop rock. The rock used to be dark but it is now white from all the of bird droppings.Once we got to Stone Island, we hung out, ate at a restaurant there on the beach, did some horseback riding, and went on a banana boat ride.

Our awesome tour guide Jugo. His favorite joke was "Anywhere Jugo, I go."

Steve and Rayane were brave enough to wear the snake. I thought they were a little crazy!

{Beach time}

A lot of the time, Nate and I would try to wake up early enough to go get a shady spot on the beach. We would hang out, read, talk, eat chips and salsa, and play in the ocean. I loved having all day to relax without a care in the world!

{Eating Out}

Since our suite had a little kitchen in it, we would typically eat breakfast in our room and then eat out for lunch and dinner. There are so many yummy Mexican restaurants there but our favorite was definitely Tony's. It is located right on the beach and has the best Mexican food. And there was one waiter there - Segundo - and he was the nicest man in the world. Many people there are so laid back and friendly and he was the friendliest of them all. We ate their twice, and he would just pull up a chair by our table and start talking to us in his broken English.

And please note Nate drinking more Sprite in the picture below :)

Don't mind my crazy hair. My hair does NOT like humidity!

Segundo is in the middle. And we were serenaded by the guy on the left.

We also went to Senor Frogs. Nate had always described Senor Frogs as fun and lively and busy. And he said we would be the only sober people there. Well, when we went, we were the ONLY people there! October is off-season in Mazatlan and there weren't tons of tourists but I didn't think we would be the only people at Senor Frogs. But the workers still tried to bring the party and made us the infamous balloon hats.