Friends, lovers, and...activists?

It is strange to think that it has only been a few days since I last saw Raul as we said goodbye at airport security on Tuesday.  As I look forward to hopefully hearing "good news" sometime in the near future, the days cannot go fast enough it seems. However, the 13 days that I got to spend with Raul did fly by much faster than I wanted them too. 

Raul in his new Journey Church t-shirt

We both greatly enjoyed my latest visit to Mexico. (Well, at least I think Raul did as well!) I flew in to Mexico City on the 4th of July and we stayed the first 3 nights of my visit there before we headed to Puebla. For the first night, we found what the person at the airport called a good hotel for a reasonable price. I will say that it was pretty cheap and the location was good. In addition, the room was clean. However, when we opened the door to our room, I was surprised by how tiny it was and the fact that the wall that divided the bathroom from the bedroom did not go clear up to the ceiling. I know we're married and all, but I guess we're enough of newlyweds yet that I wasn't too keen on the fact that what was done in the bathroom could be heard (or smelled) by the one who was not in the bathroom. Needless to say, we only stayed there the first night. The second night, we stayed a Hotel Marlowe. We ended up getting a good deal on it from hotels.com. It was a good location, quiet, clean, had a purified water faucet for drinking water, and the bathroom walls went clear up to the ceiling. What more could a girl ask for?!

Raul being a good Samaritan in Puebla 

We took the bus to Puebla for the next two nights and ended up staying in the same hotel that we had been in before. Why mess with a good thing? The highlight of this brief stay in Puebla was marching in a protest regarding the recent election of Mexico's next president. We mainly joined the crowd so we could move down the block and across the street to our hotel, but Raul did vote for the same guy that this movement was supporting so we joined in the chanting as well. :)

  

Raul's Street

On Monday, we traveled 4 hours by bus to Raul's town, Santa Monica. Because it is the rainy season there, it was not quite as hot this time around. In fact, after the evening rain, we were probably a little cooler there, than my friends and family in the Midwest. The rain knocked out our power on Monday afternoon, but it came back on Tuesday. Though the rain prevented us from being out and about visiting relatives like my last visit there, it was quite impressive to see it approaching over the foothills. Eventually, the rain completely hid the foothills. On Tuesday, I did get to "meet" all four of the pigs that Raul has been caring for. He is lamenting the fact that one of them is getting almost big enough to eat. For those of you who know Raul, you know he's a softie when it comes to animals and not even living in Mexico can change that about him. 

Our favorite waiter

Sportin' our 20 peso sunglasses on the balcony.

On Wednesday we headed back to the city of Puebla and again stayed in the same hotel. One good thing about it is that it is right across the street from our favorite restaurant and bakery. In the evening and early morning, the smell of fresh baked goods wafts in through the balcony doors. The hotel is also very close to the town square (zocalo) and cinco de Mayo street, where all there are a lot of shops and fun things to look at. We spent most of our time just walking around and looking at things (and people). It rained some in the afternoons and evenings, but that usually didn't last that long and it kept the temperature pretty cool. While my friends in Illinois were experiencing 90 degree weather, we were walking around with our jackets on most of the day.

We stayed in Mexico City my last two nights there. We again found an amazing deal on hotels.com and we stayed at the Gran Hotel Ciudad Mexico. It was much nicer than any of the hotels we had stayed at before and was only a block away from the square. 

I will spare you the smaller details of the trip as this is already a pretty long post. I was truly blessed to be able to take this trip, yet it made me long even more for the day when the end of vacation does not mean saying good-bye to the one I love.  I will be doing a second blog post to bring you up to date with all of the immigration stuff and the waiting in the mean time. 

Thanks again to all of you who made this trip possible by your support--financial, emotional, and prayer.