El Parque Bicentenario

 Brandon planned an excursion for the students to go to this amusement park.  We took a bus that picked us up pretty close outside of our place and took us north to the next city and dropped us off at the park.  The bus ride was about 30 minutes and cost about 5 bucks for us all.  I know I keep making such a big deal about how inexpensive everything is, but the entrance to the park was 40 pesos per person, not even 4 dollars.  It was a super nice and clean place and everything was new.  Instead of having a playground there was just this huge field full of nets and the kids could climb all over them.  I went back and forth thinking that it was fun and then thinking that it was just dangerous.  I'm pretty sure that the kids just thought it was fun.

 The theme of the park was the revolution, which is something I am realizing is basically the theme of the entire city.  This statue thing was set up to show a whole camp where the revolutionaries would stay at night and sing songs to relax.  I think it is interesting, first, that the women were included in the camp, and I like that one of them is holding a baby and the other has a gun.  Those Mexican ladies were pretty awesome.  The other side had a couple of guys wearing sombreros but the girls just wanted to sit and listen to the songs.  Since it is just a statue, they had to make up the words themselves.

 We rode the train around the lake where people were going around in paddle boats.  There were amazing birds along the route and the conductor delighted us all by singing a collection of songs.  His voice wasn't all that great, but his enthusiasm made up for it.

 Rocky insisted on wearing her favorite shirt that she loves because in Eugene all her friends have one that matches.  Who cares if it is still like 4 sizes too big, it makes her happy.

Since I'm preggo they wouldn't let me go on any of the rides so that meant that Brandon got to go on them all twice, once with each kid.  I wish that the zoom on our camera worked so that you could see how huge their smiles were.  They weren't scared at all and just wanted to go on every ride over and over again.  They were also pretty stoked about lunch.  Rocky got chicken nuggets and fries and Daisy ate a hot dog.  Brandon and I feeling like we shouldn't waste our time here still ate burritos but everything about the place seemed more like home than the other places we have been.  I like that everything in Mexico is different, but I will admit that it was kind of nice to have a break and feel normal for a couple of hours.

 Then we went to the water part and it was gorgeous.  It looked like a resort.  The day had been overcast but right as we were getting ready to swim the sun came out and we had a blast. 

 Rocky was wet before we even got changed into our swimsuits because she had gone on the Rio Rapido ride which is similar to Rattlesnake Rapids at Lagoon.  The difference was that at Lagoon there is a chance that you might come out dry, but the one there took them underneath a waterfall and every person getting off was soaked.  Luckily it was hot out.

 The kids section was super fun and had all kinds of slides.  At first they were hesitant, but once they got the hang of it, you couldn't stop them, especially Daisy.

As soon as we left the fenced in area it was right back to feeling like foreigners.  I was glad that the bus on the way home had both the Virgin and Jesus on the cross because with the driving I figured we needed all the divine intervention that we could get.  I never knew that you could bounce and bump that much and still survive.  It is a good thing that I'm not close to my due date because otherwise the public bus would definitely send me into labor.