La Hacienda

We made it to Mexico! This time was a little faster because we already had our Mexican car insurance and my visa, so the border delays went from 4hours (last time) to 1 hour. The kids were really good in the car, especially now with their new Leapsters that Santa brought (best invention). Vivi plays her princess games and Tonito has a Leapfrog "getting ready for kindergarten" game. We underestimated Maya's interest and might have to remedy that with some kind of cheap knock-off handheld game:).
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So this time instead of driving to Mexico City, we first drove to a place called Lagos de Moreno, in the state of Jalisco. Actually, we drove to an hacienda 20 minutes away from Lagos on a bumpy dirt road with lots of "traffic" (see left).

The Hacienda is owned by Tonio's cousins, who have had it in their family for a while (from the other side of the family), and it is amaaaazing. It was originally built in the 1500's, with parts of it being added on throughout the years. The antique furniture alone could fill a museum and the carved wood was jaw-dropping. The lush gardens were filled with citrus, succulents, tropical flowers, palm trees, cacti, bougainvillea, etc. The ceramic, the tiles, the Talavera, the copper, aaaah. I could go on and on, but instead here is a slideshow of my frantic picture-taking, while half-watching that the kids didn't topple potted plants or jump into the fountains. Here are the pictures! This is a looong slideshow because I couldn't decide which pictures to cut- so use the fast-forward button to skip through them.

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