It was our final day in Mexico, as we drove the rest of the way home today. We woke up nice and early at our hotel and ate a quick breakfast before getting back on the road. After a few hours of driving, we came across our favorite quesadilla stand in Villa Ahumada and had to stop for one last snack. We also did a little last minute shopping at the souvenir stands.

After our early lunch it was off to the border. Once we got there, we were able to cross quick and easy. It was much faster than how it was for us coming in to Mexico. Jill and Quinn had to catch their flight home back to Colorado at the airport in El Paso, so we made sure to get them there first. It’s always so hard saying goodbye to part of our group.

After our stop at the airport, it was off to Las Cruses to drop Elli off at NMSU so she could get her car before driving back home for winter break.

Now it was only four of us left to drive back to the Albuquerque area. First we dropped off Angelo, then followed by Carmenza.

Soon enough it was just my dad and I left to get back home. We got back safely with not much to report. While today was not the most eventful, we had a good time traveling home together. Overall we have to say it was a successful trip. Even though we had our car/trailer issues, everything else went smoothly. We want to thank everyone who supported our trip this year as we could not do it without you all. That’s all for this year, and we will be back next year for more! Bye!

Today was our first day of traveling back home, and we got to sleep in a little before checking out of our hotel. While my dad went to quickly stop by the orphanage to pick up a few things, the rest of us explored the town and it’s many shops. While we were shopping, we befriended a stray dog that seemed to really like us. He followed us to each store and waited outside while we shopped. We lovingly named him Charlie.

Once our group reunited, we decided to quickly stop at a museum dedicated to the art and history of the Tarahumara people. Unfortunately, every single one of us forgot to take pictures so we don’t have much to share about that, but it was very interesting and educational. After our learning journey we were greeted by Charlie waiting for us at the front door.

Before leaving the town of Creel, we made sure to finally take one group pic in-front of the town’s sign. Don’t worry, Charlie made sure that he was in the picture too.

We then started our drive to Cuauhtémoc where we would stay the night. Our car rides are long, but are always filled with fun conversations and debates. It is never a dull time traveling with the group. Soon enough though we drove out of the mountains and through many little towns before making it to Cuauhtémoc. Angelo heard about a place that sells very good micheladas, so we stopped to check it out. The bar had many options to customize their drinks, and Jeff and Angelo each made theirs perfect.

Soon enough we were back on the road, and decided to stop for some dinner once we got into the city. A steak house/taqueria became the group choice, and it ended up being very delicious.

After dinner it was back to the hotel room from some card games, showers and bed.

It was a day full of driving, but it’s nothing compared to our long stretch tomorrow. I’ll make sure to update on any other fun adventures we have, but till then that’s all for today! I’ll leave you all with another picture of Charlie who my dad would not let us keep. Goodnight!

Today we had a ton of activities planned, including a food distribution, bingo night and a movie! We started the day with our food distribution. Before our trip started we ordered tons of different types of food to be delivered to the orphanage in Creel where the kids put individual bags together for us to give out to people.

We distribute this food to Tarahumara families living in the mountains who otherwise don’t have easy access to it. We put together the necessities including beans, rice, sugar, lard, oil, oats, dried milk, masa, canned food, soap, and candy/toys for the kids.

The dirt road to our distribution location is very bumpy and uneven. Getting to where we need to be can be rough, and it’s a miracle that we haven’t had any issues in all of the past years. This year we were not as lucky unfortunately. As we were on our last stretch of the drive, and we could see the groups of people waiting for us in the distance, we hear a loud sound and feel resistance from our trailer. We all quickly hop out of the van to see what’s going on, thinking that maybe the muffler fell again, but my dad quickly yells out that the part of the trailer had bent in half.

We all started brainstorming on what we should do, as we had so much stuff to haul down the mountain. We finally settled on driving down with just the van to see if anyone had a truck that we could use to haul our bags down. Luckily, there was someone with a pickup truck that followed us up the mountain. It was even better that we had a volunteer group of kids from the orphanage who wanted to help us give out food, as we really needed extra hands getting everything situated.

After two trips with the truck we were able to get everything down the mountain to where it needed to be.

After our little delay, we were finally able to start giving out food to the people who needed it. The women and children lined up for a bag, and one by one we started to hand them out.

While half of us gave out food, the other half gave our candy, toys, jackets and basketballs to the kids there.

Besides us losing our faithful trailer, it was a successful food drive. Lots of people were able to get some essentials, and lots of kids were able to get some goodies. We also got to see many animals such as pigs, goats, horses and cows. Once we cleaned everything up and said our goodbyes, we went and evaluated the trailer situation. We determined that there was no hope for it, and sadly we had to let it go. It ended up being gifted to a local who could fix it later and be able to use it. It will be missed as it always accompanied us on our yearly Mexico adventures.

Once we arrived back in Creel, we stopped at the orphanage for a delicious lunch provided by Lupe and her team. It was just what we needed after a busy morning. We all agreed that the tamales were some of the best we have every had, and there was so much variety. We got cheese and green chile, pork and red chile, and dessert tamales.

We then headed back to the hotel to freshen up before our big night of activities that we had planned for the kids. Our first thing on the agenda was our legendary yearly bingo game. We started this tradition years ago during one of the first trips. It has consistently been voted the kids’ favorite part of us visiting, even more than our Christmas night. Thanks to many generous donations, we were able to have lots of fun prizes for the kids to choose from.

A lot of the kids are really young, and are still learning their numbers. So, we have one of us stationed at each table to make sure none of the younger kids are missing numbers being called out, and to make sure everyone understands how to play.

We played multiple rounds with the kids, and tried to make sure everyone had a chance to win a prize. These kids take their bingo very seriously, and there is always so much excitement in the room when we have our tournaments.

Once the last prize had been won, we sent the kids to their dorms so that we could transform the room into a movie theater. We set up a projector and moved all the benches to form rows. We popped popcorn and got cake ready for all the kids to enjoy while they watched the movie.

Since there is no movie theater near Creel, we like to bring the newest popular movie for them to watch. This year we brought Encanto as we felt it would be a big hit with the kids.

Naturally, the movie was a big hit, The kids especially liked the dancing donkeys and funny jokes throughout the movie. We can always tell when they are really enjoying it as there is no talking and their eyes are glued to the screen. We hope this will a new favorite edition to their DVD collection.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. After the movie was over it was time to give final hugs, as we will start driving home tomorrow. Everyone wanted to give their Tío Jeff a big hug before going off to bed. It’s always sad saying goodbye, but we will be back next year with more Christmas fun. It was a long day with many ups and downs, and we have declared this trip one of the worst when it comes to car/trailer issues. Besides that though it was very successful when bringing excitement and happiness to all the kids, and making sure they had fun. We already can’t wait for next year! Tomorrow starts our two day journey back home, so stay tuned for more updates on our adventure. Goodnight!

After getting a good night’s sleep, we were recharged and ready to continue hanging out with the kids. After breakfast, we brought out tons of PlayDoh, as it is one of the kids’ favorite activities.

One of the coolest parts about the places we visit here are all of the animals that can be found. At the La Junta orphanage, as well as in Creel and all over Chihuahua, there are so many different ones to be seen. We had to include pictures of our favorites today as the blog would not be complete without them.

After having lots of fun with PlayDoh and all of the animals, we sadly had to say our goodbyes to the kids at La Junta and start heading over to Creel. We gave hugs and high-fives before piling back into the van to start the drive as it is about three hours to get there from La Junta. It’s a steep drive with very curvy roads up the mountain to get to Creel, but we finally made it.

Once we got to the Creel orphanage we greeted everyone before detaching our trailer and parking it in the courtyard. We had to go quickly check in to our nearby hotel and freshen up before dinner. Once we returned to the orphanage we had an awesome dinner waiting for us (plus tres leches cake for dessert.) So we sat down with all the kids and ate.

After dinner, we could tell the kids were very excited to finally open their presents. We helped clean and move the tables to make room for all the presents to be brought in.

Once again, one by one we handed each kid their gift.

After we made sure everyone got their gift, we gave the signal that it was time to start unwrapping! The kids wasted no time to start opening gifts, and there was so much excitement in the room as everyone finally got to see what they got!

Just as quickly as they opened presents, the kids grabbed all their new toys and ran back to their dorms to have more space to play. All of us went ahead and started cleaning up all the wrapping paper and toy boxes while they played. It was definitely a successful night, and we could tell that the kids were very happy.

After such a fun night, our group headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. We have another very busy day tomorrow so stay tuned!

Today marks our first official day as a group traveling down to Mexico. Yesterday, my dad (Jeff), Carmenza, Angelo and I (Suzi) drove to El Paso where we picked up Quinn at the airport. We reunited with Elli and Jill today and finally completed our group.

After a quick Starbucks run we headed down to the border where we waited for about 2 hours before being able to cross.

Our traditional first stop is always the food stands in Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua where we get the best asidero cheese quesadillas with roasted jalapeño sauce to put inside.

One of Jeff’s favorite things to do here is buy some of the local snacks. His top choice is the chapulines (grasshoppers).

After we ate, it was time to get back on the road and start heading to La Junta where we will have Christmas with the kids there. About an hour and a half on the road we hit quite a large pothole, but didn’t think much of it. After about twenty minutes we hear a loud sound come from under the van followed by screeching. We quickly pull over to find out our muffler partially fell down and was scraping the road. Luckily, Jeff and Angelo knew just what to do to quickly repair our muffler and get us back on the road.

As we were driving we came across a Mennonite grocery store and decided to take a quick pit stop. While we were there to just use the restrooms, we stumbled across the biggest bag of cheese puffs we had ever seen.

Of course we had to buy it…

Once we loaded them into the van we were back on the road to La Junta. Due to our hold up at the border, muffler issues, and cheese puffs we got to the orphanage a little late. It was around 11:00pm and we thought everyone would be asleep and we would have to do Christmas in the morning. But we were wrong. We were greeted at the door by all the kids excited to open their gifts. We asked if they wanted to wait till tomorrow but they did not want to wait at all. While half of us unloaded all the gifts, the rest of us distracted them outside with loads of light up toys.

Soon enough we had all the gifts out and accounted for, and all the kids ran back inside.

One by one we called each kid up to claim their gift and made sure to tell them not to open until everyone had their present.

Finally it was time! All the kids got to open their presents, and it was crazy! We all rushed around trying to help kids open boxes and put batteries into toys. There was so much energy and excitement even though it was late. We could tell how happy everyone was with their new presents.

It was an extremely exciting night, and we were so tired by the end of everything. Once we helped clean up all the wrapping paper we finally got to settle down into the dorms provided by the orphanage.

It was a very long and exhausting day! We need to get some sleep because tomorrow we have to be up early to start heading to our next location in Creel, Chihuahua. Goodnight!