This past Wednesday Kim and I had some people from my conversation club over for lunch.

Of course we made them brownies for dessert as you can see from their teeth. From the left are Manuel, Eli, Yareli, Karla, Laura, Kim and in front are Laura, Misael, and Allan.

We made them chicken casserole for lunch so they could try something American. Good thing we made a couple casseroles because one of the glass dishes exploded in the oven! We had waited forever for them to get hot....I guess it finally got hot enough.

This past week there were no classes Thursday or Friday, so I had planned on leaving Thursday morning to go to a small town called Acaponeta with my friend Karla. While she was at our house Wednesday afternoon her dad called and said we were leaving in 3 hours. So I packed a backpack real quick and soon we were on our way to Acaponeta about 4 hours away.

Karla and her new friend named Pirata.

Karla's parents Consuela and Ernesto. They are from Acaponeta, the small town where we went.

One day of our trip we went to Mazatlan, a beach about an hour and a half away from Acaponeta.

I really like the beach of Mazatlan. It is one of the beaches that Amy and I visited last summer when we were traveling for several weeks. Usually the waves at this beach are really strong though and you can't go far into the ocean. While we were there this trip, Karla and I actually saw a couple drowning and waving for help. Thankfully, the lifeguard got there in time. After seeing that we got in the ocean but made sure we weren't out really far.

Karla and I at the boardwalk in Mazatlan.

I feel like I was constantly eating this whole past weekend! Since her parents don't live in Acaponeta anymore they like to eat all of their favorite things when they go and visit so we ate a lot. The picture below is of a woman making churros, which I think I've explained before is basically deep fried dough rolled in sugar.

This churros were different from the ones here in Guadalajara, but they were good! How can you go wrong with fried dough and sugar?

Two days of our trip we went to a beach called Novillero, about 20 minutes from Acaponeta. All along the beach there are seafood restaurants of course. I am not a fan of seafood, but they kept talking about how good the fish was there so I decided to try it. I actually ended up eating 4 fish tacos, and I liked it. The fish was so fresh that it didn't even taste fishy.

Novillero was completely different from Mazatlan. Mazatlan is lined with restaurants and hotels and Novillero only has a few seafood restaurants. Mazatlan is becoming very touristy and Novillero is a beach that locals go to. The first day we were there was a holiday so it was pretty crowded and I felt like every eye was on me, the only American there. The beach of Novillero is about 50 miles long, making it the 6th longest beach in the world.

Like I said above about Mazatlan, most of the beaches here in Mexico have really strong waves. The waves at Novillero though aren't strong at all and the water is really warm. We were in the ocean up to our chest and didn't hardly feel any pull. Also, all you feel on the bottom of the ocean is sand. Karla's dad had said we wouldn't feel a single rock and I first I wasn't sure I believed him but after being in the ocean several hours we never felt a single one. As far as being able to swim in the ocean, this has been the best beach I've been to in Mexico.

Karla's dad, her cousin Abril, and me at the river in Acaponeta, which you can tell is really dried up right now.


I really liked visiting Acaponeta. It's a really small town where everyone says "Good morning" to people they pass and people always see someone they know. I liked having a break from a city of 6 million. Below is a picture of some of the town, courtesy of Karla's little cousin.

Karla and I on our last morning in Acaponeta.

The small plaza in the center of Acaponeta.