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The after math of what the tsunami did to the town in Colima. (Emalie Ortega/ Lincoln Lion Tales)

Mexico Trip 2016

It is January 2016, and my family and I went to Mexico for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. It took so much planning and patience for this to happen in the new year. There was about 70+ people going from the United States and were all family. This trip was the first time in a very long time that the entire family would go on a vacation together.

Friday, January 8th was the day we were leaving, and it was hectic. We all felt like we were going to miss our plane because we had so much to carry and bring over to Mexico. The first day we got there we arrived in Guadalajara around 8:00 pm, and we rushed to our town called Zacoalco De Torres to go to a party that my grandparents were throwing. It wasn’t no ordinary party, it was a type of party where you had to dress up really fancy. That party ended up having 1000 guests and was not over until 3:00 in the morning. Over there in Mexico they call their money pesos, and we had to get the hang of how they paid with it because the exchange rate was something I was not used to.

The town where we are from is small in some ways but big in others. Everyone knows each other and are all so friendly. Every morning we would walk to the “plaza,” the center of town, where everybody goes and buys food and hangs out with their loved ones. People to get their morning runs on they go to the “Calzada” its this really long dirt road going towards a huge mountain. It’s 4 miles long and has nothing but the view of the mountains that surrounded the town. My cousins and I would run that road every day before we would start our day or ride our ATV’s on it.

 The adults planned a trip to go to a beach that was in this town called Colima, it was about 4 hours away so we ordered a huge coach bus for the family. The bus ride there was a crazy; a fun 4 hours for everyone! We kept our selves busy and entertained by playing “heads up” and “telephone.”   When we finally got to the beach, we all were so amazed and blown away because you don’t see crystal clear water in San Jose.

We walked around for a bit looking at the environment and buildings because it looked kinda off.  We asked some locals that lived there what had happened and they said “a tsunami hit just 2 months ago.” It was probably one of the most disturbing and most devastating thing I had ever seen because everywhere you looked and walked was destroyed and wrecked.

There were parts of buildings and metal and wood going into the ocean, buildings sliding to the side, the road was covered in sand and debris all over the place. The town looked abandoned and had “RIP, missing” written all over the walls of the town. We then walked down towards the beach and set up our tents there and went into to the ocean for a couple hours.

The day of the wedding was a really emotional and crazy day. We all woke up at 6:00am to start the day, our hairstylist came and styled hair for 18 people, and all of the my older cousins did each others makeup. By 12:00pm everyone was dressed and ready to take pictures and head to the church.

When we arrived at the church there was about 200 people there and we all right away got nervous and felt sick, as we all entered the church and sat down in our assigned rows we all stood up and were listening to the priest. My two older sisters started to feel sick and noxious and moments later my sister fainted and we had to call the ambulance but the church still kept on going.

Later that night we arrived at the hall which my family owns. It’s the biggest hall there in the town and there was about 350 people there! The night didn’t end until 4 in the morning.  The next day, we had what we call a “recalentado.”  It’s like a little after party the next morning to open gifts and eat the leftover food with everyone.

This vacation had to be the most amazing and best vacation yet because not only did we go to Mexico, we went to places you couldn’t find or see in California. The town I’m from is different from other towns in Jalisco because everyone is literally always helping one another out. The community is always together and doing stuff to keep them smiling.

The little time I was there really opened my eyes because there are some kids who don’t even have a house to live in, or clothes, or food. I really had an eye-opener when I was in Mexico.