I have a tanline around my wrist from my hairtie.

We finally made it to Cozumel! Yaaay! No flamingos, though :(

We managed to get up (relatively) early today, so we headed back out to Playa del Carmen so we could catch a ferry to Cozumel. Once we got there, we rented a dune buggie and a jeep so we could drive around the island.

For the beginning of the day, Umma, Gianni, James and I were in the dune buggie and Oppa, Uncle Brian, and Halmony were in the Jeep. Both these cars were manual, which led to some fun adventures. Team Jeep drove off first so Team Dune Buggie (TJ and TDB from here on out) could follow. However, TJ made it maybe 20 yards before they had to pull over and wait for TDB because we hadn't moved at all. Umma was having trouble starting the car because not only was it manual, but many of its components were also broken (including the emergency brake. Aweeessssommmmeee...). Umma also put a scare into the rental car people because they were not even sure that she could drive a stick as she couldn't get it out of the parking area at first. After about 15 minutes, TDB finally got the car moving and we started to drive/inch along in first gear as the car made not-so-reassuring sounds. I'm pretty sure James and I feared for our lives because he kept repeating, "We should have just gotten two Jeeps," while I shouted more OMG's than a Gossip Girl character. During this whole ride, Umma laughed maniacally from the driver's seat and Gianni was too dignified to say anything.

Umma says that every time she goes to Cozumel, she remembers again that that's her favorite part of the Cancun trip. She just told me to write that.

Oppa says Zulu.

Anyway, we found some restaurant on the beach so we stopped there to eat and swim. Umma, Oppa, and Halmony shared a plate that had half the population of the Ocean. It looked INTENSE. Grouper, lobster, octapus, shrimp, conch, calamari, vegetables, and rice.

I'm done with blogging. James shall finish this one.


Before I start off I want to say ZUUUULLLLUUUUU.
WORD OF THE DAY: "Tope!" (spanish for speed bump)
Oppa's rule of the week: "No making fun of James"
A N D F I N A L L Y . . .
Phrase of the week: "James is regressing"
(I'm now a monkey)

Mia got the meaning of TDB wrong. It's actually Team Death Buggie. She also didn't mention that when we ate, the fly population of Mexico was trying to eat our food. Mmmmm burgers... Anyways after we ate, we decided to stay at "Paradise" Beach where everything fun costed money.

Actually it was pretty cheap (it was only $10 USD total) to do all the fun things. I sadly didn't do any of them because I'm lazy. So really it's all my fault, and I shouldn't be as bitter, but yeah. Instead of doing any of that, I snorkled and played with "Squishy". Squishy was a little hermit crab. We also saw a giant silver fish jump out of the water and splash back down.

After we left the beach, we drove a bit and went to the RASTA BAR!!!

Yay I got to have Coca-Cola. That and look at fascinating crabs in the rocks and tide pools. After the Rasta bar, we drove more and went to another rocky beach. There I discovered more crabs. The beach itself was pretty cool. It was surrounded by rocks, so all the rough waves broke against them, leaving a nice, calm, pool-like body of water.



After swimming, there was a bit of a panic as umma thought she lost the keys to the jeep in the sand somewhere. After some time spent looking we discovered that the key had attached itself to the snorkeling bag and we found it. From there, we drove for a long time, (Team Death Buggie consisted of Oppa, Uncle B, Gianni, and me, while TNCJ [Team nice, comfortable jeep] consisted of Umma, Mia, and Halmony) We drove all the way back to town and returned the cars. We also saw 4 people ride one scooter, no joke. The order was kid in front then adult, then kid, then adult on the back of the scooter.



Again only will you see this in Mexico.

Umma had to argue with the people because we returned the cars an hour late. Having too much fun. Then "we" shopped. In the meantime, five of the members of our party (Oppa, Gianni, Uncle B, Mia, and I) sat in a nice park. ZUUUULLLUUUU. Yeah Gianni, Oppa, and I were talking about Deadliest Warrior, and Ancient Rome and Greece. We then got onto the boat for Playa del Carmen. From there, we drove back, passing by dangerously placed fires within cans on the way. By dangerously placed I mean they were DANGEROUSLY PLACED. The flames were almost licking the tips of dried brush. At "home" we ate ramen. YUMM. They then made me wear some silly mask. I feel weird.

Overall today's adventure was actually fun.

SEACREST OUT... lolz



PS. I was wearing my shorts and thought that I had forgotten my swim trunks at the place. When I asked Umma about this, she was like, "Oh don't worry, just go swimming in your shorts." I was like, "Ok...". Later, at the beach, Umma noticed my shorts and started cracking up, and asking why I was shorts. She forgot that she told me that (even though I wasn't the only one who heard her say that), and would later just state that it was meant as sarcasm or a joke.


This is Mia again. I just wanted to add that Squishy was awesome and he (or she... I don't know how to tell the gender of a hermit crab...) made me miss when we used to have like 5 hermit crabs. Don't tell Bruce, though.

These are a few parts of today James didn't mention:

-Part of that $10 thing James wrote about earlier included learning to climb a fake coconut tree to reach a fake coconut.

-You know in movies where someone is holding a knife, but then they have to swim, so they carry it in their teeth while they swim? I got to do that today. I feel 35% more awesome than I did yesterday.

-We are all wearing weird white masks. Not just James. They're supposed to make our skin soft or something? I don't know, mine hasn't fallen off yet.

-Today while we were at that beach that was enclosed in sharp, dangerous rocks (like James said earlier though, the part we were swimming at was really calm because the scary rocks broke the big waves), Uncle Brian told James, "Don't pass the rocks." James, in his infinite wisdom decided that swimming around the rocks was different than passing them, and got in trouble for being a doofus.

-I am sunburnt and I think it's because of bad karma from making fun of other sunburnt tourists. Oh, except I'm still considerably less burnt than the funny ones.

-We saw a guy wearing a speedo, and collectively decided that those should no longer be allowed on men because now, even competitive swimmers have something different.

-We also watched two guys on a kayak. One fell off and as he was trying to get back on, the whole thing tipped over and both guys were in the water. It took them 5-10 minutes to get back on, and this whole time, Uncle Brian, James, and I watched and laughed. We are made of evil.

-Umma almost hit a dog , but swerved out of the way just in time :)


Anyway, I think tomorrow is a day of relaxation. Which is awesome, because it's like 3 am and Blogger still isn't uploading our pictures :(
Until tomorrow,
Mia, Uncle Brian, and Jamesie.
And Squishy, in spirit.



Wherever you are now, godspeed, little friend.

My new favorite part of traveling in a tropical area is laughing to myself at obscenely sunburnt white tourists.

We started off today late as usual, because we all need some sort of constant in our lives.

James, Gianni, Uncle Brian, Oppa and I went to Hidden Worlds, which sounds like a scary place one would typically try to avoid at all costs, but it was actually pretty snazzy. They had zip-lining, skycycles, cenotes, rappelling, spider monkeys, and jungle buggies (or as Umma called them yesterday, "Jungle Boogies"). And lots of bugs and mosquitoes.

On the drive there, we had to stop to get gas. As soon as we pulled up to the pump, it started to pour. To our left was a family of tourists in a convertible Jeep, who were probably really excited about getting a convertible until it started raining buckets. This amused us much more than it would any family of decent human beings with souls. We watched them sit in the rain for about 5 minutes until they finally decided to put up the cover, which made us really sad. Then they drove up to the convenience store attached to the gas station, except the driver's method of stopping the car involved driving until he hit the curb. I love ridiculous tourists. I love Mexico. Life is swell.

Oh by the way, see how much more exciting this blog is when we aren't being tormented by horrendous karaoke?

Back to blogging, though. The drive was a litttle over an hour, so on the trip, we played our own version of Cash Cab, which was basically Uncle Brian and Oppa asking us questions, James and I throwing out random answers, and Gianni quietly muttering the correct answers to himself. The three of us lost, though, because James kept shouting "China" and "Oakland." He also invented the state "Mexas." Remember how he won those awards? Because I sure don't.

(Justkidding,hereallyisasmartkidandI'msupposedtostopmakingfunofhim)

So anyway, we made it to the Hidden Worlds welcome center, where there was a really awesome dog that Uncle Brian and I were playing with that made us miss Brucie and Max. We sorted out stuff, jumped into wetsuits (and by "jumped," I mean wiggled uncomfortably), and took a 15-20 minute ride on a buggie into the jungle, which I suppose is why it's called a jungle buggie. If you want to know what it was like, it was a little bit like the Indiana Jones ride, except on Indy you have a seatbelt, you aren't being eaten alive by mosquitos (toes? tos? I don't know, so I'll just alternate my spelling), your driver doesn't speed towards an oncoming buggie, and there's a guarantee of reaching the other end safely without falling out. Then again, on Indy, you aren't driving through an awesome jungle.

Once we made it to the actual park, one of the staff members put us into a harness (for the skycycling, zip-lining, and rappelling), and suggested we do the skycycles first. We had the option of either a 20 minute walk through the jungle or being driven. The walk meant we'd get to see the park's spider monkey habitat, so we chose that option. Now, when you hear the phrase "spider monkey habitat," and hear about how the people at the park rescued these monkeys, you'd think it would be something really nice and awesome--essentially, a place where, if you were a spider monkey who was rescued (from I don't really know what), you wouldn't mind being relocated to paradise. The place we ended up seeing looked like a bad zoo exhibit (remember the velociraptor entrapment in Jurrasic Park with the electric fence). Three monkeys were confined in an electric fence, and one even had a leash because it was apparently outsmarting the park attendants and escaping the habitat to the snack bar. Awesome. (Again hard to believe that the park people admitted to being outsmarted by a monkey!)

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier that on this jungle walk, we were warned not to touch (or hug) trees, because there was one that was poisonous. We weren't sure which one it was, though, so we were going to use James as a test, and the rest of us were the control group. Haha. Ha. Hahahaha. We eventually found the right tree, though, but not by using James. It was labeled with a large sign. Double Awesome.

Us on the trail:
Poisonous Tree:


One of the staff members was telling us a cool legend about the tree. Apparently, the tree that the cure for the poison of the first tree always grows near the poisonous one. Legend has it that way back when, there were two Mayan princesses, one of which was really nice, and the other really mean. The mean one must have done something to piss off a witch, because the witch put a curse on her to make her into a tree (the poisonous tree). The other princess, not wanting her evil sister to kill people from her sap, asked the witch to be made into a tree that could cure whatever the poisonous tree did. And that's the non-scientific reason why they always grow together. This version of the story, by the way, is the Mia Adaptation.

Soooo anyway, we made it to the skycycles. I was going to try to describe what they were, but then I realized that I can post pictures, which is a lot easier.
This is a skycycle:

We got to ride those above the jungle canopy, which was amazing. I think we were a teeny bit apprehensive though, because they were excitedly telling us about how they designed the skycycles themselves. Greeaaaaaaat. Actually, we were harnessed in and everything, so it really wasn't bad at all.

The skycycles led to a cenote (called The Church), so we did some snorkeling.



There were really awesome stalagtite formations everywhere, and birds and bats were flying around. Oh, there was also a floating rat carcass that smelled like death. But besides that, it was really pretty. After about 20 minutes of snorkeling, we rode the skycycles back and did some zip-lining.



Super rad.

After the zip-line, we rappelled into another cenote. I've never done rappelling before, but for some strange reason, I volunteered to go first. If you've done rock climbing before, rappelling is pretty much when you reach the top of the wall and start to go down, except you control your own descent. All of this was done into a hole in the ground about 25-30 feet deep. As I was standing at the top listening to instructions, I was so nervous that if I were to have swallowed a lump of coal, it would have come out as a diamond (I used some form of this metaphor when describing the experience to Umma, and she got excited about the diamond part. Lol). Once I figured out what I was doing though, it was actually a lot of fun. Gianni posed for some fun pictures as he was going down:



Next, we zip-lined into a cenote. You know when you skip stones across water and they jump? Zip-lining into water was like doing that, except your butt was the stone. It was an interesting and unique experience. After that, we snorkeled in that cenote (this one was called Hidden Worlds), which was bigger than the previous one and had the added bonus of not having a dead rat. All jokes aside, though, they were both really really pretty, and definitely an awesome experience. Once that was done, it was pretty much closing time for the park, so we took the jungle buggie back and left.

I slept for most of the ride back (because I'm me), so I don't really know what happened. I think they did more trivia, though. When I woke up, it was really really cold in the car, so I reached into the back and grabbed a hoodie. Gianni and James were using towels as blankets. Evidently, we were all pretty cold. A few minutes later, Oppa starts yelling at us for putting the AC on really high. Too bad no one touched it but him. But anyway, it got so cold in the car that I think Oppa's getting kind of sick now :(

We got back to the place, showered, ate food, and then Uncle Brian, Umma, and I went downtown to do some shopping. On the way back, it started pouring again. We found a pharmacy, where we decided to hide from the rain and buy Oppa some vitamin C because he needs to get better before we leave. We're all afraid he's going to be quarantiened going back into the States. So anyway, Uncle Brian asked for vitamin C in kind-of-Spanish, which the woman didn't understand and Umma and I found this hilarious. Umma said we needed some vitamin C, and the woman nodded and left. While she was gone, Umma and I laughed at Uncle Brian some more until the woman came back with what we think was some Preparation-H ish medicine. We said it was the wrong thing, and she had us write down what we wanted, and then we got the right stuff. We caught the bus back to our place, got here, and now we're sitting in some other lobby that some guy told us about last night. Not many people come here to use the internet, so its like a bajillion times faster. AND there isn't any crappy karaoke! Life is awesome!!

That's about it for today. Tomorrow we do Cozumel (for real this time.. hopefully). Maybe when we go back upstairs, we'll act like ninjas and do some sneak attack on James. We'll keep you updated on that in tomorrow's post.
Until then,
Mia and Uncle Brian

According to Chabba, I will post a few blogs, then get tired of blogging. He is correct. I only blog because Umma makes me.

The only place to get wireless here is outside the bar. Tonight is karaoke night. No one here can sing. I'm dying. I think I'm going to keep this blog as short as I can because I can't take too much of this.

Seriously, this karaoke is brutal.

Anyway, today we couldn't get up on time to do Cozumel, so we decided instead to go to Tulum. Usually our Tulum trips involve us wandering around ruins in unbearable heat but today, it was actually relatively cool. We saw approximately 239832 iguanas, but keep in mind, that's a rough estimate. We wandered down to the beach so we could enjoy the sandwiches Umma packed for our lunch, and as we were eating, Oppa looked off into the distance and, noticing the intimidating dark gray color of the clouds, said, "Wow, those clouds look bad." They looked like this:


We all acknowledged Oppa's statement, but we didn't move or find shelter or anything until the life guard decided to wave everyone out of the water. Sure enough, the skies opened and we were met with torrents of rain. We ended up looking like this:


Okay, SERIOUSLY, this karaoke NEEDS TO END.

Um.. what else... Oh, Umma said that she doesn't like black garlic because she prefers white garlic. She also probably doesn't like luchador garlic because she's racist. Just kidding.

Wow, are these people for real? They just cheered like crazy for the worst rendition of an already bad Carrie Underwood song. Honestly, worst I've ever heard. Though, I don't actually listen to much Carrie Underwood karaoke, so I don't really have much of a basis for comparisson. Suffice it to say that it was really, really bad. Please put a bullet thourgh my head and end this pain!

Another karaoke song later, and I'm really glad I grew up in California where country music isn't as big as it is in other states. If this is what I listened to, I think my entire life would be a lot different. Basically it would vacuum!

Tonight we had an interesting dinner, kind of an East meets West fusion of comfort food. We had Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches with Ramen and cucumber kimchee. As odd as that may sound, it really is yummy! Ramen: 90% love and 10% noodle.


Tomorrow should be an exciting day, and we don't need to get up at an ungodly hour either. Let's not forget that we are on vacation.

Really, I can't think of anything else to write because this karaoke is so bad. It's filling my brain and I can't function properly. I think now's as good a time as any to sign off.

Tomorrow, we're doing ziplining, rapelling, snorkeling in a cenote and playing with spider monkeys. Or... something. Awesome!
Until then,
Mia and Uncle Brian

Oh, here's a video, because we've been waiting to use this feature of the blog since day 1

I tried to convince someone else to blog today, but no one cooperated

For this blog, I will post pictures in a way that requires you to scroll. This way, it's more interactive for you. Enjoy.

So today was another one of those days where James, Gianni, and I didn't wake up until like 12:00, so half the day was wasted. The plan for tomorrow involves waking up, getting ready, and heading out by 8. I don't even do this for school anymore, so we'll see how that works out.

Today we drove to Playa del Carmen. James, Gianni and I sat in the backseat and quickly discovered that the middle seat had no seat belt. Godspeed, Jamesie. In all actuality, though, it was a smooth ride--that is, until Oppa didn't notice a speed bump on the highway. By the time he noticed, it was too late to slow down completely, so not only did we create a screeching, movie sound effect-worthy noise, but the three of us in the back bounced up and hit our heads against the ceiling. Good times.

We arrived at Playa del Carmen and wandered around in the sweltering heat for a million years, whlie Umma stopped at every other restaurant asking for conch. During this time, all of us except Halmony were tring to convince Umma to buy a Luchador mask (Mexican Wrestling Mask, Fig. 3A) to add to her mask collection. When I first suggested it, she said, "No, that's silly." We all then proceeded to accuse her of being racist and not appreciating the cultural activity that is Mexican wrestling. At some point, she tried to get help from Oppa by claiming that she wasn't allowed to shop, to which Oppa replied, "Oh no, you can go ahead." It was awesome. She still hasn't gotten one though, and I don't think she's going to. It's a pity because it would have looked great on James' face 24/7. One of the restaurants we walked by was right off the beach, so we got a nice beachy view (Fig. 3B)

After wandering, we came to the conclusion that we weren't going to find conch until we made it to Cozumel, so we ate at a place that had a bar with swings. I had shrimp tacos, Oppa had Pescado Mayan, Gianni had vegetarian quesadilla, James had fish sticks and marinated mushrooms, Uncle Brian had Chicken Mole, Halmony had fried calamari, and Umma had Chile Relenio, and we all shared a plate of nachos and guacamole*. It was good. We were happy (Fig. 3C)

Next, we went to Royal Haciendas, which was a little cheesy, but it had hammocks (Fig. 3D), so we were all content, except Oppa, who fell off his hammock. Umma, Oppa, and I decided to go swim in the beach (Fig. 3E). We were the only people there. No joke. A few minutes later, James decides to join us, and as he's wading into the water, Umma starts shouting so that he can see us and find us easier. I'm not kidding when I say we were the only people in the water, though. I drew a diagram with the help of MS Paint in order to relate to you how empty the beach was (Fig. 3F). True to form, our family has to be the loudest--and often, the only--people in sight.

I think we all got tired of the beach after a little bit, so we headed out. James, Umma, and Uncle Brian swam in the pool for awhile, and then we headed to the car and back to Cancun. I slept through most of the car ride, because I fall asleep anywhere/everywhere, but apparently I missed some woman cursing out some poor man who slowed down to get out of the way or the ambulance and then proceded to honk at the ambulance because it wouldn't get out of her way. I love Mexico and God help us all if we ever need a hospital. Awesome!

Then we went to downtown Cancun to do a little shopping and noticed, that although it was hopping with locals, there were no tourists in sight anywhere. As we drove by the local bar scene and shopping area, which is typically packed, again nothing but empty bars and restaurants and closed down businesses. Pretty sad how the swine flu scare has impacted the local area. Better for us though, less people and more to do.

We all thought pigs would fly before Cancun would be empty.......... O well Swine Flu ha ha ha! ;0)

Tomorrow, we're off to Cozumel in search of the ever elusive flamingos.
Until then,
Mia and Uncle Brian


Fig. 3A:

Fig. 3B:

Fig. 3C:


Fig. 3D:
Fig. 3E:

Fig. 3F**:
*This sentence is an homage to Alea's food blogging :)
**I tried to label everything in this picture, but the version that got posted is far too small to read. The black L is a chair, the red thing is an umbrella, and the little gray dots are people. The big one close to the shore is James, and the little ones farther out are Umma, Oppa, and me.

We shall start today with a picture.

This is a picture of James at his graduation, holding his superduper I'm-an-awesome-student-AND-person scholarship, his Computer Geek award, and wearing a gold cord for First Honors, a white and blue cord for being a part of Student Council, and a red sash with a pin from the President. I forget what that last one signified, but I think it's safe to assume it meant something good. Evidently, James is a pretty smart kid. Keep this in mind for some of the stories that follow for today (or for the rest of this trip, as he's proven himself to have regressed in common sense in the past few days).

Oppa and Gianni arrived today and then we went swimming. Uncle Brian, Oppa, and I went downstairs first, and decided to wait for everyone in the lobby. A few minutes later, Umma, Halmony, and Gianni arrive. Without James. Uncle Brian asks where James is. Umma asks if we're kidding. We are not. We ask if they're kidding. They are not, either. Everyone awkwardly looks at each other for a few minutes, and for some reason, we're all smiling. No one is nearly as concerned as we should have been. Uncle Brian and Gianni go back upstairs to look for him and come downstairs empty-handed. We decide to proceed to the beach (because this is what any loving family logically would do) and look for him there; however, once we make it to the beach, we can't see James anywhere. We all begin to express mild concern, so Uncle Brian heads back upstairs to the room to see if he's there.

Apparently, little Jamesie decided right as everyone was walking outside that it was a good idea to go to the bathroom (#2, in case you wanted to know, which you probably didn't). By the time he came outside, we were all gone. Lol. Uncle Brian found James sitting on the couch watching tv wondering where everyone had gone. Huh? Is this kid for real?

Other things James did today that make us all question not only whether he's ready for high school, but ready for any situation that would put him in a real-life scenaro in which he'd have to make his own educated judgments:

-While we were eating this morning, everyone in the world warned him about the food being really hot. He acknowledges this, then places a spoon full of food in his mouth and proceeds to burn his tongue on the hot food. The real kicker is how surprised he looked that the food was hot and he actually got burned.

-He almost drowned in the ocean. He also spent like half an hour trying to catch a very small fish he saw because Uncle Brian promised him an Xbox game if he caught it with his hands and $250 cash if he could catch it with his mouth alive.

Can't wait to find out what James does tomorrow. Hopefully we will have some video to post on this blog by the end of the week.

Anyway, today was a pretty mellow day. Other than losing James for a good 30 minutes, we just ate a lot and swam and lounged at the pool and beach. Life is rad.


Everyone is pretty tired and Uncle Brian and Mia are the only one's still up. Uncle Brian is really happy because not only is life rad but he got drunk with oppa on Pina Coladas watching the Lakers win their 15th championship. Awesome!

Tomorrow should be a another day of chillaxing since we are heading to the new Royal resort in Playa Del Carmen to do some snorkeling, lounging, and swimming. Peace out til tomorrow! Signing out for the night!

Cancun smells like the Jeep

So Umma sent me and Uncle Brian downstairs to blog. I don't think she's going to be prepared for what to expect from this.

Anyway, our trip was preceded by a night of stressful packing and throwing stuff together at the last minute. During this frantic period, James, the scholarship-winning Garbagnati, decides it's a good idea to play with the hamster. And by "play with," I mean drop. This resulted in half of our family on the ground with flashlights looking under furniture. Good times. We eventually found her, and then I introduced her to Bruce, which probably scared both of them equally.

We went to sleep at like 3 only to wake up at 4 and spend a good 12 hours traveling. Awesome. I slept through approximately 98% of the three flights it took to get us here. I deserve an award. Oh, PS- I was in the center for every leg of the trip, too, and I still managed to sleep through it all. I rock.

Hmm, what else... I'm not as good at thorough, novel-esque blogging as Alea is, so I feel like everything I'm saying is incoherent and irrelevant. Um. Oh, speaking of Alea, Umma says to tell you we miss you.

OH, fun moments in getting here:
-We had to fill out like three forms each, as opposed to the customary one form per person.
-Because of the concerns regarding swine flu, one of the forms we had to fill out was a sheet assesssing our health. Apparently, Uncle Brian also had his temperature taken. Lawlz
-They had to check a few of our bags because they saw food. They opened it to find this:
We are officially the Asian-est family in existance. The guy opened the bag, saw this, looked at us, looked back at the bag, looked at us again, and finally said something to the effect of, "I think you guys are fine." And we were allowed to go. :)

Then we went to the place and made some of that lovely Ramen and looked like this:

We also had Salami, but I'm afraid of Google Image searching "Salami love"


Anyway, that's about it for today.

And Uncle Brian needs to find a place in Cancun that will be showing the Laker Game tomorrow. Go Lakers!

Aaaand we'll end with this:


By the way, it took James like 293874293 times to figure out how to take that picture, because apparently he was born in the 1890's. Good thing he got that Computer award.

Until tomorrow,
Mia & Uncle Brian