Shine Memoirs: Yucatan Ambassadors

Mi Munaquita in her traditional embroidered Mayan huipil

While we were in Quintana Roo and the Yucatan last month, Georgia turned some heads. Most people love babies, but in Mexico people really love babies. Strangers on the street stopped to coo over her and often reached their arms out to take her from me and cuddle her for a moment before giving her back. They call her mi munequita (my little doll), mi gordita (my little fatso), mi preciosa (my precious), mi princesa (my princess). A policewoman stopped to scold me for not dressing Georgia warmly enough - yes, January on the Yucatan peninsula is technically winter, but it is very relative - then she rocked Georgia for a few moments in her arms. The best was the grandmothers doing a double-take when Christian was carrying her in the "Maya" sling and then they would break into a grin, look him in the eye and pat him on the arm.

Fellow travelers would stop to complement us on our pretty children and say wistfully, "It goes so fast," "Next thing you'll know they'll be teenagers," or "I remember when I carried my daughter everywhere." One woman even came up to apologize to us for staring and said, "It was so long ago my kids were that small." My reaction to this is always: "Thank you for stopping to admire my daughter/son." I feel so proud to be the mother of these children and happy to connect with a stranger for a moment. That is the whole point of travel, isn't it?

And we stare at kids too - Christian commented on this trip that Mexican children may be among the most beautiful in the world. We love to people watch and notice the local kids, make eye contact and smile at them and their parents. Kids have less reservations than adults and are as curious about us as we are about them. A little girl named Lupe, swimming with her little brother, drifted closer and closer to us until I said hello and we had a laughing conversation in my poor Spanish. She introduced me to her siblings, and later her mother, all on holiday from Tabasco.

Santi and Javier

Xavier made a new little buddy named Santiago on the beach and we enjoyed hanging out with his parents for the few days we overlapped. One day eating friend whole fish on the beach, a family sitting next to us smiled at us and before they left, their two little kids shyly brought Xavier a sucker. Rose, our host at the hacienda which had been in her family for seven generations, gave Xavier a yellow pinata the day we checked out. Antonio, our guide in Izlamar, stopped to ask some women to cut some fresh aloe from their garden to soothe Xavier's mosquito bites.

When traveling, the adventures and experiences make up the texture of a trip, but the people give it depth. The personal connections make the memories.

Georgia dozing happily in her Maya sling

With babe-in-arms, the Virgin Mary in Vallodolid

Climbing up a crumbling 1000-year-old temple at Ek-Balem. At the top, I panicked and regretted taking my children up, despite the uninterrupted jungle views in every direction.