Mack's 2010 Trip #6 – Children's Day at Zizima

A post from Mack:
After changing into swim clothes, we started out the day playing on rings in the wave pool. I think that was the favorite activity for all of our kids, and they probably would've been happy staying there all day. The wave machine was turned on occasionally to add excitement, and about every 15 minutes, a big barrel filled with water and dumped down onto the heads of the children waiting eagerly below. (You can see it in action in the background of the photo of Victor's three boys)

Our "camp" was set up in the shade near the wave pool, where the mothers sat in chairs and guarded our stuff. We would return there for drinks, breaks from play, and (in my case) to switch out camera batteries. All was well until we tried to venture forth into other portions of the park.

I was afraid that my older kids were getting bored in the wave pool, so I petitioned the group to relocate to the slide area. Chaos ensued at that point … well, for me, anyway. I wanted to go down the water slides with my boys, but I also wanted to be on hand to document every moment of our park experience on film*. This task turned ugly, because now everyone was scattered hither and yon. Most of our group members were engaged in the cycle of zooming down a slide, then hiking back to the top to go again (happily, the lines to ride were nowhere near as bad as they get in the U.S.). But the slides were too scary for some of the younger kids, so Sam and Darwin disappeared into the kiddie area and Victor took Carlos on a float around the circular "river". Somewhere during all of this, little Wilmer was discovered missing. An immediate hunt took place, and he was quickly located playing by himself in "Laguna de los Micos". (I have looked up the Spanish translation of "micos" and have learned that it means either a long-tailed monkey or the external parts of a woman's genitals. I assume the park was aiming for the former definition, because their mascot is a monkey.)

*I should mention that I was using my scuba diving camera, so I was free to frolic in the water and take endless photos all at the same time.

We re-grouped and returned to the wave pool, while Victor went to order lunch for everyone. This was where the park's over-population problem really hit us. The line to order food was long, and the line to pick it up even longer. Eventually, though, we were all seated with our drinks and chicken boxes. Ick. At least it was inexpensive chicken, as I heard Victor saying that the bill for feeding 23 people was only $60. Sixty is the magic number at Zizima, I guess.

After lunch, I brought out about eight inflatable beach balls for the kids to toss around. First, they had to be inflated, which proved to be a difficult task. Jonathan was able to blow his up right away, and Axel eventually managed one. I'm not sure how the rest got done, but the kids had a really great time once the balls were round and ready to go! The older ones showed off their soccer moves, while the little ones just knocked 'em all over the place. At 15 cents each (on a post-summer bargain table), the beach balls were well worth the money I spent!

The kids were allowed to play for probably longer than they should've been … but all too soon, we were told it was time to leave …

To be continued …