We spent the next day resting and recovering from our big adventure the day before. We found out that all the kids from the orphanage were coming to the hotel to spend Christmas so on Christmas Eve we went back to the mall in Tapachula to get some gifts for the kids. We had a problem though since there were going to be between 30-40 boys and girls aged from 7 to 18. How do we find gifts for such a diverse group? We were saved when we returned to the Mini Panda Chinese store and found they had red envelopes. Red envelopes are colorful little Chinese envelopes that Chinese parents use to give money to kids on Chinese New Year. They are also used to give money to kids on birthdays and other holidays. This would be perfect, every boy or girl age 7 -18 can use money. We bought 40 red envelopes, went to the bank to get change and put 100 pesos into each envelope. Gifts done and with a dash of cultural education to boot. There was even a Chinese lady who worked at the store with whom Holly had a good time chatting. It is easy to make friends from your home country when you are travelling elsewhere.
The mall had a trampoline jump business so Olivia had a great time jumping around an hour for 99 pesos. At the end of the hour she was completely sweaty from the exercise. If I bounced as hard as her I would have collapsed in 5 minutes. Ah the energy of youth.
Finally we stopped by the Walmart to buy some pool floats for the party before having dinner at Lonng Gua. The food was decent and the portions huge so I rated the place an 8 out of 10 for Mexico. After that we looked for a taxi but most of them wanted 300 pesos to go to Puerto Madero but after several tries we were able to get one to take us for 200.