The First Travel Day

Right now I’m laying the hammock that my mom gave me and hung up in my room today. I hope she lets me keep it! Last night it took a while to fall asleep again because I was hot, so hopefully this hammock will be AWESOME!

You know it’s bad when you think in Spanish. I find myself translating my thoughts from Spanish to English even when talking to the other Americans. It’s so strange! I feel like I learn more words all the time.

So, today, well, before we even got started, I over slept. Story of my life. We had to leave the house at 7:00 to catch the bus to get to the school at 7:30. My mom and the little woman came in at 6:53 when I awoke to “Julie! Julie! Su viaje hoy!” But of course, here, my name sounds like you-lee. I jumped out of bed, popped in my contacts, grabbed my stuff and ran down the stairs! Stuffed some toast and watermelon down my throat and we went out to the bus stop. Another guy’s parents saw us so gave us a ride to the place. And at the end of the day, it was such a relief that the same kid’s parents gave me a ride home!

So, our excursion for the day: We did so much, it’s hard to remember! Our group consists of 6 UF students (3 guys, 3 girls), one UF professor, one Yucatan professor, two guy Mexican students, and our driver. Everyone is laid back and cool. No wet blankets at all.

We started in this place that we got out of the bus and walked down this dirt road. We saw these really dirty sink holes, and a pig farm (Swine flu anyone?) haha. Here the sink holes are called cenotes. After that we stopped at this place where we saw this guy making things out of wood. The kind of tree was weird though, like, the inside was dark brown but suddenly it turned light brown. After that we went to a place where they were making stuff out of limestone. We saw a dead puppy next to where we parked.

Then we went to this place called Dzibilchaltún. At first it was a museum we walked through. After walking through the museum, we saw some pyramids of the Mayans. We walked around them and climbed them. It was cool because there were no other toursists around at the time at all! Then we walked on to another cenote. It was so hot, so we all jumped in, even though it looked dirty on the top. In the water, there were all these little fish, who we were told are related to paranas were biting at us! Even though it was hot, we didn’t stay in the water for too long because of the little fish.

After that was the best part! We went to Progreso, which is the closest beach town. It was the same Gulf of Mexico, but there were bigger waves. We ate at a restaurant on the beach and the food was so good! I had shrimp and rice, plus we had a ton of appetizers. My new favorite drink is, well, I forget what it’s called, but it’s white and it is basically rice juice and water. I love it! The sweet tea was different, it wasn’t sugary sweet, but limey sweet. It was really good. In the restaurant, venders kept stopping in to try to sell us stuff which was so different than in the US. We had fun sitting in the restaurant and talking and eating.

After that we went to a place with a high over look where flamingos usually are. We climbed to the top of the tower and could see so far! After that we kind of pulled into the driveway of an abandoned house on the beach and jumped into the water. It felt so good! Then we sat on the back porch or the house in the swing and just talked and stuff.

After that, we just came back! We were talking about going out on the town tonight. But I don’t know, since we have to meet again at 7 tomorrow and it’s hard to contact people to meet up. We talked about meeting up tonight on the bus on the way back, but it was raining then so we decided not to, but it’s beautiful now, so I don’t know. We’ll see.

Tomorrow we got on another trip. This time we go to the west instead of to the north. We see what it has to offer. And we’ll see how a sleep in the hammock tonight! ☺

Here are some pictures, one of my house, one of my room. My mom and the little lady didn’t want a picture taken today, but tomorrow they will be dressed for the occasion. Haha. Also is a picture at Dzibilchaltún. Click on the pictures to see the entire thing. They don't load quite right on here.