I sleep in a hammock

Pictures of my family (the little woman and la señora, swimming in the spring, and on the boat.


Saturday 6/28/09 1:00 AM
Another looong, but fun day! Last night I slept so much better in the hammock! I love it!

The first thing we did today was drive almost to hours to the west coast of Yucatan to a place called Celestun Reserve. We all got in two boats and the guides took us through this brackish area. We got out of the boats at this place where we saw ruins of old buildings. We saw tons of flamingos! It was my first time seeing them in the wild! One thing that I didn’t expect from them was that when they start flying, they start by running on the water for a little while. It was pretty cool! We stopped the boats on some beaches and saw a huge dead nurse shark skeletons and stuff. Then, we rode the boats to springs which they call “ojos de agua” which means eyes of water. We got out and snorkeled in the springs. It felt sooo good to be in the cool water! I didn’t even freak out too much swimming in the water with the nasty “wet leaves” bottom!

After that we went to a restaurant on the beach. We ate a ton again. I had shrimp, and I ate a real piece of octopus! I didn’t like it. I tasted like just squishy gross. It even had the tentacles on it when I ate it!

Then, we went on this trek to see another cenote. It ended up being this thirty minute drive that could have been just 5 minutes if we didn’t have to maneuver the bus through a million pot holes! We saw trees and bushes on fire since it was so hot! We ended up getting to the cenote and didn’t even see any crocodiles! Not worth the trek. Haha (or Jaja en español).

After that we made a pit stop in this little town where we got ice cream. I got corn flavored ice cream and it was actually really good! I never really eat any dinner here. Just eat a small breakfast and a big lunch and that’s about it.

After that we came back to the school and I rode the bus all by myself back to the house and then I took the bus again alone downtown! I feel so independent now! When I got home, the granddaughter of la Señora was there and she was cute. She was five years old.

So at home I showered really quick and got ready and we all met down town. We all meaning all the ecology kids. Their names are Allison, Laura, Addison, Clay and Joe. Some people took longer than others to meet downtown. Haha. But eventually we all made it. We walked around the plaza where there was music and venders and then went to a couple restaurants. One of them had live music which was kind of cool. It’s just fun to all talk together. We only met a couple days ago, but we are the only people each other knows here so we are all friends. I like our little group! We’re all different from each other but we all get along really well.

After we hung out for a while downtown, we grabbed a couple taxi’s to go home because the buses shut down around 11. It was my first time ever in a taxi! It wasn’t too exciting but it was monumental.

Tomorrow is our first free day. I think I’ll rest and maybe go to the internet or swim at a friend’s house in the morning, but in the afternoon we are all meeting to go downtown, which has music and stuff every Sunday. I’m excited for that!

I wonder if the anthropology kids are getting along and having as much fun together as us. Probably. We’ll see the dynamic when both groups are mixed on Monday for Spanish classes.

I don’t want to come back! Merida and the Yucatan are the best!

Sunday June 28, 2009 10:20 AM

I think I forgot to describe how pretty, and cool downtown is. There are narrow streets with narrow sidewalks with little open stores all over the place. Once you get near the plaza, all of the buildings are huge and historic. It looks like something you’d see in Europe, like huge old beautiful buildings. Cathedrals and museums and hotels and everything! At night, it feels so good outside so it was wonderful to just sit outside at a table and just hang out, and walk around!

Grace always jokes that I’m going to a third world country, and it is for sure not Africa or something, but I’d say it’s similar to the nicer areas of the D.R. and I’m sure there are poorer areas. Actually, they told us there are. I mean, sanitation and safety aren’t up to America’s standards, but I don’t feel like I’m in a dirty or dangerous place at all. Actually, in the city, I feel even more safe, since so many people are walking around, families together and stuff… It’s easy to spot the other Gringo’s and missionaries. First we try to determine if they are European or American, and then we make fun of their shoebie (tourist) qualities, even though we are just as bad I’m sure.

2:43 pm

The internet cafe I usually go to down the street is closed on sundays I found out, so right now I'm downtown at a table under a tent where it is the weekly festival thing in the plaza. So cool!

I forgot to add that two days ago we were at the exact location where the meteorite hit that destroyed all dinosaurs. I was like I was on Dinosaur on animal kingdom or something! haha