Just do coke

Domingo 12 de Julio, 2009 5:51 PM

Today marks the middle day of my Mexico adventure. Halfway through. La Señora keeps talking about how close it is to the end and I’m like, “whatever shut up don’t even think about that.” In my head of course. Out of my mouth comes something like “No habla sobre el fin. No es importa. No quiero pensar sobre el tempo que salir!”

Another flipping awesomely cool weekend. I’ll start with the night before the trip in which was the Mambo Café Experience. Us girls met at Kiana’s house and then caught taxis together, and the guys just met us there. Getting to her house was slightly complicated, but we eventually made it. Mambo Café was the most fun I’ve had at a club. It looked all tropical inside and the music was good and then all of the sudden the screens playing music videos were gone and there was a live salsa band. It was way more fun than the clubs I’ve been to in Gainesville, even better than that one time we went to Jewish night and saw all the dreidels and menorahs on the walls. Haha. It was a ton of fun. Got home around 2, met at the school at 7:30 AM.

Thursday
Usually, we have gotten a probably 20 passenger bus for the around 13 of us who travel around, but this time, at the school when our bus pulled up, it was a 13 passenger van, for our furthest trek yet. At first we had our complaints, considering it was a four hour drive initially, but after the first day we didn’t mind the intimate bonding of the van too much.

Our first stop that day was in Cancún, basically just to say we’ve been there. We were in a different state, too. Quintana Roo. So after I get back from Mexico I will have been to 46 USA states, 2 Canadian Provinces, and 3 Mexican states. For those of you who did not know that Mexico had states, they do. I’ve been living in Yucatan this whole time, and this weekend we were in Quintana Roo and next week we will be in Campeche. No worries mom, I sang the crossing the state boarder song.

So now I can say I’ve been to Cancún. It consisted of stepping out of the bus, and standing on the beach for about 10 minutes before getting back in the bus for another hour or so. It was basically Orlando, WetnWild and all, but on the prettiest blue beach I’ve ever seen.

The first place we went to that day was a botanical garden near Cancún/Tulum. It was extremely hot. We hiked for two hours, looking at plants and a few ruins. We realized that every day we are outside all day in more than 100 degree, humid weather. All day we just are sweating and constantly drinking (even though you definitely call tell it’s hot, unlike in Merced) and I guess we just get used to always being hot. One of the cool things at the gardens was a high wire bridge we crossed in the trees. I didn’t even freak out at all like in Canada. At the end of the botanical garden hike, we saw some spider monkeys swinging from tree to tree. That was a first!

That night we stayed at a hotel called Akumal Beach Resort. It was all inclusive, which was a cool feeling, being about to just walk up and get a food or drink for with no money. It had a really cool pool, and that night we all sat on the beach and just talked as usual, and then we got to see a turtle lay eggs in the sand. I think it was my first time seeing that, so it was sweet.

Just laying hotel rooms with A/C is like heaven, considering I don’t even have AC at my house. I slept so, so well, at all of the hotels.

Friday
The next morning at the Akumal resort, we got up early and went snorkeling off the beach. We saw coral, and swam with turtles! There was one turtle with some fish on it’s back! My favorite was a baby turtle swimming around, it was so cute! The water was only like 6 feet deep, so they would come up for air right next too us!

We didn’t really like the Akumal as much as the other places we’ve stayed at just because it didn’t feel Mexican. Everyone spoke English and there were activities and the food had no authenticity of anything. One thing about every place that we have been to though, is that they all seem abandoned. The combination of the economic situation, and the swine flu media scare, have for sure paid a toll on all these restaurants and hotels. It’s like we are the only ones there! We stay at these really nice places, like the one the second night that used to be a club med, and we were wondering if all of the money of our program is just put towards these luxury hotels, but then we found out that a room was just like $70 a night, and there’s 2 or 3 people in it. Mexico is the place to go! No gringos are left and it’s cheap! Ignore all swine flu, drug violence media garbage.

After swimming with the turtles, we went to Tulum archeological site. If I was a Mayan back in the day, I would totally pick Tulum to live at, it’s on the BEACH! It was so pretty there. The other ruins we had seen were kind of in the desert, but this was so tropical and there was a great cenote nearby! The most funny moment there was when Allison was going to do the ZTA symbol on an iguana, and all the sudden it ran, and we all screamed and I got the BEST picture of her face, screaming in shear terror of the iguana!

I really liked the next hotel we went to that night! The rooms looked like caves, and the pool was sweet. That night and the next morning, we had to eat at this sketchy restaurant. There were dead flies in the honey, and these eggs Clay and Joe got smelled like fresh poop. There was a little girl who’s dad owned the restaurant and she grabbed a drink out of the refrigerator and we were joking like she was stealing it, or that the little four year old worked there. It was so funny. I’m trying to write in more jokes that we had even though no one that reads this will understand the comedy probably, but I don’t want to forget. Actually, we are constantly joking, having our “nice days” and “mean days,” so that we don’t kill each other. It’s good that we are all friends, more like siblings, because it’s not like we CHOSE to spend every second together, bickering and joking. But we all get along, and never run out of conversation.

So, after dinner that night, we had to walk on the side of the road to find herpes AKA herps AKA frogs and bugs. Looking back, it is kind of strange that we were walking along a Mexican highway, in the middle of no where, looking for animals. I just got the image of Laura against the wall in my head.

I’m really glad that we have gotten to see the WHOLE Mexico. We had been seeing the nature and villages like Macganu, and cities, like Merida, but now we saw the tourist area, where you don’t even have to see Mexico, while in Mexico.

So I made Office characters for us. Not relationship wise, but personality wise, and kind of authoritative wise, within the group:
Me: Holly, Laura: Merideth, Allison: Phyllis, Clay: Ryan, Joe: Andy, Addison: Oscar, Mark: Michael, Roger: Pam. I didn’t do the Mexican guys though, cause it’s not always easy to peg someone’s personality, but they are all super nice and funny. Oh, how we love Roger. Our Mexican professor. He always gets the job done and is so sweet and nice!

Saturday
Saturday was for sure a coolest thing I’ve ever done day! Poor Mark was under the weather Friday night and Saturday morning, but Roger got the job done. First we went to some ruins called Cobá. They were the second favorite I have seen because they were more in a rain forest, and there were trees growing on them and through them, and it was just so cool! We climbed the biggest ruin there, the other girls kind of freaked out by the steep height factor, but I was really proud of them for getting to the top.

Next was the coolest part ever, we went to this cenote and it was in a cave! We had to go down these winding stairs, and at first we thought it was pitch black, but then they suddenly turned the lights on and it made it much better to climb down. We get to the bottom and it was an amazing huge cave with crystal blue water! None of the pictures do any justice at all to this sweet place! We could so straight down 60 feet to the bottom! We all jumped in and swam, and were the only ones there! I was probably cooler than swimming in Crater Lake and Oregon. It was so cool! Afterwards I came back in my bathing suit and tennis shoes, which always feels awkward, haha.

So, since Saturday was a “nice day,” we played the “my favorite thing about you” game where you go around and say the best thing about each person. So summer camp, but we just did it because we felt like it. It was good though, since we had all been attacking each other with knives (not really). But anyways, they liked how I’m the kind of person who you couldn’t even tell if I’m high or drunk, because I’m “high on live,” doofing around and loving and seeing the good in everything. How I am always, deeply, honestly laughing, and how I’m nice and cheerful, and I thought it was cool because I felt like it was them seeing my joy and gratitude in Christ glowing out of me! So many times, here, like at Akumal that night just watching the moon rise over the Ocean, or seeing the monkeys, or swimming the cenote, I just think of how awesome and powerful God, the creator of all, is. It’s amazing how this God who created all that is beautiful, created me, and lived and died for me. It’s so cool, I just wish that others could be able to appreciate that.

After swimming in the cave, we did yet another coolest thing ever. We went to Punta Laguna, which is a spider monkey reserve. These spider monkeys are as entertaining as Mrs. Wood’s spider monkeys, but they are REAL! I mean, monkeys really do swing from tree to tree, and hang from their tails, and fight and play with each other! It’s not just on TV or the Lion King! It’s real, and that is the coolest thing about it! I just remember thinking, “I am standing in the middle of the Yucatan jungle looking at monkeys. SO. COOL.” The weather was nicer at this place than usual, since it was more of a rain forest, and it was probably only 99 degrees instead of 23090233 degrees. Next we drove to a city called Valladolid, where we stayed in a cute yet again abandoned place. We went into the city after napping for dinner. When we got there Addison pointed out that it looked just like Abuelo’s in Lakeland, except for it’s the REAL thing!

A funny story from bonding that night with the Mexicans was when two of the guys were going to have to stay in the same bed, one of the UF ones and one of the UADY ones, and Carlos put flowers in their bed and called it the honeymoon sweet. I love when we have those hilarious moments with the Mexicans guys, which is all the time.

Sunday
Today we went to the Disney World of Mayan Ruins, Chichén Itzá. It was cool and big, but I just like these less popular ones Mark knows about where we are able to climb on the ruins, and there aren’t people around and a million venders trying to sell you the same tourist crap.

After Chichén Itzá we went to lunch where people did a dance with bottles on their heads, and drove back to Merida. On the way back, we stopped by this prison that Mark knew about where I bought a hammock. Mark said that the ones there were the best quality even though they were a little more expensive than in the city. They had so many design choices, I got a green and white one. So I just need a place to hang it when I get back. Maybe somewhere in the back yard, or else, I was thinking if I could put it between two bunk beds in a dorm. We’ll see. I love hammocks though and have wanted one for years, so I got myself one.

I finished my book, “My Sister’s Keeper.” I hated the beginning, the middle and the end, especially the end. I want to see the movie even though the story was wacked. Allison read it too at the same time so we were able to dislike the book together. I mean, it was kind of entertaining to read, but I didn’t like the story at all, especially the end.

This is the world’s longest entry probably. The pictures I’m posting are of the Me at Tulum, Me, Addison, and Clay at Cobá, and then me and Allison at Chichén Itzá. Awesomely cool weekend. I don’t even want to think that we only have two left. Spanish Midterm Wednesday.

The title of this entry was created by Addison Vawters as we sit in the school library.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c261/jcsmartblonde/IMG_2700.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c261/jcsmartblonde/IMG_2727.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c261/jcsmartblonde/IMG_2772.jpg