Vamos a la Playa!

I tried to write my blog last night, but couldn't keep my eyes open, so I'm writing about it this morning. :)

 First thing we did after breakfast was get in a van and drive to the closest Mayan ruins. It was way cool to see the different kinds of structures and wonder what life would have been like back then. Luckily for us, the sun wasn't out while we wandered around, which meant it wasn't as hot as it could have been. But we were still dying of humidity by the end, drenched in our swimsuits even before we got in any water.

Which, getting into the water was what we were all excited for--to swim in our first cenote! A cenote is a hole in the ground where a section collapses, filling with water. The one we went to was nothing like the awe-inspiring pictures on wikipedia, but it was still fun! Like swimming in a pond, complete with personal fishies!


Here we are; we really did get in. :D And we had a free spa-like experience with the fish eating our feet. It was the weirdest feeling, extremely ticklish, but in the end we didn't want to leave.







After los cenotes, we went to the beach!! I've been to a beach before, but I had never actually been in the ocean, so this was my first time experiencing the big deep blue. Or more like light green, as it was shallow enough to touch for 200 feet out from shore. And man, the water was so SALTY. I swear every time I accidentely had my mouth open when a big wave crashed into me, I about had a seizure from the salt intake. And if it gets in your eyes or nose, they're burning for a while afterward. So the beach is fun, but you can't really do much except sit there and enjoy the lull of the waves. Oh and search for cool shells. That's what we spent hours doing. We did end up finding multiple starfish (live ones!), little baby shrimp, and a fossilized piece of rock. We were at a resort, and let me tell you, those pictures you see of the beautiful beaches, they aren't lieing! Here's one I took:

Awesome, right?!

Even when it started raining a little while after this, we still had a great time in the water because it was warm ocean water and warm heavenly rain. We ate great Mexican food, played volleyball, and genuinely enjoyed our time there.

After we got home and washed all the leaves, salt, and sand off of ourselves, we went and explored our neighborhood a little bit, then came home and ate dinner with the family :) Which, by the way, was scrambled eggs and toast. To conclude the day, we played a game of Clue with our 12-year-old hermana, only to find out in the end that we had been playing with two of each room card. hahahaha

Throughout the day, here are a few things I learned:

• Milk comes in small cartons, not plastic. And a lot of families don't refrigerate it. Also, other things come in different types of packaging, like ketchup which comes in a big packet, as well as the typical plastic version. 
• They also sometimes have garbage cans to put toilet paper in, so the toilets don't get clogged (though it's not as often or as strict as Korea about it, I don't think).
• There is free wifi in a lot of main locations, like el centro, the city center.

That's all until tonight folks :)