Meanwhile in Merida

Exploring Cenotes

Well the first full week in paradise is now complete. It's been a good week of adapting and getting to know the city, the people and our community center. There seems to be no relief from the muggy heat, except for the small pool in our hostal. At least at night we have four different fans blowing in our room! Also, our group lucked out because the commute to our community center is a mere 20 minutes. It is lucky because the majority of city buses don't have AC here so bus rides consist of sharing body heat with other very sweaty human beings.

The kids at the community center are so cute and full of energy, once they get over their timidness and begin to talk. We have been working with the English teacher most of the week. The English teacher actually takes advantage of the time we are with her and asks us a lot of questions too. We played a lot of alphabet bingo this week so the kids can practice their pronunciation. I definitely learned that games is a fantastic way to get kids out of their shells! They would get competitive between each other and beg us to play "una vez mas". Unfortunately, those classes come to an end this week so this upcoming week we will mostly be with adults and teenagers.

As far as exploring, we started by visiting el Paseo de Montejo, which is a road with a lot of old, fancy architecture and nice restaurants. We also found the closest Walmart, which was a big win for us! However, the funnest activity of the week was visiting Restaurant and Cenotes Santa Barbara. Cenotes are underground natural water springs that are literally all over the place in the Yucatan and Quintana Roo region; they were sacred places for the Mayan people. The place we went to was a set of three cenotes all within a few hundred yards of each other. We arrived most of the way by van then parked and checked in at a little lobby area. We were then taken the last kilometer by horse and a little buggy that was on a little railroad track. It was a little sketchy but so much fun! The cenotes we went to in order were, in order, a cavern, then a semi-open one and we finished with a completely open one (check the last picture). They were honestly breathtaking and my pictures simply do not do them justice. The water was actually cool and so clear! If I could go to a cenote to enjoy the scenery and cool down everyday, I would! Sadly that is not possible haha.