Friday: Dzitbilchaltun and Progresso

We went there!  It was so awesome!  I didn't really think I would care about the ruins trips, because to be honest, I came to experience the culture and everyday life, not for the ruins... but I was wrong.  I was in awe of how amazing everything was! And also of how excited I was to be here!

The building in the background is called Las Siete Muñecas (The Seven Dolls) and it's an old Maya temple.  The white in the middle is where you can see through two doors, one in the front and one in the back.  On two days of the year, the sun when it's rising shines straight through the two doors! That'd be amazing to see.  Our teacher from school came with us on the trip to be our not-so-boring tour guide.  I was really impressed at how much he knows about all this stuff! He seems pretty young.

Oh. My. Goodness. Guess what I saw in the Siete Muñecas temple!

That's right, everyone. REGULUS BLACK HAD BEEN THERE!  Carrie, I feel like the fiesta I had inside when I found this can make up part of our Harry Potter/Mexico/New York party.  

Anyway, so we looked at quite a few different ruins there.  My favorite story of the day was about this Catholic open cathedral that we saw... So basically, the front part of a chapel has a roof but the rest, where the congregation would sit, didn't have a roof or walls, and our teacher told us it was because the Mayas didn't want to smell the nasty Spaniards so they wouldn't sit in a closed church with them :)  This particular group of Mayas bathed like, three times a day, and the Spaniards didn't bathe at all (can you imagine in this heat and humidity?? I wouldn't have sat by them, either!).  Gross.  It was funny, though - Cassy, the girl I sit by at school, and I noticed last week in class as we were learning about some of the symbols on the Maya calendar that there was a day called Smell of Meat.  Also gross.  But she brought it up when we were at the church and said that it was probably named after the nasty Spaniards.  On Smell of Meat day, the Mayas probably only bathed once.  

So after we looked around at the ruins, we got to go swim in a cenote!  I haven't been able to figure out how to describe them, but one of my friends called it a sinkhole, and I think that's probably pretty close.  For some reason, I thought they had to be inside caves, but this one wasn't.  I probably prefer it that way.  Jen and I were a little nervous about jumping in because everyone was saying how good it felt, so we figured it was probably cold, but it was absolutely PERFECT.  Wow.  It was a glorious feeling, jumping in for the first time. And fresh water! I prefer that to saltwater.  We spent some time there - maybe an hour? - and then it was time to go back home. Que triste :(  Except that then we went to the beach in Progresso!  

the view from the beach house where we ate

So fun and beautiful!!  One of the families owns a beach house there, so we went to eat lunch there and swim, and all the host parents were there.  When we first got there, lunch wasn't ready yet so we went and played in the sand for 20ish minutes.  Nate wants to make a video every Sunday about what we did during the week and for part of it, he wanted a video of the word Mérida written in the sand being washed off by a wave.  He needed help doing it, so I went to help him, but it didn't really work out.  The waves don't come in far enough to have time to write it and then have it wash out, so I remembered and suggested his idea of writing it in the dry sand with the seaweed that is plentiful here.  We did and it was a hit! Everyone loved it!  It provided for some cool pictures, too!

When lunch was ready, it was soooooo delicious.  They're called tacos al pastor.  It's pork with onion, cilantro, etc., on top of a corn tortilla with a little piece of fresh pineapple.  They're delicious with a little bit of lime guacamole!  

After eating lunch, it was time to swim for a while and then go home.  Swimming was perfect!  The water was such a good temperature.  I've been really thankful for these trips because I've been able to make more friends, which has been really good.  Today was so fun!  I did get a pretty sunburned, though.  Hopefully it's gone in a couple of days.  Carmita called me the family flamingo because I'm pink, and Ariana told me I look like a cartoon character :D  When we got home on the bus, we were absolutely exhausted!  We waited at the Parque de los Sanjuanistas for Carmita to get us, which was kind of funny - we waited on one side of the street for probably 45 minutes while Carmita circled the park on the other side of the street looking for us.  When she didn't see us, she thought we had gone home, so she went and we weren't there... and then got a call from a lady we had seen at the park from the host party asking if she had gotten us yet.  So she came back and circled the park again!  About this time we decided we had waited a long time and that we would look and see quickly if she was parked somewhere but then just walk home.  When we were standing on the corner, she pulled up!  What a funny misunderstanding. :)  There was an activity at Institute by the temple, but we decided to stay home instead and rest/catch up on blogs and pictures.  I got to skype with Mom/Dad/Kelli/Rachel, Joel, and Carrie!  It was so fun!  I haven't talked to Carrie in forever!  When we got home and it was time for dinner, Carmita made these tasty panuchos for us:

Yuuuuum yum.  They're corn tortillas with black beans inside with turkey, lettuce, onion, and tomato.  Eat like a taco.  Delicious!!  Man.  Today was a goooooood day, and not only for food. :)