¡¡¡¡INFLUENZA!!!!

Hey Guys. So. Some of you may have heard about this little thing going around…swine flu… Hahaha So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. Just wanted to let you know I’m fiiiiiiiine. Aside from my toe getting into a fight and loosing today, I’m pretty much dandy. We’re actually out of school now until the 6th of May. The Mexican government shut down all schools. I’m hopin’ that means we don’t have to make anything up. I’ll probably have to e-mail my professors and ask them to pass along that information we need to writing the essays. Otherwise I’m probably going to generally be board but doing what I do best: wasting a lot of time on the internet. I’ve actually recently just been let in on a pretty decent site for watching movies. I’ve seen the Professional (1994), Lucky Number Sleven, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal in the past week or so. (I see the lightbulb going off…ah…so that’s why she hasn’t been updating the blog…) yeah… I’m hoping to watch V for Vendetta soon. =)

Anyway, you all take care. Please do not kiss, shake hands, or cough on me for the next little while. I would appreciate it if you’re sick that you keep your distance. I don’t want them to suddenly decide I can’t go back to the States or some other nonsense like that because I’ve gone and gotten myself sick. That just wouldn’t do. I only have 20 days left here, my little paper chain is getting shorter. This little window of self-imposed house arrest is going to make my “doing everything I want to do before I leave Mexico” a little more difficult (Campeche may no longer be an option) but hey, we’ll see what I can do.

Cheers!
Kate <3

VIP Movies

Thursday is just your average day of the week. It’s the day before Friday, so it kind of has that “wanting-it-to-be-the-weekend” sentiment, but it’s really not close enough to the weekend yet for any sort of real feeling of relief. It’s a lot like Tuesday in that it’s in between the milestones of the week. Except that here, for a while, Thursday is actually a very special day.

After classes were over (and after a hour of conversation just for Spanish practice) Chelsea and I went to Altabrisa for a movie. Why on a Thursday? I’m glad you asked. Thursday at Altabrisa is half off the price of VIP movies. That means for a VIP seating, it’s only 55 pesos. Now, first off, you should realize that this is less than you are going to pay for your average matinee movie in the States.

VIP. So we walk into the movie theater. We walk up to the ticket counter and buy our tickets. We’re kind of early, like we’re going to go walk around the mall a little before hand, but we figured we’d just get our tickets. Good. Call. It’s assigned seats. At first, I’m scoffing a little. Why assigned seats? That’s silly.

Well, We walk in and there are a series of little restaurants/concession stand and a menu. Yes. A menu. On this menu, you can order sushi, chai lattes, popcorn, soda, milkshakes, smoothies, a baileys café. Yeah. Hard core.

So we walk into our theater and take our place in our spacious leather seats complete with foot rest/reclining capability. Yeeeaaaaaah now we’re talking. Then a guy comes up to us. Would we like anything before the movie starts? Suuuure. I’ll have one of those chai lattes. This guy was miiiiighty intense. I paid, and then someone brought me my latte. Prett-tty sweeeet. And we were basically super super comfortable for our wooooonderful viewing of Fast and the Furious. =D

Conclusion? The Movie Theater in Mexico clearly trumps theaters in the USA where everything is overpriced and generally uncomfortable anyways. Why do we pay ridiculous amounts of money to them. Mexico Movie Theater = better choice haha. VIP = best choice.

Kimbalá

So two weeks ago or there abouts now I went with my Rural Anthropology professor to Kimbalá which is a small town just outside of Izamal. Starting Friday and ending Monday they were having a sort of “town party” where they had food stands set up and things for sale, a game of darts, and, the more spectacular events of dancing and la corrida de toros (which in the Yucatan is more like a bull fight).

When we got there, they had strung together this stadium type thing where everyone was gathered and in the center were the bull and several bullfighters teasing the bull. Several times he was put back into his cage, and then let out again so they could continue to harass him. Lucky for me, they had already killed one bull before I got there and weren’t going to be killing anymore. The meat, however for the first one, was strung up outside. Hence your lovely picture there at the top of the page.


After the bullfighting, we learned that the dancing didn’t actually start until midnight, so we took a very quick trip over ot Izamal to see the city which was very pretty. It was interesting to see people still out and about at eleven o’clock at night. Either way, after we just took a circle around the painted centro, we went back to Kimbalá and got seats for the traditional dancing.

Groups were introduced one by one and the head couple for each group was lead around by a host couple. They began dancing and it was neat to see. There was a large variety in age groups from very young to quite old. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

We headed back to Merida and got back in around 1 or 2 AM. It was definitely one of those really special things that we got to participate in because most times people wouldn’t be aware of the festival, etc. We were sort of special to get the invitation just because my professor was doing a study in the pueblo.

---->o Cancun o<----

We arrived in Cancun much the same way we did to Playa del Carmen. There was a poorly dubbed movie playing and then we all got off…well…a few people got off including us. When we got off, we looked around and didn’t exactly see any beach, nor did we know where we were going but figured we could just head in the direction of the beach and go from there. So we asked for the general “is the beach over thatta way?” and started walking.

And we walked for a while…through what seemed kind of like a small neighborhood and then along a street where we thought we had a general idea of where the beach was. So then we dropped into a hotel and the guy said he would only charge us 800 pesos a piece…which we said we’d pass and kept on walking. Then we began to realize where we figured the beach was there was a building standing over there. And then it wasn’t really looking like we had any idea at all where the beach was. So we stopped into an OXXO (the Extra was a few more blocks down the street and not worth the walk so that we could just say we went to the Extra again). In the OXXO a guy told us to catch a bus (the R-1) and that the futbol stadium was in that direction.

So we went and waited for the bus, and just when we were about convinced that we had misunderstood where the bus passed, one came by and scooped us up. And we rode the R-1. And rode the R-1. And then we got down into what’s known as the Hoteles area of Cancun. Everything is humongous, and everything is similarly *EXPENSIVE* well…admittedly we didn’t check at the Hilton or Mayan Palace or (…you get the point?) We just looked out our window of the bus rather helplessly and wondered where we were going to sleep tonight. I was kind of at that “this is too funny” point where I wasn’t exactly worried so much as just thinking creatively (we could totally just…sleep on the beach…wait til we get kicked off and move on down the beach…). So then the bus driver told us “everybody off, I’m turning around, this is the end of the route” and we asked him generally where the stadium was and he said it was waaaaaay back there. Back in the city. So we just stayed on and were on that bus for about 2 hours. The bus driver gave us the heads up on when to bajar, and we talked to some guys in the tourism industry and got a map for the area and where the stadium was. Then we went hotel shopping…again.

The whole hotel shopping didn’t take very long. There was a hole in the wall hotel right there across the street with rooms for 395 pesos a piece (no AC). So we got a room for two nights and settled in for the next little while. By this time, it was late afternoon and we both took showers. Chelsea was a little homesick and didn’t feel like doing too much but we went out and got dinner not far from the hotel. We had tortas al pastor with virgin piña coladas that were fantastic. We, because we spoke Spanish and the manager was really nice, were given the menu with the lower prices which we found to be pretty amusing. I also rather inadvertently ended up buying this soccer jersey, and then going back and changing it for a different one which was a rather stressful hour or so.

I think we went to bed pretty early that day.

The next morning, we went over to the Cheddraui (sp?) and got granola bars and yogurt drinks which we took to the beach and ate. The beach was beautiful. We set up camp under this thatch umbrella and stayed for most of the afternoon. The water was red flagged where we were, but there was a yellow area not too far from us (so for a little bit I went down there and played in the waves). Laurie met up with us later in the afternoon. Somehow she managed to find us (we couldn’t really give her good directions since we weren’t entirely sure ourselves).

We packed up shop and went to Chilis for lunch which was delicious. Love Chilis. And then we went back to the room, showered. Laurie and I went out briefly shopping again though I don’t think I got anything besides this sweet bread thing. Then we went and got our piña coladas again (since they were so good and they were so nice). And then we headed out for the GAME!

We had only a small amount of trouble getting there. Just the normal asking, then asking again, then asking again. And then we were kind of on the wrong side of the stadium so we had to walk around.

We got in and, as it turns out, I can’t read (still) and it was general admission seating but because we got VIP tickets the seats were still really good. So we settled in and commenced routing for the red white and blue team since the first jersey I had bought was for the Chivas and it was red white and blue. And they scored! So we cheered. And then we looked at the scoreboard and it was a point for the other team. So we were a little confused. And then they scored again and we were even more confused though we finally put it together that the other team was in fact the Chivas. The Cancun team also had red white and blue jerseys and that’s why we were having trouble distinguishing from those fans. Then we had it though and we learned some cheering techniques.

The guy behind us was so stereotypical it was hilarious. I think he knew all of about 3 words, none of which am I going to repeat here. He also kept ordering beer…though it was for other people too I think. Interesting tidbit is that they also sold vodka at the game and the guy in the seat next to me had a “barra libre” wrist band (open bar). Crazy stuff.

The Chivas weren’t going to be showed up 2-0 however. They scored the next two goals and we were able to cheer for the right team with the confidence that we were in fact doing so. You see, we were cheering for the Chivas basically because Gustavo likes them.

The game ended with a tie 2-2. We basically had a blast though and it ended with enough time for Laurie to get to the bus station and go back to Playa del Carmen so she didn’t loose her money for the night.

Chelsea and I then went to sleep, and the next day got our stuff together and went to the bus stop that was within walking distance. We bought our tickets back to Merida and sat down to have breakfast that we bought at the Cheddraui and ate. We had half an hour.

When it was time as shown on the ticket, we went and asked someone (the lady taking tickets) if they had called our bus and she told us that it wasn’t here and that we were to wait in waiting room one and kind of gestured to the side. So we went and sat down and waited. And waited. Then Chelsea realized there was a separate room. So we went in and the guy who looked at our ticket didn’t say anything so we sat down. Then, being 15 past the time on the ticket, I asked someone. Apparently that bus had left fifteen minutes ago (imagine that). He told us to go and try and get the tickets switched for the next bus.

We went back to the ticket counter and explained what had happened, being sure to say that we had in fact asked for information but weren’t given the right instructions. In the end we still had to pay again (and these tickets were really expensive) but only half the price.

Finally on the bus we were offered a free soda and headphones. The first movie was Freaky Friday which I declined to watch (not a fan of Lindsey Lohan) and then the second was Cars which I hadn’t seen so that was cool.

We arrived in Merida and my host parents were there to pick us up. They brought a card for me and a package that Chelsea had been expecting (given to them by Diana). And effectively that is what we did on our vacation! =D

Cheers!
<3>

:* Playa del Carmen *:

We got [back] to Playa del Carmen pretty quickly and with no drunken sombrero incidents. The plan was pretty much to find that Extra where we could get the tickets so we walked around and asked directions, then asked again, and then some people seemed to generally gear us in the right direction but maybe not with the right number of blocks so we did some back tracking and were sad to find that a hotel that would give us “just a bed/mattress” was going to cost us 550 pesos. We kept walking, kept walking and came across another hole in the wall type place (though this one had a box light with the word “hotel” on it). We went to check out how much it would be and they told us 250. Sweet!

We ditched our stuff (it wasn’t much to look at, especially cause the maid was in there cleaning at the time) and continued our pursuit of the Extra. Upon arrival, (yay we did actually find it!) we asked about the tickets and they confirmed that in fact the tickets were sold there they just hadn’t arrived yet. Okay, we thought, we’ll just hang out and have some lunch and wait for them. It was about lunch time anyway.

So we ate pizza in a way that was particularly reminiscent of our failed attempt to go to the Disco oh so long ago only we weren’t dressed up fancy. Same kind of pizza though. And after a while of eating, the tickets were still no shows. We figured we’d come back.

I believe that Chelsea actually said she was tired so we made our way back to the hotel and took naps. I actually ended up sleeping much more than her even though I wasn’t the one who felt so tired apparently. Who knows what the deal with that is. But after we got up, we walked back to the Extra who still didn’t have tickets.

We spent the day doing a little bit of shopping. Chelsea got a purse which we later discovered was the culprit for her suddenly pink shorts and trying-to-turn-pink white jacket. I got video taken with this adorable little monkey named Lola (who's in the picture at the top). For dinner we met up with Megan and Laurie who were also in Playa that day. Originally we were going to try to find a place with live music but finding that, the time we wanted, and within relative price that we were willing to spend, we were out of luck but dinner was still nice. Afterwards, with Lauie, Chelsea and I went *back* to the Extra. This time they had the tickets! WOO!

As it turned out, what we would have spent in Merida for general admission tickets we were able to get VIP tickets for. So we got VIP.

Upon return to the hotel, I tripped. Well let me backtrack a little. Chelsea had been tripping over the sidewalks all day as we walked along and did so right in front of this group of Mexican guys which we found to be rather hilarious but she never actually fell down. So we were walking, checking to see if maybe there was another hotel because *OUR HOTEL WAS ANT INFESTED*. YUCK. Bleh. So we were checking out our options when I tripped beside this Marquesita stand into the mud-slime-guts of the gutter. Thing is, there probably really were guts that I tripped into; I’m pretty sure there was a butcher shop like right there.

But anyway, we made it back to our hotel. I looked at the yellow stained walls, the ants crawling around in the bathroom (The ants go marching eight by eight HURRAH HURRAH). And contrived to rinse myself off (because I don’t think I would have felt much better if I had actually showered. And so much for my jean shorts.

After that experience we decided we’d head out to Cancun early and just hope we could get a good place. So we went to bed, and then in the late morning walked over to Wal*mart where we ran into Megan and Laurie and informed them of our change in plans. We also bought granola bars and yogurt drinks which made for a very tasty breakfast on the ride from Cancun to Playa del Carmen which we just hopped on the bus for.

Cozumel * " : .

And as it turned out, splitting off early from the group was definitely the way to go. We took a cheap taxi to the ADO station and hopped right on a bus leaving to Cancun

(like…literally…we bought tickets and the bus was held until they could finalize our transaction that’s how important we were). Unfortunately we weren’t able to use the student discount, but that’s okay. We figured we’d just keep that possibility in mind for later.

So we toodled along until we got to Playa del Carmen (now you’re probably thinking…why did you title this Cozumel if you went to Playa?) Well, to get to Cozumel (since it’s an island) you have to take a ferry, and the ferry is located in *drum roll pleasssssssseeeee* Playa del Carmen. So we walked among all these vendors and stuff with eyes the size of plates and then got to the ferry which was going to be leaving in an hour. That worked out fine for us because we were then able to go look around a little bit (even though we were going to be coming back) and made a discovery!

We walked into a store (with the best exchange rate in town it boasted) and asked about getting those blasted tickets for the futbol game which were so elusive. Well, no one really knew, and then they asked another guy who said “yeah they sell ‘em over there by the extra” (err…he said that in Spanish) “You have to be there early though like three days before the game” So we’re thinking, Excellent! That’s just when we’re planning on getting back from Cozumel and such we’ll be here!

So with that bit of information we boarded our ferry boat to Cozumel where there was a college aged guy in a sombrero who was quite enthralled with his Corona auctioning off said beer to the passengers. Some people did play along, but the guy decided that his Corona was worth more than the 100 pesos or however much he was offered and drank it himself.

When we got to Cozumel, we were decently hungry. We began walking around to try to find a) our parasailing place b) a place to eat and c) a hotel, ideally near said parasailing place. We came across a good place to eat (that was cheap) first and had a feast of quesadillas, hamburger, enchiladas, and fries (well…I had the enchiladas, and Chelsea had the burger). It was quite excellent and, figuring we were pretty close to our parasailing place (or at least within walking distance) we also stumbled across a sign (and by sign I mean there was something painted on the back of a building) saying there was a Hotel Pepita “just around the corner”. So we were like “sounds like a good place to check out” and we did it was only going to be 350 pesos a night. Sweet! We say to ourselves especially after we saw the room where we had a little fridgerator and shower and all.

We settled in and called the parasailing place setting up a time..or...well…trying to set up a time and decided we’d actually just stay in Cozumel for two nights instead of the originally planned just one night (we had no idea how excellent of a decision this was until we got to Playa but more on that later). So we walked over to the Super [grocery store] and bought some bread (actually they were like little loaves like we ate in Tecate which probably that doesn’t make any difference to anyone reading this…) but yeah that bread was 1 peso a piece and some ham (that was actually turkey but tasted like ham…) and cheese and some coca light etc. So we got some food.

We went and looked for some beach I think…but there wasn’t very much beach to be found (odd, right?). But there was some shopping, I felt pretty familiar with the area since we’d been there over the summer and we took some photos. Basically that was the day.

The next morning we got up, I called the parasailing place and we got right to the parasailing business! We took a taxi down to Playa Mia (and the taxi driver accidently undercharged us he explained) and we got on the boat and watched some other people parasail and then it was our turn. I actually took my videocamera up with us so I have video of it it’ll just be some time before I can actually upload that.

Parasailing was quite a bit of fun. It didn’t really hold too much of an adrenaline rush like I’d hoped, but it was still really pretty to see everything from up in the air. =) Pictures are currently on facebook. Hopefully I’ll have that video to you all fairly shortly.

When we finished, we were taken off the boat by another boat with two other people. They got dropped off at another beach that was further up the way and Chelsea and I decided we’d just get off here too. As it turned out, we didn’t have to pay to stay, and while we were supposed to eat at least 10 dollars worth of food, we didn’t, and Chelsea also didn’t pay the 10 dollars that you were apparently supposed to pay to play on the big blow up toys. And by didn’t I mean of course we paid…0 =D

So we spent the day there and then took a taxi back to our hotel area which was now the same amount as the first taxi since we were further up towards where we wanted to go. =) So that was all good. =)

Most of the rest of the evening we spent relaxing. We ate our sandwiches for lunch and ate dinner out at a place they kept asking us to come to. =) I actually got myself a hoodie while I was there. Not because I was cold, but because I think I’ll wear it a lot when I get back to the States (well…for winter anyway haha).

The next morning we got up and went down to catch the ferry early to go to Playa del Carmen!

More pictures can be found here:

The Inframundo Trip

Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, y Cancun

***>One month from today I'll be on my way home<***

Inframundo: Tulum, Mexico & Surrounding Areas

Hello Ladies and Germs! I now present to you the long awaited next installment in my life in Mexico. On Saturday morning I got up, realized I’d not packed a few key things (like my swim suit) and shoved them into my overly full backpack. Not long after that, Chelsea’s mom picked me up and we went down to Los Arcos and met up with Diana and the rest of our Inframundo group (but Diana wasn’t actually coming with us).

Fourteen of us piled into the van with all our backpacks secured to the roof with bungee cords. Guillermo was our guide (who apparently is also the subaquatic archeology prof. So we went off down the road and stopped at an archeological site where it was reaaaaaallly hot (I think this was a day where the weather was supposed to be 112 according to google) and we actually rented bicycles and went through the place. After that, we went a little farther down the road and swam in a very cool cenote.

When it was time for the cenote to “close,” we all hopped back into the van and headed for our home base: Tulum. Our home for the next couple days were cabañas on the beach. It was a pretty nice set up, though we only had electricity from 7 PM to 6 AM and never hot water but it was good. In the afternoons it was only a short walk down to the actual ocean. Laurie and Megan slept in their hammocks and Chelsea and I slept in the twin beds.

In the morning, everything was very lax which was very nice and not what I expected. While we had a schedule everything wasn’t super rushed. We were treated to a breakfast of donuts and apple yogurt and then we got into the van and went to another archeological site. On the way there we were stopped by the police who thought Guillermo might have been running some sort of prostitution gig because there were what appeared to be only girls in the van and a male driver. But it was cool we convinced them that we were students and just on a trip.

This particular archeological-ruins site looked like something out of a movie like the secret garden or maybe even some deleted scenes for Pan’s Labyrinth. It was really beautiful. There were trees growing out the rock-work and everything looked untouched. I vaguely was expecting fairies…or at least CGI ones.

This was also the place I think where there was a very tall wooden watch tower. I climbed up it (after the wooden picnic table right next to it collapsed rather noisily), and it took you up above the tree cover. (I thought of you, Dad). It was quite a site.

This day I don’t think we went to a cenote, we just went back to camp early. We brought out our cloth to the beach and hung out there for awhile (with sunscreen). That evening we decided we would all go out to dinner as a group which was nice. We went to an Italian place in Tulum (and got stopped by the police again but I’m not sure what for this time) and my order was actually kind of forgotten…but eventually I got my food and it was all good.

The third day we went to (guess) another archeological site. This one though had the possibility of seeing animals. Well, we didn’t see any big ones, just a gigantic amount of mosquitoes. So that was rather unhappy, but Ariana taught me a song in german about mosquitoes. That was fun.

We were all glad when we finally left and we went to a magnificent cenote. There was a tree that I jumped off of on the ledge. There were quite a few people there and we explored a little cave first but it was really nice and pretty.

The next day we were apparently supposed to get up early but we weren’t informed of it. The schedule was going to involve going to Tulum (the ruins) before heading out back to Merida. Chelsea and I were actually kind of sick of seeing ruins though, so we opted out and decided to start our own part of the vacation right there. =)

SpriNg bReaK 20o9

Hey to those of you still keeping up with this =)
As of half an hour from now (don't you like how last minute I am...don't even ask about when I finish(ed) packing...) I'm off for our excursion trip and then going to be futzing about in Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun. I should be back on Easter though. =)
Either way, don' t be looking for any updates during the week 'cause I'm not going to have internet access, that sort of thing. Hope all is well!

Cheers! <3 Kate