Today we had the coolest excursion ever! Definitely my favourite one so far! All of my favourite things were a part of today: swimming, exploring, climbing, jumping off stuff, taking pictures, hanging out with friends, and trying new things! Get ready for some amazing pictures/stories!
Whenever we go on excursions we usually have to wake up really early and we all meet at a central location to get on the bus. Usually when we go to a popular place like Chichen Itza or something I have a rough idea of what we're going to do during the day but most of the time I just show up, sometimes not even knowing where we're going haha. Sounds kinda crazy but I think it makes everything better! I just bring my bathing suit, camera, some sunscreen, and a bottle of water with me everywhere I go and hope for the best. It sounds kind of crazy but honestly it makes every excursion a thousand times cooler! I go with no expectations at all and I'm blown away every time. Every excursion has been a blast, but today was REQUETE PADRE (yucatecan slang that means so so so so so cool)!
The cool kids sit at the back of the bus! The bus ride was about two and a half hours from Merida. Little did we know how cool of a day we were about to have!
Nap time! Caitlin found a little bench behind the seats and it was the perfect size for her =)
We passed through a little pueblo that was having a funeral and there were people all over the town, coming out of the church and parading around in their traditional clothing.
When we finally got to Cuzamá we went into this little building thing to change and were greeted by this lovely sign (Don't do drugs) haha!
When we finally got to Cuzamá we went into this little building thing to change and were greeted by this lovely sign (Don't do drugs) haha!
Waiting for us was a whole row of these little carts that were pulled by mules. We all got in one and we rode along a little track through the jungle in order to reach the cenotes! Yes, you heard me right.... CENOTES! I looooove cenotes! And after today I love them even more. Today was all about Cenotes and I've never had more fun in my whole life.
Riding through the jungle in our little carts!
Our cart group!
Brooke and I!
Look at those studs!
William, Caitlin, Taylor, and Morgan
We were turning a corner and Caitlin's cart was trying to take a picture and didn't notice the turn and so William fell out of the cart! It was kind of hilarious because I've never seen anyone fall with more grace. It was executed with a perfect tuck and roll. We felt bad for the guy but we also all couldn't stop laughing about it all day. First his backpack flew out and then all of a sudden William was on the road! Hahaha! Poor guy...
Group! It was so pretty ride through all the lush, green jungle!
Lily (Profe's daughter) decided that she wanted to sit with the "cool kids" and so she jumped in our cart. She was the biggest snuggle muffin ever. She looooved to cuddle and it was the most adorable thing ever!
She loved playing with my hair, kissing my cheeks, and holding my hands. She is definitely one of the most adorable 3-year olds in the world. And her voice is so cute! Ahh I love her!
Then she stole my camera and took a million pictures of herself! I have about 50 of just her face!
She also came up to me and whispered in my ear that she thought the boys (Tyler and Aaron) were cute and then couldn't stop giggling!
Silly faces!
Yup, she's cute.
Okay... I'll stop now.
Almost at the cenote!
Cenote #1!
The entrance to the cenote was really small! We had to climb down this vertical ladder into a pitch-black hole. We were greeted with bats passing in and out of the rocks, but we were ready for an adventure!
I got to the bottom of the ladder and this is what was waiting for me! #paradise
Small birds-eye view of the cenote with us swimming in it!
Those vine-like things that you see hanging from the roof are actually tree roots! They discover cenotes by looking at the roots of trees and finding where they lead. If the tree's roots start growing vertical instead of horizontal then they blast a small hole in the ground, hoping to find a natural cenote below it! We had so much fun in this cenote climbing up the roots. It actually took a lot of strength, I didn't make it too far!
You can't really tell in this picture, but the walls of the cenote had these little caves in them and so a few of us decided to climb in them and see what we could find! Caitlin and Alannah went first into the total darkness and found a little tunnel that led to a ledge up high! It was soooo cool! We climbed through it, not able to see anything and just using our hands to feel for good rocks to hold on to. It was slippery, dark, and contained some bat poop, but sitting on the ledge at the top of the cave was all worth it! (If you look really close, you can see Alannah's white legs and us chillin' in the ledge on the very right side of this picture... I spy with my little eye!)
Not the best picture, but here we are up in the cave! The light at the end of the tunnel right here! We jumped off of it into the water too... it was a blast!
Caitlin and Aaron!
Gayleen, Jackie, Morgan, Me, Tyler's hand, Ryan, and Becca!
Babes. Jackie, Becca, and Morgan!
Ryan and Ethan... I promise that Ryan has been in the sun. It's kind of hard to tell, I know.
Morgan and I with the photobomber in the background
#guilty
One last look back at the cenote! The light came from the natural "eyes" in the roof of the cenote. Aka holes in the ground that light can shine through.
Aaron and Caitlin... they didn't ever want to get out!
Amigos =)
We love pictures!
.... Especially in cenotes!
The little ladder we climbed to get in/out of the cenote
Los dos Ryans
Ready to go to the next cenote! These were our drivers =) The little drived in training was named David.
Snack time for the muel!
Jackie and I
Cenote #2! (My favourite cenote)
Entrada!
Another beautiful cenote! I can't imagine what it'd be like to be the one who discovered this! Sooo gorgeous! It had a ton of things to climb, we were all like monkeys in there!
Swimming in the cenote!
Jackie and I getting ready to jump in!
We were all getting ready to jump in when all of a sudden we look up to the opening of the cenote and there's Aaron, getting ready to jump! Everyone was freaking out but of course I was cheering him on.
Yup, he jumped off of a 70 feet ledge! Everyone thought he was crazy but it looked so fun to me, and so I raced up the stairs and followed right behind him! Our moms always told us when we were little that "if he jumped off a bridge would you?" Well, apparently I never figured out the lesson I was supposed to learn from that because as was proven today... yes, yes i would jump off it if he did.
Here I am! Jumping off the edge! I had the biggest adrenaline rush ever! I remember thinking the whole time "Where is the water?!"... I felt like I was in the air for an eternity!
But inevitably I did finally hit the water! When I swam to the top I was sooo happy! I popped up with a big smile on my face and my fist in the air! Definitely one of the most fun things I've ever done!
After a few more of us had gone a bunch more people tried it. The best part though was looking down into the cenote from the top and seeing all of your friends down there cheering you on and chanting your name! I'm so blessed to be here with such an awesome group!
Perfect jumping platform?
Caitlin loved climbing the roots in this cenote. She made it all the way to the top!
We liked jumping off of this cliff too! Better for tricks and stuff.
This is how they discover cenotes!
Off to the third cenote! Cuzamá is also known as "los tres cenotes." (the three cenotes), The scenery was beautiful the whole way! We just rode through the jungle in between all of the trees and I loved just looking up at the sky and being amazed at how beautiful God's earth is.
Cenote #3!
This cenote was huge! There wasn't anything to climb sadly, but there were a lot of cool fish in this one so it was perfect for just swimming and relaxing.
Becca, me, and Laurita
Aaron looking for fish!
We were all so tired after jumping off of and climbing up every thing we could find in the last cenote, so we loved relaxing in this one.
But of course we still made sure to jump off of something! =)
Aaron and his signature back flip.
Who knew that Ryan could do it too?
I decided to go for the dive instead... I was a little too scared for the backflip. I didn't want to have to drive a little mule-drawn cart out of the jungle if I hurt myself!
Ryan and I... we bonded today and became best buds.
Ryan drove us out.... he'll be starting here next week in his own cart ;)
Bus ride home!
We had way too much fun in the back seat.... We creeped on everyone in the bus and took the funniest stalker photos. We're going to add them to our secret paparazzi album for the trip ;)
Exhibit A: They're in love.
Exhibit B: Not in love. Don't be fooled by Cody's sleeping position.
Exhibit C: Sleeping.
Exhibit D: Also sleeping.
Exhibit E: Sleeping as well. Nothing tires you out more than a whole day of climbing, jumping, and swimming!
Bird's eye view. We were way too entertained watching this.
We also discovered every possible fun thing that you can do with a towel....
I also read a ton on the bus ride home. I'm reading The Lucky One right now by Nicholas Sparks and it's sooo good!
Today was amazing. I was in awe the whole time. Everywhere I looked could be straight out of National Geographic or something. I decided today that I'm done with this whole school thing. Instead I'm just going to travel the world forever! The Earth has so many beautiful secrets to be discovered... I hope to see more in the future. God sure does love us, he created the most beautiful Earth ever for us to live in.
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