Campeche

Today for our excursion we went to Campeche! Campeche is the state west of Yucatan and north of Guatemala. It was our first time out of the state so we were excited! The bus ride was about three and a half hours so I finished all my homework for the week and bonded with Ryan haha.

I live in Yucatan in Merida but today we headed over to Campeche! 

The first place we went to was this big fort that they used to use to fight off pirates! Soooo random. Campeche is famous for it's pirate attacks though so we had to check it out. I don't really know what the point was though... we were there for an hour and a half. We pretty much just walked around and pretended like we were pirates haha. There are lots of pictures from this place... sign that it was pretty lame. Obviously we had nothing else to do but act silly and then take a picture of it.

 Entrance to the fort. 

 We are always obsessed with cloud pictures. Mexico has the best clouds in the world 

 My head's stuck in the clouds. 

 Cannons that were used to fight off the pirates! 

 Morgs and I 

She is literally a babe and a half.

 Hey look at this tower... let's all get in it! Total count in tower = 19

We like to get cozy in the towers. 

 What should we do now? How about pirate rugby!? Hahaha team #1! 

 Team #2 (aka winning team) 

 Go long! .... okay maybe it was more like football. 

 Fumble.... and attack! 

 Get it! Get it! Get it! 

 Touchdown! 

 Group pic! Pirate style. 

Ayy- ayyy maytees! 

Looking for pirates.... 

 They've gotta be our there somewhere! 

 SPOTTED! ... wait what?!? 

 We found a legit pirate ship! 

 FIRE! 

 Then we got treats. Shaved ice (literally). Check out that huge ice block that the guy shredded with a knife for us! 

 Pineapple. Sexy.

Next we went to centro Campeche and had five hours of free time. None of us knew anything about the city either and so we had no idea what to do. So we just walked around randomly and went on a bunch of mini adventures. It was pretty random but we found some things to do. 

First stop... botanical gardens! 

 It was full of a ton of exotic plants that were native to campeche. 

 Baby aloe vera.

Then Becca, Jackie, me, and Caitlin went on a little walk.... 

Gorgeous streets with bright colours! 

 Centro!

Then we went to the Archeology museum to get out of the sun for a little bit.

 Oh great... more Mayan things. It was actually pretty cool but I'd have to say that the best part of this museum was the air conditioning. 

 Then we went to the wall that stretches around the city. The ocean used to come right up to the wall and so they built it to keep the pirates out. As you can see on this sign it has suffered more than 15 pirate attacks! 

 Then we walked over to the water and just talked and hung out for a while. We found this guy waiting for us! 

Pondering life with the giant cricket. It looks straight out of Mulan! 

Then we were getting a little bored and still had a couple hours left in Campeche so Caitlin decided that she wanted to touch the water... 

We couldn't let her have all of the fun to herself though so we climbed down the wall too =) 

 Tanning on the road off the highway.... classy.

Without the beach this place felt like Cali or Miami or something.  

 I actually had a good time talking with Caitlin and Jackie today. We talked about all of the things we've learned on this study abroad and how much we've changed our perspective of life after living here. I can't believe how much I've learned here... I think the biggest thing I've learned though is how important your attitude is. Caitlin has really taught me that... she is always happy and so it makes it really easy to always be having fun. We make something great out of everything we do and always have a good attitude about trying/exploring new things. I think that's probably the main reason that I've had so much fun here and that every day is the best day ever! 

Who's idea was it to put a highway over the sand? I blame them.... but they aren't gonna stop us from at least touching the water! 

Self-timer pics... (another sign of boredom) haha

 I love these girls... we had such a fun little adventure today!

 Jackie!!! HAHAHAHA

We kept walking along the coast and then we found a little fishing warf with stairs into the water... so of course we had to inch our way in =) 

 Love this picture! 

 The stairs were sooo slippery! Almost fell in! Thank goodness caitlin saved me! 

We were sooo hot! So jackie decided to cool off in the water... 

 Hahahaha! 

Still hot and sweaty? Let's just get in! ... I'll let you figure this picture out on your own ;) 

 There was no one there so equis.... but yeah, we swam in there. Oops! #sorrynotsorry

 Wet and smelly, but never felt better! 

 I'm sooo glad we jumped in! Campeche was turning into the lamest excursion ever and so we made sure that we had a funny memory here. 

Best way to finish off the day... Palometas! Best popsicles in the world! 100% real fruit! 

Cool mural... 

 Church. Always gotta have it in the middle of the city! 

Modern art. 

 Then while we were waiting for the bus we decided to try Elote... aka Nacho Libre corn! Pretty much just corn on the cob on a stick covered in Mayonnaise and then sprinkled in lime, cheese, and chile. I was pretty skeptical but had to try it! 

 Verdict? Freakin' nasty. 

Ewwww!  

 Taylor actually liked it... 

And then I bought this cute headband! So Mexican.. I love it! Also perfect for covering up sweaty, oceany, dirty, messy hair ;) 

Campeche was a success... It was kind of a hard excursion because nothing was planned and the travel time was so long, but luckily I have the best friends ever and we made sure that today wasn't boring!