San Cristobal de las Casas

We arrived to San Cristobal de las Casas on Sunday evening, right as the sun was going down.  It was a very quaint city tucked in the middle of all the mountains.  The colorful houses all had red tile roofs that had weathered with age and the streets were alive with the hustle and bustle of people.  We walked around the main avenue and the first thing I did was buy a poncho because it was so cold.  Everyone from here in the Yucatan warned me that it would be cold, but they also think that winters here in Merida are cold, so I didn't really believe them.  

After warming up we walked around the city some, got dinner and went out for drinks.

The next day we woke up early in the morning to go to the bus station because I decided that I wanted to stay in San Cristobal an extra day.  One out of the other 15 people there decided to stay with me so the two of us changed our tickets and then went to the market to get some food.

After meeting up with everyone again we went out to the Canon del Sumidero where we went on a boat ride down a river.  The river was surrounded by the huge walls of the canon and it was a beautiful cruise.  We also got a chance to see some wildlife.  In total we saw 4 crocodiles and yes, we even saw a monkey!

My Lesson of the Day: Day 3 and finally we had our monkey spotting.

Misol Ha, Agua Azul and one long bus ride

On Sunday, we departed from Palenque to head out to San Cristobal - a mountain town that was about 5 hours away from Palenque.  Along the road, I had heard of a few waterfalls that were popular destinations for tourists, so we decided to get a colectivo that would stop at two sites: Misol Ha and Agua Azul.  Little did I know that they were about to be my favorite parts of the weekend.

First we stopped at Misol Ha, a smaller waterfall in the middle of the jungle.  It was a really pretty site and we were able to climb behind the waterfall and up into a cave off to the side of the waterfall.  It was a fun destination, but nothing like the waterfall we were about to see.

When we got to Agua Azul, it was easy to see where they came up with the name.  The water was a beautiful shade of turquoise as it tumbled down the rocks in the middle of the jungle.It was absolutely beautiful.  Here at Agua Azul, we were allowed to do some swimming in the crystal clear and cold water.   Before hoping in the water, we decided to walk around the site a little more.

The amazing thing was that the higher and higher you climbed, the more and more waterfalls you saw.  I can honestly say that I never saw a beginning nor and end to all the waterfalls.  As we climbed higher up the mountain, the views became more and more impressive.  The jungle stretched out below us and above us were more and more falls.  

Tucked all around the path were more little pools and mini waterfalls.  It was impossible to see everything in the three hours that we spent there and I would love to go back and spend a whole day sometime. 

We finally gave up on trying to reach the beginning of the falls for lack of time and we headed to swim.  The water was as refreshing as it was beautiful and again, I could have spent all day just swimming around in the various pools formed by all of the falls.

Finally, the time had come to pack up our things and head back to the van.  I was lucky or maybe unlucky enough to sit in the front of the colectivo because I had arranged the transportation.  I could tell that the driver was a little mad that we were behind schedule but I had no idea just how important being on time was.  After all, we were still in Mexico.  But as we raced off to catch the bus to San Cristobal, I began to get a little worried.  We raced around the curving, winding, mountain roads doing well over 40 or 50 mph.  It was a surreal experience as I peeked out my window to see an immediate drop off the side of a mountain.  I don't think I have ever been so happy to get on a bus as I was that day.

The bus ride to San Cristobal was the perfect end to our time at the waterfalls.  It was a beautiful ride through the foggy mountains of the Chiapas area with beautiful views of the whole countryside.

My Lesson of the Day: Day number two in the jungle and still no monkey sighting.

Saturday in Palenque

After arriving in Palenque at around 8:30am, we quickly found a hotel and some breakfast before heading off to see the ruins of Palenque.  I had heard a lot about the ruins and was excited to go see them for myself, but upon arrival we decided to take a tour of the jungle first.

Our guide took us around the ruins to the unexcavated areas of the jungle.  We learned all about different types of trees and plants that the Mayans use for medicine and then we got to swing from the vines like tarzan.  Our trek wound us around the jungle until we came around to a small stream that our guide called "la fuente de la vida" or "the source of life."  Then he declared that we should have a Mayan baptism.

One by one we got baptized right there in the stream of life.  My Mayan name is now Nicte Ha which means "flor de la agua" or "flower of the water."  I actually learned that it was a popular name for several Mayan princesses, so I guess I'll keep it.  After the baptism someone asked the guide if he could drink the water because it was so incredibly clear.  He told us it was safe to drink and that its what the Mayans drank years ago in Palenque.  Now that we had officially been baptized, it was almost a must for us to fill up our bottles with stream water for the rest of the day.

With our Jungle guide

Much to our disappointment, our jungle tour ended without seeing any monkeys and we were left alone to explore the ruins of Palenque.  The ruins site was pretty incredible and they were some of the most elaborate ruins I have seen thus far.  Two very important tombs were found in Palenque.  First of which was the tomb of Hanab Pakal, or Pakal the Great.  It was the first tomb found inside of a pyramid and it still remains the most important and impressive.  While Pakal's tomb is no longer open to the public, there is another tomb that we were able to view.  This tomb dates around the same time as the Pakal's tomb.  The woman inside is thought to be his wife, although no one is quite sure.  I did find it interesting that inside the tombs they found several jade and obsidian goods along with food and drink to sustain the deceased on their tr

ip down to Xibalba - the underworld.

We spent the rest of the day exploring the ruins - only 2% of which have been restored - and trekking through the jungle before we returned to our hotel in the tiny city of Palenque.

The view from the top of a pyramid

My Lesson of the Day: One day in the jungle down and still no monkey sightings.

A long weekend in the jungle

I don't even know where to begin to describe my long weekend in the state of Chiapas.  I guess I'll just start with the beginning: Friday night.  We decided to leave at 11:50 pm to make the 8 hour bus ride to Palenque.  

First we took a bus to the centro and from there we decided to get a taxi to the bus station.  But we didn't take just any old taxi, we decided to take one of the traditional horse drawn calesas that they have down in the centro.  There really isn't anything like pulling up to the bus station at 11pm in a horse drawn carriage.  Despite the weird looks, we headed off to get our tickets.

One of the things I have learned about traveling by bus here in Mexico is that nothing can just be easy.  After fighting for a while to get the tickets we were on a bus traveling to Palenque with a group of 15 americans.  I was a little nervous about traveling with such a large group, but not worried enough to keep me from sleeping on the bus.

My Lesson of the Day:  Overnight buses = one less hotel room to pay for 

My Sales Career

Yesterday I didn't really have anything to do at work so I decided to help with something new: sales.  Now I've never really pictured myself as a saleswoman, let alone a Mexican saleswoman, but I figured I'd give it a shot.  My boss decided that I should call up bilingual schools and schools that taught english, so I could at least I could have the option of defaulting to english if I was really having trouble in spanish.  

Now talking on the phone here makes things a little bit more difficult, but I figured there was no better way to face my fear than by calling school after school after school.

I wish this is the part where I tell you that I sold something, but I didn't - not one single thing.  I think I got pretty close today though.  While I'm probably going to try to stick it out and go at it again, I think this has proven that I'm just not cut out to be a saleswoman.

On another note, I need to get going to go pack my suitcase.  Tonight we're catching the last bus, which leaves at 11:50 and spending a good 8 hours to Palenque.  Palanque is a big ruins site situated in the state of Chiapas, which is in southern Mexico.  I've heard a lot of good things about Palanque and I think this is going to be a pretty good trip.  

Thanks to Carnival I don't have to work Monday or Tuesday so our extended weekend will hopefully also include Agua Azul, Misol-Ha and San Cristobal, but I'll tell you more about those when I get back from this weekend.

My Lesson of the Day: Talking on the phone isn't so bad, but the selling part is.

Carnival is here and you HAVE to be in a good mood!

Carnival 2009 has finally made its way to Merida.

It officially started yesterday - exactly a week before ash wednesday with La Quema de Mal Humor which is a big celebration in the center of the town. Last night about 15,000 people - including the kings and queens of carnival and the mayor - gathered in the main plaza for festivities, during which they have a big bonfire to ¨burn¨all of the bad thoughts. Other than signifying the official start of Carnival, it means that you have to be in a good mood for the next week of Carnival. Thats right - no one in the city is allowed to be in a bad mood.

Today´s main event was the desfile infantil or the children´s parade. We got down to the centro at about 3:30 (parade starts at 4) and were met with a wall of people. The streets were all crowded with parents, friends and spectators to watch the children parade down the street. All of the children that came to watch also were adorned in bright costumes.

The parade started at around 4:30, which is pretty good for Mexican time. The parade consisted of several preschools or dance schools all made up of kids around the ages of 4 to 7. You could tell that they had worked for a long time on their coreography, even though most seemed to have fogotten it in the excitement of being in front of a crowd. Their costumes all looked amazing and some of those kids really knew how to move!

This year´s theme for carnival is peliculas or movies, some of the many costumes that we saw today were Marilyn Monroes, Aladin, The Jungle Book, Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Pinocchio. It was a nice change from the parades to come, which consist of mostly advertisements and barely-covered twenty-somethings.

My Lesson of the Day: It really is hard not to be in a good mood now that Carnival is here.

Fotos from Campeche

The walls of Campeche.

One of the entrances to the city.

I thought I saw a pirate.

Here is what the wall's of campeche look like on a map.

This is what the walls are protecting!   (aka the view from the roof of our hostal at night)

Every street is lined with candy-colored houses just like this one.

More about Campeche

I realize I seem to have skimped a little of my discription of Campeche in my last post. While the pirate ship was a really cool part of my weekend, there is a lot more to Campeche than just being a pirate.  However, the city is famous thanks to the ancient pirates of the gulf and their many raids on the old city.

Campeche was the most frequently attacked city on the gulf coast, for reasons I am unaware of.  As a response to these frequent raids, the city built huge walls that completely surrounded their quaint little town.  Cannons and watchmen lined these walls day in and day out to prevent pirates like Francis Drake and Laurens DeGraaf from attacking again.

Today, a lot of the wall has fallen down, but there are still some important parts standing where you can walk along and see the old cannons that they used.  The centro of the city is beautiful, clean and upkept.  The main zocalo lies only a few blocks from the ocean and serves as the merging point for all the streets lined with their candy-colored houses.  

We stayed at a hostal opposite the church in the main plaza.  Watching the city at night and again in the morning from the rooftop deck made our stay in the city that much more exciting.

My Lesson of the Day: Pirates of the Caribbean were actually a dangerous threat.

Do spanish pirates say arrggh too?

I'll start off with one of the most exciting parts of my weekend: The Lorencillo.  We went to Campeche, a city about 2 hours west of Merida.  As we walked around the Centro of the city, I came across a little advertisement for the Lorencillo, a pirate ship that takes short trips out into the Gulf of Mexico.

Having seen my fair share of Pirates of the Caribbean, I knew this was something I didn't want to miss out on, so we quickly called up and got on the 5'o'clock trip.

Although I think the pictures give an accurate depiction, they don't capture the pirates of the caribbean soundtrack that went on in the

 background. Yes, this was an experience straight out of the movie, or a least a top-rate ride at Disney.

The hour long boat ride was a lot of fun.  Not only did we get to pretend to sail the boat, we also got to drink rum and watch a fake sword fight.  After the sword fight, the performers - or shall I say pirates - broke out into a salsa performance (I think this might be where we differed from the movie).  We all got to join in and there we were, dancing aboard a pirates ship as we sailed off

 into the sunset.  It would have been a very romantic Valentine's Day had I not been there with my roommate.

My Lesson of the Day: Sailing pirate ships and rum make for a sloppy salsa dance.

Number 5: Because you only live once

Last year, while I was living here in Mexico, my motto was "well, this is the only time I'll be living here, so lets do it"  

Obviously, that motto has been disproved by me living here this winter for time number two.  So this year, my motto has become a little more sophisticated (as have I ;)).  It is now, "well, you only live once."  I would like to see that motto proven wrong!  

So anyways, I wanted Dave to be able to see what I mean by "You only live once."  I had to think of something good.  Something that neither one of us has ever done before and most likely will never do again.  And I found it:  Feeding the sharks.

While we were in Cancun I noticed in a guidebook an advertisement for feeding sharks at a local aquarium.  I knew that this would be a perfect opportunity so we headed off to the aquarium to get started.

Once we payed and heard a little more about the adventure, they handed us our wetsuits and we got ready.  We stepped into a huge plexi-glass box that they then lowered into the shark tank.  There were several slits and holes in the side of the cage so we could put the food out through the holes. 

As we were down there, the guide was telling me the names of the various sharks in spanish and I was playing translator.  With every shark name that I translated to Dave his eyes got a little bit bigger.  Unlike me, Dave actually knows a thing or two about sharks, and he informed me that the sharks we were feeding were some of the most dangerous sharks.  (This is something you might want to find out before you are stuck in a glass box in the middle of a shark tank!)

Anyways, it was an amazing experience being able to feed the sharks and something I will remember for the rest of my life!

My Lesson of the Day: While I have always been against the whole vacationing-in-Cancun thing, I ended up having a once-in-a-lifetime experience!  One point for Cancun.

Number 4: transportation

You can´t travel around the Yucatan unless you´ve traveled it like a poor college student. It would be boring to rent a car when there are so many forms of transportation out there. So this weekend I think I gave Dave a good taste of the various forms of transportation that the Yucatan has to offer!

I think we took a total of 8 bus rides, various taxi rides and several colectivos, which are the vans that go just about everywhere in the Penninsula. We even hit the less traveled on roads by tricitaxi, a bicycle powered taxi, and topped it all off with a horse-drawn truck ride through the jungle to go to cenotes. I think the only thing we possibly missed was traveling by spaceship, so perhaps we´ll have to do that next visit.

My Lesson of the Day: Having a car here only limits your mode of transportation.

Number 3: Carribean Beaches

Number 3 on the list of things to see here in the Yucatan is the caribbean beaches.  I have never seen water so clear or so blue as it is here on the caribbean coast.  

Like I said in my last post, we went to Tulum because it has both numbers 2 and 3: ruins and beaches.  It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  The Mayan ruins sit atop a cliff that overlooks the caribbean sea.  After a spending a hot morning looking at ruins and taking pictures, there is nothing better than going for a dip in the sea.  All you have to do to get there is hop down some rickety wood steps and your on the beach.  

Facing the ocean all you see is blue sky, blue water and blue waves.  To your right and left you can see the ruins atop the cliffs that surround the beach.  It is a paradise uniquely Mexican.  No where else can you see both caribbean sea and important Mayan ruins.

My Lesson of the Day: This isn't really a lesson, but after Tulum, I am left wondering if the Mayan's were as into sunbathing as the tourists are.

Number 2: mayan ruins

Number two on my list of things to do in the Yucatan is the Mayan Ruins. There are many different sites throughout the peninsula that range from wonders of the world, like Chichen Itza, down to smaller or unrestored sites. These sites are so important because they give a glimpse into one of the most sophisticated pre-colombian civilizations.

The Mayans have been traced back to as early as 2600 BC, with most of the ruins sites boasting at least 1000 years in existence. The civilization thrived until the arrival of the conquistadors, upon which it began its decline. However, the Mayans are still very important to this area because many of the people are at least some percent Mayan. The language is still spoken in some villages and most people know their fair share of Mayan words.

The sites, some which were found in tact, many of which have been restored, are very impressive. It is amazing to think how a civilization that long ago managed to build such impressive and beautiful buildings. It is easy to fall in love with the various sites, each one containing its own unique identity.

For our trip, I decided to head to Tulum, which is on the Eastern coast of the peninsula and technically not part of the Yucatan state, but still part of the peninsula. I have included a picture of one of the many buildings that make up this important Mayan trading post. While this site isn´t quite as large or interactive as some (you can´t climb most of the main builidings) it is still a beautiful site. It is also perfect because it harmoniously coexists with number 3 on my lists of things to do in the Yucatan.


My Lesson of the Day: Although it was my second trip to Tulum, I realized that trip number two only increased my interest and appreciation for the site.

Losing the battle against the hormigas

A quick side note before continuing on to number 2:

I just wanted to let you know that my battle against the hormigas (ants) has hit an all time low. I think being gone for the weekend allowed them more time to plan and plot and reproduce.

We came home from work today to discover that they had managed to get into our pinata full of candy. This means that they managed to crawl up a dresser, then a tupperware dish, jump onto a towel, climb up the towel, climb along a curtain rod and finally down to the pinata. They are persistent, arn´t they?

So here comes the all time low part: my roommate and I dumped out all the candy on the floor with a good 100 or so ants that had magaged to make it in. We then went through every piece of candy, throwing out the ant infested pieces, putting the good pieces in tupperware and killing as many ants as possible along the way. I can´t say I´m proud of the number of ants I have killed today, but I will say that I will sleep a lot easier tonight knowing that I did.

My Lesson of the Day: Persistente is how you say persistent in Spanish

Number 1: Cenotes

Because Dave was in town, I decided that I needed to show him the best the Yucatan has to offer. Number 1: Cenotes

I have seen many different english translation of the word cenote. Some of these include natural well or waterhole, etc. But none of these seem to acurately describe exactly what a cenote is, because you can´t really explain it in one word.

Before I try to explain, you need to first know that the whole Yucatan does not have a single river that runs above ground. (Go ahead, look at a map. Its true!) I don´t completely understand why, but I´ve been told that it is because the whole peninsula is extremely flat and close to sea level. Rather than having rivers above the ground, all of them run below the ground in an elaborate system of underground caves, caverns and rivers. I´m pretty sure that this is the only place in the world where you will find this.

So in some places, these underground rivers form giant fresh water pools in underground caves - some close to the surface and open to the air. These big pools are known as cenotes. Back in the day, the cenotes used to be a water source for the Mayans. Today, however, they seem to simply attract tourists and natives alike either for swimming, jumping or just simply looking.

Cenotes are one of the most beautiful things I have seen. The water is amazingly clear, blue and refreshing. Also, their cave setting makes for a pretty interesting swim. Some of the caverns are so deep that you can´t see the bottom and you feel like your swimming in a blue abyss.

They are both awe-inspiring and somewhat erie at the same time. The water is clear enough to see far beneath what you could ever touch, so when you can´t see the bottom, it makes you wonder what exactly could lerk below. The soundtrack of the cenote consists of nothing - complete silence - with the ocational bat flying above. For me, the cenote is more than just a ¨natural well¨or a ¨waterhole.¨ It is an experience completely unique to the Yucatan.

My Lesson of the Day: There is no english translation of Cenote because we just don´t have anything that could compare

Miel de luna....not!

I know it has been a while since I've last written, but I figured I would give you all plenty of time to read up on the last few novel-sized posts I have written. Ok, and there are other reasons too! Dave decided to come for a short 4 day visit, so I have been busy trying to show him all that the Yucatan has to offer in only 4 days. (Which doesn't leave a ton of time for blog writing.)

Ok, so a short recap of the weekend, Thurday night Dave and Carolyn's boyfriend John-Curtis arrive. Dave and I went out to sushi and to the bars. (I know, he came all the way to Mexico and the first place I took him was to sushi, ironic right? but its tradition)

Friday consisted of a trip to the cenotes, lunch at my casa, roaming Merida, and me getting sick. Saturday consisted of going to Tulum and hanging out around the city at night. Sunday brought us to Puerto Morelos and then to the Cancun airport to say goodbye to the guys and then to where we are now - in an internet cafe searching for more flights to cincinnati because they got bumped. More on everything to come later!

My Lesson of the Day: Don't fly standby!

Fotos from the Corridas

All of these photos go with my post from Feb. 3

Preparing the horses for the show (notice the scar)

¨Dancing¨ with the horse

In the middle of a fight

They use a special breed of bull for corridas because

they are so aggressive

With the forcados aka the craziest men of the bullfight

Brings a whole new meaning to ¨grabing the bull by the horns¨

The rejoneador with his ¨trophy¨

Just hanging out with the number 1 bullfighter in Mexico

No big deal!

¨A bull fight covers all aspects of life: excitement, fear, passion, and death¨

Yep, thats the ear...

My Cumple in Merida

As many of you know, turning 21 in Mexico is a little anticlimactic for us Americans.  Here in Mexico, I've been legal for years.  Regardless, I ended up having a very good 21st birthday.  

My birthday actually began while we were driving home in the car from Valladolid, so we celebrated a little the night before coming back.  Then I got serenaded at 6 am by Dave, followed by another serenade at work.  I think they sang to me at least 4 times throughout the day!  

Then we celebrated at lunch with Mama's flan, which was the most amazing flan I have ever had.  I think because it was made with love! :)

At night one of my friends here had a little fiesta for me at his apartment.  Beforehand, I was determined to purchase my first legal bottle of alcohol and I tried to forget the fact that I could have bought the same bottle on Monday with no problem.  Carolyn, who turned 21 last week, and I pretended that it was our first and took pictures to prove this momentous occasion. 

The fiesta was a lot of fun and I ended up having a fantastic 21st birthday in Mexico!

My Lesson of the Day: Strawberry wine = bad first legal bottle of alcohol

Everything you ever wanted to know about a bull fight and then some

If I had written a post about bull fights on Friday, it would have gone as follows:

I have never seen a bull fight, mostly because I think it is inhumane to kill an animal for spectacle and I do not enjoy the sight of blood.

However, four days later I have returned from my trip to Valladolid with a whole new opinion of corridas (bull fights).  What follows is what I have learned first hand about the history, the tradition and the inner workings of a corrida.

It all started with our trip to Valladolid, a decent sized city about two hours east of Merida.  Valladolid celebrates the Virgin of the Candelaria every year with a two week long feria.  We decided to catch the second weekend of the feria to learn a little more about the town, the feria and the corridas. 

I also had a friend from last year, Beto, who was in charge of the corridas for the feria so he talked us into coming to watch.  Thanks to him, we got an in-depth look into what a corrida is.

On Saturday night, we headed to the feria with him and his friends to go to the concert of a woman named Yuri, who they told us was the Mexican equivalent of Madonna.  We hopped into their truck to head to the feria but they warned us they had a little work to do first.  For some reason, there was a mix up in hotel reservations and they had to find hotel rooms for 6 of the toreros (bull fighters).  Finding a hotel in Valladolid at 8pm during feria is nearly impossible, so as we drove all around the city, from hotel to hotel, we got a little lesson about corridas.

First I learned that there are two main types of corridas: The first type is on foot, and is the type most of you have probably seen.  The second type is done on horseback.  This is where the matador, or in this case called a rejoneador, fights the bull while riding a horse.

Beto also told us that if it weren't for bull fighting, the whole breed of bulls would go extinct.  They use a special type of bull for bull fights because this type of bull is especially aggressive.  Without bullfighting, there would be no need for these aggressive bulls.  I think this helped me warm up to the idea of bull fighting.

During this time we were invited to go down early on Sunday to see the preshow for the corrida so we could see more about what goes on before the fight.  However, Beto explained that getting ready for a corrida is a very sacred tradition that very few people have seen.  All of those who are about to participate in the fight go through a ritual of putting on their elaborate costumes.  He said that it takes them a long time to get dressed because the costumes are all sewn into place, not buttoned or zipped.  Tradition that still alive today: one more point for corridas in my book. 

Anyways, they eventually found a hotel and we headed to the concert, where we got down into floor seating - for free - and watched Yuri, who ended up being very much like a Mexican Madonna.

Then came Sunday's corrida, my first ever.  It was done on horseback.  We were able to head to the feria early and see all of the horses as they prepared them for the fight.  During the corrida two different rejoneadores alternate between killing four bulls in total.  Between the two men, they had brought 17 horses to ride throughout the show.  So this gives you a clue as to how exhausting it can be on the horses.  It can also be dangerous.  The picture I have included is of us with one of the men braiding a horse before the show.  In the picture you can clearly see the horse's scar from where it had been previously gored by a bull's horns.

After we poked around backstage, we ran around the feria for awhile with Beto's cousin Fernando, who ended up being a very good feria guide.

Then it was time for the big show.  We got to stand right down on ground level, with only a little wooden fence separating us from the raging bull.  I was a little nervous, and I don't think it helped that everyone kept telling us what to do in the event that a bull might jump the fence.  But I was excited to get such a close look.

Before the bull fight started, we learned that if a bull is especially brave and fights really well, that they don't kill it.  A white flag signals that the bull can live and he gets to spend the rest of his days on a ranch with 200 cows.  While it may be rare, talk about a good life!  One more point for bull fighting.  In addition, the bulls that they use for the corrida are an average of 5 years old, which is much older than the the life of a commercial beef cow.  If you can't tell, I'm starting to warm up to the idea of bull fights.

So we watched the opening parade, the bull fight, the bulls death and I managed to stop shaking.  It was a little gory, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  The ring side seats were pretty cool too.  We got to see everything up close and I mean really up close!  At some points I could have reached out and touched the bull. (For the record, if your ever face to face with a bull, don't move.  When you move, it makes them more likely to charge.)

I was surprised at how many people it took to fight the bull.  Not only was there the guy on the horse, but there were at least 4 to 6 other guys whose job was to distract the bull.  They don't have swords, but they have capotes which are the capes that they use to distract the bull.

Then there were the forcados, who were the craziest of them all.  They also, ironically, are the only ones who don't receive money for the corrida.  This group of 8 guys, dressed in nothing but their elaborate costumes, line up and taunt the bull into charging at them.  The first one, who is the one wearing the hat, then grabs onto the front of the bull's horns and holds on.  The rest proceed to pile on until they have the bull somewhat under control.  Then one guy grabs onto the bulls tail and hangs on as the rest run away.  This guy is dragged around in a circle until he can make it away safely. 

Finally the rejoneador gets off the bull calms it down and then gives it it's last big blow and then then the toredos finish him off quickly.  Once the bull was dead, they cut off one of the bulls ears and gave it to the rejoneador who then walked around waving his "trophy" and receiving applause before throwing the bloody ear into the audience.

After the first fight was over, the second rejoneador fights the next bull.  The first fighter gets a break.  His camp, and by camp I mean swords and knives, were set up right next to us so he came over to say hello.  He not only fought bulls, but it turns out he speaks perfect english too.

He answered all the millions of questions that we had about bull fights.  You could tell he was clearly very passionate about his profession and he knew a lot about it.  He gave us the history of the corridas, which date back to the time of the crusades.  The catholics used bull fights as a way to prepare their horses and warriors for battle.  Because the wars were fought on their territory, bull fighting has remained so important to the Spanish, and in a way, we have bull fighting to thank for our religion.

He also taught us that the bull's ear was considered kind of like a grade of how well the fight went.  He told us that there is judge, like a judge judge, that officiates the fight.  That way the matadors all follow the rules and can be fined or arrested if they don't comply.  He explained that everyone doesn't want to see the bull suffer anymore than they do, so there is an officiate.  He also decides, by how well the fight and death goes, what the matador receives.  If it is just ok, he gets to stand in the middle of the ring and receives his applause.  The next step up is getting to walk around the receive the applause.  Then if he does a good job, he receives and ear; a really good job gets two ears; and the best job gets two ears and a tail.

So we proceeded to watch the next three fights and talked more with our new rejoneador  friend, Gaston Santos.  Only later did we find out that he was the best bull fighter in Mexico.  Not too shabby of an experience for my first ever bull fight, huh.  I guess if you're going to learn about corridas you might as well learn about from the best.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that someone gave us the ear of the bull to keep as a souvenir.  As I stood in line for the women's bathroom with a bloody bull's ear in my hand, the ladies told me it would taste really good if you cut it up and fry it.  Currently, it is sitting in the window of our room, right in between the piñata and my mexican cowboy hat.  (Yes, we brought the bull's ear all the way back to Merida.  What else are we going to do with it?  If you have any suggestions, I'm open to ideas!)

 After the corrida we watched as they cut up the toros to sell for food.  I honestly watched as the skinned and cut up a whole toro.  I think that it helped me to know that he didn't go to waste.

Ok, well I feel like I have written enough for one post, hope you all enjoyed my novel.  I'm off to go celebrate my 21st!

My Lesson of the Day: Never say never, because one day you may have a bloody bull's ear in your hand too!

P.S. My pictures wouldn't load, so those will come later!