Loosing my crutch

Today was my first day as the only student from OU in Merida.  Its like I took out the big crutch that was the program and am now living on my own.  It was just me and mama for lunch and then the two of us for dinner also.  I know I'll only be here for tomorrow but it gives me a really good look at what it would be like to actually live here in Merida.  Its fun to think about what my life would be like if I lived here full time.

On another note, today was my last day at the office.  I teared up a little when it came time to say goodbye.  Everyone there has been really great and they have made my experience here so much more enjoyable.  I took in some cookies and we all sat around talking about the last three months.  It's funny how much your life can change in such a short matter of time.  We laughed about how on my first day at the office I didn't even know how to get home nor how to tell them even if I did.  I think I've come a long way since then.

I assured everyone that they always have a place to stay in Ohio whenever they want to visit.  I think it would be fun to be able to show them around and I know they would like it.  They too let me know that I always have a place to stay in Merida.  I'm sure that one day I will be back to take them up on that offer.

While it was sad saying goodbye, I know that I will keep in touch with a lot of my coworkers and my boss Roberto too.  I'm excited to step foot back in the U.S. because I know I'll always have wonderful memories of my time here.

My Lesson of the Day: Its hard getting rid of that crutch after you've been walking with it for so long.

I hate saying goodbye! (and packing my suitcase)

It has finally hit me that my time here in Merida has come to an end.  All of the other OU students have left and my roommate leaves tomorrow, making me the only one left from the program still in Merida.  I realize that Sunday will be here before I know it so I have already started packing my suitcases, which is perhaps the worst part of leaving.  Do you know how hard it is to try to pack up the life that you are living and fit it into two suitcases weighing less than 50 pounds?  My only advantage here is that they weigh things in kilos, not pounds.  Therefore my suitcase is allowed to be 23 kilos, which is technically 50.6 pounds.  I need every bit of help I can get!

I have very mixed feelings about leaving.  On one hand I am very sad to leave this country and all my friends here, but on the other hand I am a little relieved to be coming back to the United States and to my family and friends there.  I feel like I've gotten to see a lot more of Mexico this year and while there are things I will miss, there are also things that I'm happy to get away from.  

One of the things I will miss the most is working here.  I feel like it has been a such a good experience and that it has really helped me understand everything better here.  Tonight I have my despedida, a little goodbye party that my friends from work are having.  I'm going to miss them all a lot but I'm excited to celebrate with them before leaving.

My Lesson of the Day: Goodbyes are very bittersweet

A look from the other side of the camera

The theme of my blog this year seems to be firsts, so here goes one more.  Today I had my first modeling experience.  Yes, me.  modeling.  Not at all what I expected to be doing on a normal Wednesday night. 

Anyways, the people at my work asked me to model for a salon because the salon wants to put an advertisement in our magazine but they don't have anything designed.  I agreed to go get my hair stylized so that we would  have pictures to include in their advertisement.  Little did I know just what I was getting myself into.

I've been to a few of the events with my work, but I've always been the one helping take the pictures, not the one in front of the camera.  However, the whole modeling thing started out pretty easy.  First, they took pictures of me getting my hair straightened.  Then the owner decided that we should get pictures of everything the salon has to offer so I got a manicure and my makeup done. Everything was smooth sailing up until this point.  Then it started to get a little weird.

I had to pretend like I was getting my hair washed and shampooed, even though we didn't do the real thing.  Then they covered my hair in plastic wrap and stuck me under a dryer so it looked like I was getting my hair dyed.  Finally, to top it all off, they had me lay down in the waxing room so they could pretend to wax my eyebrows and my upper lip, all the while snapping away pictures.  I really hope they don't end up putting those pictures into magazine.  At least if they do, I won't be here to see the magazine come out!

My Lesson of the Day: If there is any model out there who can make getting their lip waxed, I would like to meet her.

Are you reading what I'm reading?

Throughout my time here in Mexico I have seen a lot of funny signs in spanish.  For example,  a sign next to a cenote said "If you don't know how to swim, don't get in the water."  Another personal favorite are the signs on the side of the road that instruct drivers to "obey the signs."

However, nothing can top the number of signs I have seen here in English.  Before I write down some of the best that I have seen, I want to first let you know that I am in no way trying to make fun of those learning english.  There are great number of people here that speak english better than even I do.  That being said, most of these signs do make me laugh because they are written poorly in english.  Secondly, I want to add that I have photo proof  of all of these signs.  I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried!

Ok, here it goes.

Inside of a cenote, a sign in spanish saying "dear visitor, wet stones are slippery.  Walk at your own risk"  was translated into "dear tourist,  wet stone are slepering.  thank you."

In the same cenote another sign in spanish saying "walk at your own risk" was translated two different ways: "precautions tourist, take care of your self" and "friend visitor, walk easily."

Walking up the stairs of a hostel, the low ceiling read: "Be careful.  Down Head."

In the bathroom, a sign telling people not to throw toilet paper into the toilet (yes, you don't throw it in the toilet) was translated to "Do not pull out the garbage in the toilet."

At the waterfalls there was a sign that read "Dangerous not to swim."  It was right next to the spanish version saying "dangerous to get in the water."  It was a little confusing to those who were bilingual and very dangerous to those who only spoke english.

Finally, my favorite of them all was not really a sign at all.  It was a list of rules that we found on the back of our hotel door.  I'll type out the list word for word, letter for letter and let you decide for yourself what they are trying to say.  Honestly, I can't even figure out a few of them.  Here they are, the hotel's rules:

1. The guest don't get in alcoholic drunks into the room.

2. The hotel is not responsible about values objects or documents lost into the room if these aren't protected on the hotel's reception.

3. If the guest is surprised doing a bad use into the room; painting walls or breaking an furniture, it will pay.  Please avoid us to report to you to the municipal's autorities.

4. If the guest lost the room's key, it cost will be $65 pesos mn.

5. If the guest take any thing of the room, like: towels, sheets, etc., it will pay double of its price and will be notified to the municipal's autorities.

6. If the guest smoke or inhale any toxic substance, will be reported inmediately to the municipal's autorities.

While all the rules are good, my personal favorite is rule number 3.  

I realize that some of you may not find these mistranslations funny at all.  I however can laugh because I know that I make the exact same mistakes when I translate into spanish.  The only difference is that I would check to make sure I had everything right before printing it on a large sign.

My Lesson of the Day: Some things just aren't easy to translate.

A despedida and a couple of caves

Saturday night we had our despedida, which is our farewell dinner with everyone in the program.  All of the students, the families and the teachers are invited to come to a dinner/dance/farewell to our time in Mexico.  This year marked the 30th year of OU's Programa Mayab so we had an excuse to celebrate a little more.

It was really nice to get together for dinner with the whole family and to see everyone from the program.  You can tell how much the families enjoy getting to spend time together.  I also enjoyed getting to see my mama and papa from last year, who I don't get to see nearly enough.

We spent Sunday by our newly filled swimming pool with all of the relatives.  We ate a picnic-style lunch and baked in the hot, hot sun.

Today (Monday) was a national holiday, which means no school or work in my case.  We decided to spend the day going to the caves of Calcehtok, which is Mayan for serpent's neck.  There are about 30 caves connected by intricate passageways, making these caves the biggest in all of the Yucatan.

The caves are located in the middle of nowhere, only marked by a small handwritten sign.  A guide can be found near the entrance and they are completely necessary if you want to make your way both in and out of the caves.  (Our guide told us a story about three guys that thought they didn't need a guide and ended up spending 3 days in complete darkness, during which they went crazy.)  We were certain to get a guide.  There were only 5 in our group so we joined up with another group of people to make 14 in all.  The guide

asked us which route to take: easy or extreme.  We chose extreme.

The first decent was pretty easy and very beautiful.  We took some before pictures to remember how clean we were going in because we knew we would be dirty after 3 hours in the caves.  If only I had known then how dirty we were about to get.

After getting further down into the caves, we lost the sunlight of the entrance and had only a flashlight each to guide our way through the complete darkness.  The guide took us deeper and deeper into the slippery cave system.  The further and further we got into the cave the more difficult each passageway between caverns became.  

At many points throughout the trip we had to squeeze between rocks, army crawl under passageways, climb up ropes and slide down muddy slopes.  It was certainly an adventure.  There were a few times where I didn't think I was going to make it through some of the

 passages. However, I would squeeze through only to have the guide tell us that the next passageway would be even smaller.  

All of the caves were really beautiful.  We saw cavern after cavern where our guide pointed out shapes formed by the naturaleza.  We also got to see many bats - some of which were vampire bats - a lot of their guano and a bunch of things left behind by the mayans who once inhabited the cave. 

Our guide also told us a lot about the Mayans who used the cave and the rumors of the Aluxes who still reside inside.  We weren't lucky enough to see any of these Aluxes, but who knows if they are out there.  

After 3 hours inside of the caves, a lot of our group was ready to head back up to sunlight.  The guide gave us three options:  1. we could take the tourist route  2. we could take an easy route OR 3. we could take the macho route.  Guess which one we took?

The macho route was also the quickest so we picked it.  It involved having us squeeze through what was the smallest passageway thus far.  And I mean squeeze through.  I really didn't think any of us would make it through but low and behold, we did and from there we could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

My Lesson of the Day: I am definitely not claustrophobic. 

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has always had that unlucky connotation.  I'm not sure whether it actually is unlucky or if we just have a certain movie to thank for its unluckiness, but regardless, we all associate Friday the 13th with bad luck.

I, however, have had the luck to spend the past two Friday the 13ths here in Mexico, where they aren't unlucky at all.  Thats right, our neighbors to the south believe that this fatefull day only falls on Tuesday the 13th, not Friday.  Isn't it funny how a different latitude can change all your luck?

If you need further proof that Friday the 13th is not unlucky, here in Mexico we filled up our pool today.    After spending almost 3 months down here and countless days lying out beside an empty hole in the yard, Margarita decided to fill the pool.  Why haven't they filled up the pool by now, you ask?  Well the answer is simple: here in Merida they believe that it is too cold this time of year to fill up their pools.  It is winter after all.  Even if winter means temperatures in the 90s.

My Lesson of the Day: Winter is winter which for me has always meant no pools.

Facing my fear

Yesterday (Thursday) I did something that I vowed I would never do here in Merida:  I drove a car.  And yes, on the street.  

It all started out like a normal day at work.  I was working on some of my projects and then I decided to go on some sales with two of my coworkers.  We headed off to the mall, which is where we were trying to sell ad space.  I know what you're thinking, and yes, my job is very tough. ;)  

Anyway, we spent the day at the mall and when it came time to leave, I had the keys in my hand.  I was joking around about how I was going to drive back and I got in the front seat, expecting to see a stick shift but much to my surprise it was an automatic.  I was really just kidding about the driving thing up until this point.  Then I realized that both of my friends were sitting in the car - seat belts on.  

I figured I might as well face up to to my fear of the Meridan streets and I stuck the key in the ignition.  Plus I figured that if I managed to find the only automatic car in Merida, it must have been a sign.

So I took off down the street and I drove all the way back to the office just fine.  I only gave my friends a near heart attack 3 times.  Really the driving wasn't too bad at all because it wasn't very far, it wasn't busy and I didn't drive very fast.  But let me tell you, those glorietas are not easier than stoplights!

My Lesson of the Day: When coming to a glorieta, there is only one rule: its my turn!

One monday, two worlds

On Monday we decided that we wanted to do a little shopping and take advantage of the exchange rate, which is now 15.5 pesos to the dollar.  First however, I took Linda to the marketplace to get some fresh fruit and of course to experience the Mexican marketplace.

We only ventured a little way into the marketplace because the fruit section is towards the entrance.  But even walking into the marketplace is like walking into a whole new world.  There is table after table of fresh fruits, spices and vegetables.  As you venture onward (the marketplace encompasses a whole city block) you encounter booth after booth of different or sometimes the same things.  There are several booths devoted to religious statues and

 many devoted to making tortillas and serving food.  As you walk around the market most of the outside booths are for non-edible items such as the traditional panama hats, books or shoes.  Then you head onwards towards the grain section, which is in very close proximity to the live pets section.  If you keep heading onwards you get to the back of the market, which is the meat section.  You can smell the meat section way before you actually see it.  The smell is revolting and unlike anything I have smelled before.  There you can get fresh - and I mean very fresh - chickens, pigs and other types of meat.  At one market there were people walking around 

with 7 or so whole, feathered but dead chickens dangling off each arm.  I've also seen people walking pigs on leashes that I imagine can only end up in one place later.  It is my personal belief that every person should experience the meat section of a Mexican marketplace because it either makes you appreciate what you eat or turns you vegetarian.  However, I decided to spare Linda from the meat section and we headed back out while we still had enough appetite to eat our food!

After having lunch at my house with the family we headed further North of the city to  my favorite shopping plaza: 

Altabrisa. Throughout the years the growing trend in the North is becoming more and more Americanized.  There have been several malls that have popped up, Altabrisa being the newest of them all.  This mall is extremely nice with high-end stores, some of which are too classy for even the Cincinnati area.  We shopped around for awhile but many of the stores were still too expensive - even when taking the exchange rate into consideration.

On our taxi ride home from the mall I joked around with Linda that in one day she was able to the two extremes of the Mexican culture.  We went from spending the morning in the crowded downtown marketplace to spending the evening in the high-end shopping mall.  You don't get much more different than that!

My Lesson of the Day: Distance doesn't really matter when separating two completely different worlds and as much as I hate this fact, its a sobering experience to see both in one day.

Cenotes, beaches and a familiar face

As I wrote before, one of my best friends, Linda, came down to visit me for her spring break.  I was eager to show another person around the Yucatan and show them all about my life here in Merida.

She arrived late on Friday, but not late enough to miss out on the night life here in the city.  I took her out for a few drinks at a cafe and then we headed to one of the many discos or anthros here in the city.  For her first mexican disco experience I chose Amarantus, a small but fun club thats not too far away from my home.  One of the things that amazes me about the clubs here is that they are all open bar.  You pay about 5 dollars and then drink the rest of the night for free.  (For guys it is a little more expensive to enter.)  They bring bottle after bottle of liquor to your table with various mixers and then you get to do the rest of the work.  No lines, no waiting at the bar, no paying for every drink. 

After a late night out, we woke up on Saturday and headed off to Cuzama, the site of three cenotes.  We road 

on a horse drawn truck to each cenote.  While this trip marked my fourth trip to these cenotes, I am still amazed at their beauty and mystery.  I wonder if I will ever tire of going there.

Saturday night we went out to one of the nice Mexican restaurants in the center of town for dinner and drinks.  After a long day of swimming in the Cenotes we turned in at about midnight, which is pretty early for a Saturday night here in Merida.

On Sunday we headed to Progresso, the nearest beach town.  While it doesn't 

quite compare to the Caribbean beaches, the beach at Progresso is still very pretty.  The water has a blue-green color that is unique to the area.  The palm trees and palapa huts (a small umbrella-like structure with a roof of palm leaves) make the beach atmosphere ideal for relaxing and taking in sun.  We also went out on a banana boat ride, which is tubing on a huge, yellow, banana-shaped raft that can hold up to 12 people.  The waves were decent sized.  I fell off twice, but so did just about everyone else.  It was an exciting end to our day at the beach.

From there we checked out Merida en domigo (on Sunday).  Every sunday the main square of town comes alive with people selling things, shopping, eating, dancing and enjoying the last day of the weekend.  We did some shopping at the small stalls before calling it a day.

My Lesson of the Day(s): Some places only get better the more you visit them.

Possibly my biggest frustration

One of the most frustrating things for me here in Mexico is the internet connection.  Its not that they don't have internet, because they do.  They have internet just about everywhere: cafes, parks and even fast food restaurants.  The problem is that it seems not to like my American computer.  Or maybe its that my American computer doesn't like it?  (Thats about as far as my computer technology skills can go)

Regardless, the point is that it takes me so much longer to do the simplest things.  Like load pictures.  Or write a blog post.  If I'm lucky enough to establish connection, I usually either get kicked off before I finish what I'm doing or I my attention span gets the better of me and I quit.

This leaves me in my current situation: nearly a week behind on blog posting.  So I have gone to Segafredo's, the nearest cafe and my second home.  I have my cafe and I'm in it for the long run.  What follows are the posts I should have written about several days ago!

My Lesson of the Day: Falling behind is easy, but catching up always takes time!

The smallest little airport

I went yesterday to go pick up Linda, one of my best friends from high school.  She flew directly into Merida - aka the smallest airport I have ever seen.

I arrived early to pick her up, thinking that I was going to a normal airport.  I walked inside to find that I was not.  I think I was one of the only two people in the airport, minus the huge number of people working.  

I went over to check out the arrivals and make sure that her flight was on time.  The screen looked somewhat like this: there were a total of 4 flights coming in - one from Houston and three from Mexico City.

I thought maybe they only had four flights coming in at the time, but then I realized that it was a list of every single flight for the day.  Four flights come into Merida and four flights go out, making it the smallest, eight-flights-per-day airport that I have ever seen!

My Lesson of the Day: You don't have to be a big airport when your the only one in the entire state!

My run in with the Police

Last night I was coming home from a Noosfera (a club) with one of my friends from here.  It was really late at night and there weren't many people on the road.  Before I knew it I looked behind us to see the flashing lights of the police.

Now the flashing lights aren't really a bad sign here.  The police here always have their lights flashing, so I was hoping that maybe it was just a coincidence that they were behind us.  But when they got on the loudspeaker and asked us to pull over, I knew it wasn't so.  

The police made my friend get out of his car and checked his license and registration.  In the next 20 minutes the policeman proceeded to search the trunk of the car and continued to talk with my friend.  I had no idea what to do.  Should I get out of the car, should I stay in.  The police here aren't really the most trustworthy and they are quite intimidating in their bulletproof vests with their large guns, so I decided to stay put.

My friend came back to the car and told me that we needed to get money, which he had none of at the time.  I racked my purse and came up with 100 pesos (which is only the equivalent of about $7).  He payed the policeman and we were free to go.  I'm not exactly sure what we were paying to get out of - other than driving down the street at night, but it was a lot less hassle to just give the man money and not have to worry anymore.

This brings me to the point of this post: the reason why Mexico has so many problems with crime.  Why would you be afraid of doing something bad as long as you have the money to pay off the cop if you got caught?  If the people enforcing the laws are more crooked than those they stop, how are you going to find justice?

Its a weird, messed up system but thats the way life is right now.

My Lesson of the Day: Never leave home without enough money to pay off the cop.

Election Time

Here in Mexico its getting to be election time.  They have primaries this month (March) and then the real vote is sometime during June or July.  I'm actually embarrassed that I don't remember the exact dates because of the sheer volume of times I have seen the commercials.  

Anyway, what strikes me as interesting about said commercials is that they aren't like the ones we have here in the US.  There are commercials from both of the major political parties - the PRI and the PAN, but then a lot of the commercials are just very general commercials telling people to vote.

And when I say general, I mean very general commercials.  Most consist of people instructing you to think about it and then vote, or to weigh the options and then vote.  Oh, and they usually repeat the dates several times for registering and for voting. 

I think I like these type of ads a little more.  While I don't know a single candidate, I also don't know their icky past, their flip-flop voting patterns, or their love scandals.  I think that maybe we should take page out of this book come 2012.

My Lesson of the Day: This is more a question than a lesson, but: I wonder how differently we might vote if we didn't have to sift through the negative ads.

Where is my $13 million?

Today at work we had an interview with a British man who we are featuring in the next issue.  I was invited to join in on the interview and it turned out to be more interesting than I thought.  This man lives here in Merida and because of all the request he has received, he has started a web site where you can go to learn languages - the most intriguing of which is Maya.

The interview was very interesting and we touched on many different topics, but one thing stuck out in my mind: the issue of poverty.  While I fully recognize that poverty exists in all countries, here it strikes me as an even greater problem.  I think the reason is that the wealth is distributed so unevenly here.  In the U.S. most of us identify ourselves as middle class and there have been a growing number of people who identify themselves as so.  While Mr. and Mrs. Jones down the road may have a pool and drive a nicer car, they really aren't that different.  Here however, this is not true.  Mr. and Mrs. Gonzalez have at least 4 nicer cars, a huge house, a house at the beach, a security guard and a live in Muchacha.  Meanwhile 3 blocks down the road there are people living in one room houses with dirt floors - or worse. 

So anyways, back to the interview.  Our interviewee told me a fact that he had recently learned.  If you took all the wealth in the world, added it up and then divided it between all of the people in the world, do you know how much money each person would have?  $13 million.  Astonishing, isn't it?  

It really made me think about how greed and selfishness have affected our world.  While I don't really have the $13 million to give away or share with others, it made me appreciate my life and it made me wonder what kind of a difference I could make with what I have.

My Lesson of the Day: $13 million wouldn't be a lot if everyone else had it too. 

The Guest Speaker

Last night I headed off to UNID - one of the Universities here in Merida.  One of my friends from work had told me that her professor would love for me to come and talk to their psychology class.  Their class is all about psychology of the Mexican in the business world and her professor wanted to hear an outsiders perspective on what goes on here.

I was a little nervous when she picked me up last night.  I didn't really know what to expect (what to say, what language to say it in, etc.)  I got to sit in some of the class for about half an hour, during which I got to listen to some students present and discuss various topics.  All in all, it was a lot like a normal university level class. 

Then the professor asked me to come up to the front of the class, tell everyone a little about myself and we had an interview-style discussion where anyone could ask me questions. And did they ask me questions!  I think that the class of about 25/30 people may know more about me than some of my friends! I talked about my views of Mexicans, the workplace and what I have seen so far.  We talked about machismo and feminism, my views on the world, where I see myself in 10 years and so much more.  I actually had a lot of fun talking with the class.  I think was a really good experience for all involved.  

For them it was good for them to hear our stereotypes of Mexicans (some valid and some not) and also my opinion after living here.  I also think it helped them to see someone trying to speak spanish, enjoying the lifestyle here and having fun. It kind of helped break the drunk, partying american stereotype that they have of us (all thanks to spring break). 

For me, it was great to speak spanish in front of a ton of people for so long.  And the professor said that I even spoke really well - can you believe that?  He asked me to come back and speak to another one of his classes sometime if I wanted, but we'll see if my time limit will allow.  It was also really good for me because it got me thinking about things I haven't thought about before, like: what would I bring from Ohio to Merida or vice versa? What I'll miss the most and least?  For me, it was a great opportunity to reflect on my time here and realize what I'll miss and what I'll be happy to get away from.  It makes me realize that I really need to enjoy my last three weeks here in the peninsula, but also that I will be excited to return to Ohio, my home.

My Lesson of the Day: I've learned more about myself in one class here in Mexico than I have in 2 years at OU.  

Another weekend in the Jungle

Yet another weekend here in Mexico saw us adventure off into la selva (the jungle) of southern Mexico.  This time we were headed off to Calakmul, famous ruins site for many reasons.

First, the site is located in the 1,800,000 acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, one of the most important biosphere reserves in the world - second only to that of the Amazons.  Traveling into the reserve is like traveling back into time and getting to see the same landscape that the Mayans once walked through.

Our trip to Calakmul was not quite as easy as we had hoped.  While the ruins are one of the largest ancient Maya cities ever uncovered, it ceases to be a major tourist destination.  We ended up taking two second-class busses south from Merida for a trip that lasted about 5 1/2 hours.  We eventually found ourselves in the middle of nowhere at midnight when we encountered a small cabana for the night.  The biggest perk was getting to see the stars at night without the glare of city lights to obstruct the view.

Don Antonio, the sweet old caretaker of the cabanas told us that we should get an early start on the day if we were planning on going to the ruins.  He arranged for a cab, which is the only way to get out the ruins, and we headed off to sleep under mosquito nets for the night.

The next day we arose to the sound of roosters crowing and ate a nice breakfast prepared by Don Antonio himself.  We were in the cab by 7am and headed off to the site.

The site is so remote that tit takes at least an hour by car to reach the ruins once you enter into the biosphere reserve.  Along the road we saw a good amount of wildlife which consisted mostly of wild turkeys.  But these turkeys weren't like any I've ever seen.  They looked more like giant peacocks with blue and green feathers, a long neck and a small head topped with a crown of orange bumps.  They were much more beautiful than I expected.

We finally reached the beginning of the ruins.  From there you can take three routes, the shortest of which takes you right to the main attraction - the heart of the old city and the two big temples.  Calakmul was home to about 200,000 people during its peak, so the city is huge.

Both of the temples were equally impressive in size and height, but one is slightly higher than the other.  The bigger one holds the record for the tallest and I believe the biggest pyramid of the all the Mayan pyramids excavated.  Four tombs have been found inside, indicating that the pyramid grew in size throughout the years that the city thrived.

The view from the top of the pyramid made the long, hot accent worth it.  All you could see was jungle in every direction with the other temples poking out from the treetops.  From the top of one pyramid we ran into two mexican guys with binoculars.  With binoculars we could see the very tip of the main temple of Tikal, Guatemala.  (The site of Calakmul is only 30km from the border between Mexico and Guatemala).  So, technically, I can now say that I have seen a lot of Guatemala, regardless of the fact that I haven't stepped food inside of the country.

After spending about 2 1/2 hours at the site, climbing both of the big pyramids and running around the site, we decided not to keep the cab driver waiting any longer.  Plus we were trying to fit in as many sites as possible while we had the cab for the day.

We drove back out of the site and headed off towards Balam Ku's.  This site was a lot smaller than Calakmul but it had some really nice stucco work.  Back in the day of the mayans almost all fo the buildings were covered with painted stucco.  The site of Balam Ku's gave us a better look at what the temples used to look like.

From there it was off to Chicanná.  This site was much closer to where we were staying for the night.  Its big attraction was a huge building whose facade was shaped like a giant face - the doorway being the huge gaping mouth.  It was a depiction of the mayan god of the earth.

From Chicanná we headed right down the road to Becán, another small, yet impressive site.  There were many high pyramids with stunning views.  Becán was also the first place we really encountered other tourists.  We saw some mexicans at Calakmul and few other tourists at Chicanná, but nothing like the italian tourist group we saw at Becán.  I think that part of the experience of going to all of the ruins that we saw was that they were so remote.  It felt almost as if we had the ruins to ourselves.  It made them that much more awe inspiring and impressive.

Finally it had reached 5pm, which is closing time for the archeological sites.  I can't say I minded though because we had a long, exhausting day of traveling and I was ready to head back to the cabana.  Luckily on the way home from the ruins site we asked the taxi driver about bus rides back north so we could get to Merida.  We found out the Xpuhil (the closest city to the ruins) was so remote that only one bus left each day to go north and it happened to do so at 4am.  We were very thankful that we had asked or else we would have missed our only bus north.

We headed back to the cabana where we proceeded to watch a bit of "The Little Rascals" in spanish before passing out from exhaustion.  At 3:30 we woke up and Don Antonio drove us to the side of the road because he told us it wasn't safe for 3 girls to be walking alone in the middle of nowhere at 3 am.  There we waited with him until we could see the headlights of the bus and we flagged it down from the side of the road.

We were back in Merida by about 9 or 10 in the morning after some long hours on a bumpy bus ride home.  We had the whole day ahead of us, yet we felt as if it were bedtime.

My Lesson of the Day: Four ruins in one day is enough to exhaust even the most avid ruins enthusiast!