A Caribbean Weekend...

The beach and water where we snorkled and spent the day on Saturday.

The other part of the beach.

The fruit plate we got both mornings at breakfast! It was absolutely delicious! I think I am now in love with coconut-flavored yogurt!

The door to our hostel...nothing special! I forgot to take a picture of the inside..it only had two shelves, two fans, and two bunkbeds...like I said, very rustic!

A very small portion of the ruins. It at least shows how the ruins are on a cliff right on the water!

I had a much-needed weekend of relaxation after last week's days of struggle and sorrow. I and three other girls from the program made the trek to Tulum, a town on the Caribbean that is four hours southwest of Merida. The girls and I decided Friday morning at 8:30 that we needed to get out of Merida for the weekend because we were going to have another 3 day weekend ahead of us that would be filled with us staying around the house. So, we decided to go to the Caribbean to get away. We looked at bus schedules and saw that the earliest bus left at 12:40PM, so we went for it. We quickly packed, got things in line for the weekend, called our parents, and we were off in a taxi to go to downtown Merida to catch a freezing, cold, air-conditioned bus (or at least freezing to us since we haven't had air-conditioning since being down here) for four hours. Luckily, they showed August Rush and Bee's Life on the way there. However, they were in spanish, but we picked up on a lot of new words that we didn't know before! It was a great experience. Once we were in Tulum, we took a taxi to the hostel we had called ahead of time. Students from this program that have gone to Tulum before have always gone to this hostel, so they were excited to have another group of people from the same program this fall! The hostel area itself is very rustic, but it was very relaxing to say the least. They gave us bikes to take into town since the hostel was a little over a mile outside of town on the main highway. That was an unforgettable experience as well because I haven't ridden a bike since middle school! After getting supper in town, we headed back to the hostel to sit around and talk to other people staying there.

We had no idea so many people from different countries in Europe came to the Caribbean. We met people from the follow countries: Israel, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, England, Australia, and India. We were the only Americans there! It was great to hear about their experiences, why they are here, and what their views of the United States are. Most of them said that the first thing they think of when they think of the US is that "we buy a lot of stuff". Haha....so true! The next morning we got up, had a wonderful breafast, and went to a free beach where there were sea turtles, sting rays, and beautiful fish. I got a little burned, but it was so worth seeing the see turtles, stingrays, and beautiful fish while snorkeling! Once we returned to the hostel, we rode our bikes into town....or at least I tried to. A little over halfway to downtown, a rock got in the back tire of my bike which made it flat. Thankfully, Angela, my roommate down here, was gracious to walk back to the hostel with me to get a different bike. Needless to say, I sweat more than all the other girls down here, and I was drenched in sweat by the time we got back into town during attempt #2. I had spaghetti with a sort of meat sauce that wasn't really meat.

I have been on a healthy food diet this whole summer and now through the fall (thank you Neal)...and I was so excited to see that my pasta was very healthy. It contained spaghetti noodles and the meat "sauce" was made up of: oil, sauteed onions, chopped tomatoes, and browned hamburger. I thought it was great and much less fatty than sauce from a can! After eating, we returned back to the hostel and were very tired, so we went to bed quite early. Sunday morning we woke up early, had breakfast, and headed for the ruins that are right on the ocean on a cliff before checking out of the hostel. The ruins were absolutely stunning but of course it was VERY hot! I hadn't sweated that much since being down here...it was really disgusting but worth it. I included pictures above. After the ruins, we went back, showered, checked out, had another meal at a restaurant in Tulum and got back on the bus headed to Merida. We arrived safely and I was very grateful to get away from everything for a weekend! I am going to miss having a place like the Caribbean only four hours away!!! I was also looking forward to getting back however, to talk to Neal and see how he was feeling and how his blood sugar had been throughout the weekend. He is starting to stabilize more, so thank you all for your prayers! I know he appreciates it!

Yesterday I also changed rooms at the Patronato and absolutely loved it! The kids were working on cutting on dotted lines and gluing the pictures they cut out onto paper. I was so proud of them! What patience and concentration! I remember having to practice doing that when I was younger and I hated it! I am very much looking forward to working them over the next couple weeks!