An extraordinary day

Today was, as the title says, an extraordinary day. What made the day so special was three different events.

The day started off on a one hour buss drive to he famous Uxmal, which is a sort of museum of an old Mayan society. The pyramids and the huge buildings were enormous and all built my hand. The crew members of our ship had warned us how hot it would be in Uxmal so we all thought we were prepared with loose white shirts to protect us from the sun and plenty of water to keep us hydrated. But the heat that hit us when we got out of the bus was unbareable and we had to outstand it for almost two hours. Though the architecture was amazing and the view from one of the pyramids was as well which made Uxmal to the first event that made this day so extraordinary.

After Uxaml we took the bus for anoher twenty minutes to a real Maya village that had its own cenote. If you don't know what a cenote is it's a small lake, often inside a cave with a big hole in the top. This cenote wasn't inside a cave but it was still one of the most beautiful places I've visited. The water was crystal clear and the stone walls surrounding it had amazing formations with cool plants hanging down. We jumped from the cliffs and swimmed around for an hour or two before we tasted some real Mayan food. The food consisted of dough filled with a type of spinach and eggs topped with salsa. Tasty, but not enough to fill a hungry Gunilla student. We all thought this would be our last stop but our guide Russel quickly took us to another Maya village where some of his friends live. When we arrived we were welcomed by a family consisting of a mother, a father and six children. Eight pretty shy people but full of life. This family are one of the few mayans who still ive in a a real mayan house. Though I can't tell you what a real mayan house is. But this was the second event that made this day so special because our school had donated some money to this village for them to buy new school supplies and some of us had some gifts they gave to the children in the village. Their faces when they saw the donations were priceless och eventhough we couldn't understand each other you could feel and see the thankfullness in their and our eyes. Because they made us feel so welcomed even though it was just for a few minutes.

The second event that made this day so special I can't tell you. But I can assure you it gave everybody who knows it on board a real shock. I'm sorry to tease you. The day ended with some swedish chocolate balls and some guitar playing on deck with my watch. Now it's time to shut this computer down and see what everybody else is doing.

Greetings from Mexico,

Stina Schaper, Starboard