WOW, WHAT A DAY!

Today, we ate the fruit that we bought in the market, the little bananas - plantains, and mangoes were good. Then we were off in our white panel van to Uxmal (Ush Mal). On our way, we passed farmlands and on the way out we also saw a police truck with the doors held shut by handcuffs - Harvey had to "chase" it down to get a picture of it!

When we got to Uxmal, and looked at the Mayan pyramids. We also learned that they had an obsession with the numbers 13 and 9. 13 being for the levels of heaven and 9 for the underworld. After a lesson in Mayan math, we walked up to the more "modern" buildings built in 900AD where Turtles adorned the temple and proved Katie's point that they were of utmost important.

We climbed the great pyramid to take group pictures and coming down them was really scary because you thought you were going to fall. At one of the main temples, if you stand in the right spot, you can clap and hear a bird noise resonate from the temple.

Then we got back in our white panel van and went to lunch at a local restaurant. (The gucamole was good but not the guacamole.) And most of us had pebil pastor (Yucatan BBQ) The pork was wrapped in banana leaves and was buried underground with charcoal for 1 1/2 hours. And then it is taken out and cooked for another 1 1/2 hours.

When we got back to Merida and played at the main square. It was date day today because it was Sunday and everyone walked around the square. We got churros and shopped at all the little booths. We also saw a man who had an iguana as a pet, he had it on a little leash and used it as a girl magnet. Chelsey bought a traditional Mexican camiseta (shirt) while practiced her Spanish by bargaining for it. Thats all for today, we just finished eating out Street Tamales and are off to watch Batman in a Mexican v.i.p. movie theater.
By Samantha, Stuart

LATER IN THE DAY...............

Theatre - PLUSH! Not much more to say....we went to the VIP room to watch Batman: The Dark Night....complete with electric reclining barcaloungers! GUEY! (DUDE for non-slang spanish speakers). Oh....and the waiters completed the experience! The movie.....16 thumbs up! GO SEE IT!

O.k....so after the movie, the group started shouting out the favorite things of the day (and some random quotes):

WHO SAID: (FYI, want the answers.....give us some feedback with your comments!!!)
1. Pretending to be a Mayan person and walking around the ruins
2. Dancing to human beat-box by blondie bear in the mall parking lot
3. Does he have pants on...wait, tell him to go put pants on! (Yes, he had pants on)
4. The ruins/tied with Batman
5. Heath Ledger
6. Singing the theme from Rocky while running up the pyramid steps
7. Standing on the top of the pyramid and only seeing 6% of Uxmal
8. Stuart, you are a shop-a-holic!
9. Eating the Pibil Pork (a.k.a. that banana thingy from under the ground)
10. My excellent nap in the hammock (with my nose poking out through the bottom)

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
1. Discovering the Mexican reserved pregnant parking space...
2. Making it to the bathroom by carrying on a conversation in Spanish...and never using the word Bano (don't know where the accent key is...sorry)!
3. Being able to hold down my lunch while students complement Heather....
4. Actually catching a police truck and getting a picture of the handcuffs holding the door closed
5. Riding shotgun
6. Filling up my camera memory card
7. Driving through Mexico SANS la Mapa!
8. Drinking Da Bomb!...and Burn!
9. Climbing the Pyramid
10. Naming our dog..forgetting the name..remembering the name...(Balchec pron. "ball check" - means animal, also name for drunk Mayan)
11. Ate homemade street tamales....and survived (don't worry, Harvey kinda knew they were safe)
12. Ate churros!
13. Saw a smart car...a pet iguana (aka - chick magnet)....and some car with a lion logo....
14. Samantha's rash cleared up...whew...we were starting to wonder if we were going to have to quarantine her!
15. "Another bug bite"...."wear bug spray"...."oh no, it doesn't smell good!"
16. I didn't pee my pants when I saw the iguana...

POSTED BY ALL!