spring break, pt. 1

I've had about a week of spring break so far. It's been nice. I went to Tulum with about half of the program kids here and saw a lot of cool things. During the day we would go to ruins and cenotes and every night ended by raging off into the ocean. As luck would have it, I ended up back safe and sound in my bed. I can't say I remember how, though. There were two main highlights, I'd say.

First, Ek' Balam. It's an archeological site in Yucatán, and probably the coolest one I've been to so far. (Which is to say a lot, because I went to Chichen Itza on the equinox when the cool snake thing happens. I didn't write about it because I because too contemplative afterwards and wrote the entry titled moody piece of junk - I think it had to do with the fact that it's an important time of year at this holy site.) Anyways, the cool think about Ek' Balam is this thing, which is the original thing - not recreated by archeologists in any way. Apparently a tree fell over it and preserved it from erosion and other forces of nature. Anyways, it's all very symbolic of Mayan religion. The entrance is a serpent's mouth which (if I remember correctly) is leading the entrance of the king's tomb or chamber of entertainment. Big difference. Either way, cool, meaningful stuff. And wow, to think that there was stuff like this before it all wasted away (and everything was painted) is really neat.

Secondly, a cenote in which I scuba dived for the first time out of a pool. It was so much fun! We just cruised around under water for about an hour and a half with a few breaks to swim to the top. It had a cave, too, so we got to go into the cave underwater. Suddenly, it seemed like there was this sort of water-portal thing like you'd see in a sci-fi movie. No joke, it was like everything was blurry and wavy in one direction and clear up above, and not due to extra oxygen making it to my brain. Afterwards I asked Guillermo why it's like that, and it's a mixing point of salt and fresh waters.

Now I'm back in Merida and pretending to work hard on school things. I have a few papers I'll have to do before jetting out of here and should be getting started. But more vacation awaits.