Uman and Celestun (and the beach!)

On Friday, our group went took a trip to the small Mayan town of Uman and to Celestun (on the far left side of the peninsula) to the Parque Natural del Flamenco Mexicano reserve. 


In Merida, there is a range of races. It was a colonized city so there is a mix if people of Spanish heritage, mestizo and fewer people of indigenous heritage. Since Uman is a Mayan town, the people that live there are nearly all of Mayan decent. They are shorter, darker and have different features than many of the Merida Mexicans. In Uman, we walked around the busy daily market- people there tend to buy their food on a daily basis rather than refrigerate anything.

 

However, Uman is not small enough to avoid Wonderbread ads from the NBA! :)

 

The reserve at Celestun is pretty unique- thousands of flamingos stay there every winter (in addition to many other bird species). Our group took boats out on the water to see some.

 Kind of hard to see from the pictures, but these are some of the many flamingos we saw :)










We also went back in these mangroves (sort of a wooded area in the water) and saw ojos de agua "eyes of water" which are natural sources of fresh water.

 




























Later, we went to a Celestun beach- it's pretty nice being on a beach in January :)

Wednesday, January 27th

Everything is great here! Haven't started classes yet so my time consists of checking out the city and eating delicious food :)
To get around the city, we either walk or take buses. Public transportation is a little different here- there aren't any set schedules for the buses, so you just stand on the side of the road, wait for a bus to come by and stick your arm out! There are a lot of buses so as long as you're in a busy area, it's never a long wait. All of us Americans definitely stand out and it takes some getting used to being constantly honked at and stared at!
The city is an odd mix of influences.There are (beautiful!) houses built in French, Spanish and Moorish styles, and of course the randomly scattered broken down and abandoned houses. There is a Starbucks right across from the college house where I'm staying this week. I was surprised to see that lots of locals go there, it really isn't a touristy place at all. There are A LOT of Burger Kings, lots of BK ads in English, and they culturally modified- they deliver!

Yes, I am that American unusually excited to see a Burger King.

Burger King doing their part to promote healthy eating in Mexico. (In English?!)

Twilight on TV with Spanish translations! At this bigger, cheaper version of WalMart called Mega.

Oh, cultural tidbit- you tip everyone here, it's nuts. You're supposed to tip your bagger at stores 5-10 pesos per bag. Money is constantly being exchanged.

More later...it's siesta time :)

Bienvenidos!

I'm here! After watching a drug dog sniff mine and everyone's suitcases before they entered the baggage claim (and nudging my American friends to make sure I wasn't seeing things), I got my suitcase and headed to a stuffy, one-room customs and got in line behind 30 or so foreigners to wait for the one officer to approve my forms. After making it out of the airport, our group of about 15 students met our program director and took taxis to the Central College house where we will all be staying for a week-long orientation, before some of us head to stay with locals for the semester. I was again nudging my friends upon seeing heavily armed "policia" riding in the back of a police pick-up truck. That's illegal in Madison, here the police do it! :) It is absolutely beautiful here. This morning I took a cold shower (only the first person to shower gets warm water and 7am is early enough for me!), ate delicious food and spent time learning about the city. Everything is great here, I'm just not a big fan of not being able to throw toilet paper into the toilet. Yes, I am serious. There is a trash can next to the toilet that you use. So, things are different but if I had wanted everything the same as in the U.S., I would have stayed in the U.S. right? :)
More to come...

Keeping Walgreens in business

Mexico supplies! And this isn't even half of what the Madison travel clinic told me to get...

The last lunch! (Like the last supper except lets hope I don't get crucifed tomorrow)

Following advice from my friend and study abroad survivor, Hillary, I have been eating all of my favorite gringo foods in case authentic Mexican food is awful. So, of course, a trip to the Olive Garden was a must :)

Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico

Okay, everybody- this is where I'm going: Merida, Mexico (see the big red star?). It's the capital of the Yucatan peninsula and has a population of about 970,000. (For more info about the city, check out wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merida,_Mexico.) The temperature high for tomorrow is 82 degrees- sounds pretty good when I look at the 8 inches of snow outside my window. I leave the on the 23rd (one week!) from Chicago-O'Hare. Maybe it would be a good time to start packing...