Royal Haciendas, Playa del Carmen Day 6

One day until I leave!!!! WAAAHHHHHH!!! I'm so sad. Dad couldn't go scuba diving with us yesterday, and he can't go with mom and jake when they go diving this morning. he's going to play cards with me for a bit.
About yesterday's dive. We just went with the hotel dive shop to a reef tower just about 300 meters off shore. I just sat on the rim of the motor boat with my tank, BCD (Bouyancy- Control- Device), mask, and fins, and just did a half back flip into the water. It was quite warm, considering that most of the garden at the hotel was flooded. We hung onto the bouy line all the way down to the ocean floor, about 35 feet down. I had to equilize my ears so that they don't hurt, but my teeth hurt in the regulator (still a mystery why). Once we got down there, the first exciting thing that we saw was a snowflake eel (smaller than a moray eel). As we were observing it, i looked down at the sandy floor, and a huge, grizzled, 8 foot green moray barely missed my fins as it skyrocketed to a small cave in the rock and coral. Everyone else saw it, but it got the closest to me.
After that, we saw two anemones, squirrelfish, a scorpionfish, a queen Angelfish, and we swam under a ten-foot-long arch covered in small coral bits and algea, something that i've never done before. It was so exciting, but i was really tired after that. When we got back to the hotel, i jsut sat in the pool next to the kiddy pool, which we call the "deep baby frier". I must have been so tired because of the accumulated nitrogen in my blood. That happens when you scuba dive.
I'll see every body monday!bye.

TO Mr. Warner

I'll be there on monday, so i'll just bring the pictures in then.

Playa del Carmen Day 4

I'm sweaty, muddy, tired, and ready for food. I feel great! I just got back from kayaking, hiking, swimming in a cenote, watching wild spider monkeys, and climbing mayan pyramids with an unfamiliar tour company called 'alltournative'. Our guide, David, drove very fast and played united statsian music from his ipod. There were about eight other people on the bus with us, all reecently married couples. First off, we traveled about two and a half hours to a small mayan village, where everybody in the group except for myself went rapeling down 60 feet to explore a small cave. I was to scared to even strap into the harness. All that supported me was a few pieces of leather, a climbing rope, a steel eight piece, and a few pieces of wood. No way was i going on that thing. After rapeling, the rest of the group also zip- lined across the top of the rain forest to our starting point. I was, again, to chicken to climb up to the platform and harness myself in.
After zip- lining, we traveled to a calm river and kayaked a short way to another cave, which descended down quite a ways to a small cenote, or a holy sink hole. David called this the "entrance to the underworld". A part- time shaman was there to greet us and burned some amber and asked the mayan gods to allow us passage to the cenote, which was called Chinuch (translates as "frog mouth"). After that, we were told to change into our swimsuits, wash off the mud we had collected on the trail, and we crept down the ladder to the cave. In the cave, the water ranged from six inches to twenty- one feet deep. There were a few catfish in there also, and there were tons of stalactites and stalagmites. The cave was made entirely out of limestone, and i later learned that the entire peninsula is made entirely out of limestone that was pushed up from under the sea when the giant asteroid crashed into earth 65 million years ago, so there are a bunch of shells and fossils to be found here. We jumped into the water, which wasn't really cold, and we swam about for about fifteen minutes. Then, we crawled out of the cave and hiked back to the van to get some authentic mayan food. on the way, we spotted two wild spider monkeys swinging through the trees.
When we got back to the village, we made a quick restroom break, cleaned off, and started serving ourselves mayan sphagetti, black beans, vegetable soup, and chicken in chipotle sauce. A scrawny tabby cat came around and was beggiing for food and pats, but we could only give it pats. It was cute, though.
After lunch, we sped along the road to Coba, the village that was older than Chichenitza. We met up with one of the archeologists, who guided us for about forty minutes around a few small ruins. He told us that the mayans built some temples on top of temples, sort of like the egyptians did. Also like the egyptians, they predicted that in 2012, something spectacular is going to happen, but not something destructive. after that, we visited a few more ball courts, an observatory, and the tallest Mayan pyramid. I'll try to send in some pictures to Mr. Warner.
On the way back, we passed a lake that said it had alligators in it, and we actually saw two of them. Apart from that, nothing much happened. I'm going to watch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" now, but i'll post later.
Mr. Warner, check your email. THere should be some pictures.

Xcaret, Playa del Carmen Day 3

I just returned from Xcaret! (eco- theme park), and it was so @#%^in' awesome, anyone who reads this will want to come here too! They have restaurants, swimming with dolphins, an underwater river that you can swim through, sea turtles, jaguar and mountain lion island, a mayan village, a chapel, monkey and deer shelters, an aviary, and beaches! it was so much fun, and we spent the whole day there. thte first thing that we did was to swim through the underground river, which had crystal clear waters and a few fish ( there were supposed to be fossils, but we didn't see any). Then, we traveled to the nearby lagoon and had lunch and snorkeled. THe lagoon was right by the dolphin pen, so we had free entertainment while we gorged ourselves on hamburgers and fries. After lunch, then rain started, so we traveled around some of the animal shelters. There was a tapir, white- tailed deer, and a creature very similar to a badger that i can't remember the name of. After that, we went to visit the butterfly house, but the rain started to pour then. We sheltered under a thatched roof in the mayan village, then traveled the 500 meters to see the jaguars and mountain lions. After that, it was getting pretty late, but we still wanted to see the aviary and sea turtles. All that was in the aviary was a bunch of macaws and a toucan, and there were only four sea turtles. After that, we stopped at the giftshop and i purchased a stuffed jaguar that i have named Guadalupe. I will talk some more tomorrow, but i hope that you might visit xcaret if you ever come down to the yucatan.

Royal Haciendas, Playa Del Carmen Day 2

Well, right now i'm stuck in the middle of a tropical depression, watching "Mission Impossible", and getting ready to walk along the beach into town to pick up groceries. I've spent the day punching waves, swimming, watching movies, and hanging out with the family. The tropical depression arrived about 11 a.m today, and it seems that it will continue to go on through tomorrow, which is probably when we'll go to Chichenitza. So far, I have made several discoveries about the geology and weather of the Yucatan peninsula. In the morning, the weather can be all beautiful and sunny, and then the rain is suddenly whipping your face and winds reach up to 20 mph. The sand is so fine, it really does feel like sugar. I have to go now, but i'll blog later. Chow!

Royal Haciendas, Playa del Carmen

Well, i have arrived safely in Mexico, gotten successfully through customs, and am staying in a condo at the Royal Haciendas in Playa del Carmen, Yucatan Penninsula. This hotel is amazing! We have five swimming pools, two restaurants, about 200 feet of beach, a scuba diving boat, six ponds, a hot tub... and that's just outside the room. in the room, we have four twin beds, a queen bed, six sinks, two bathrooms, two showers, a bathtub, an oven, dishwasher, microwave, coffee machine, refrigrator, food processor, a telephone, a dining room, a mini lawn, and a jacuzzi! I love this place! We will be scuba diving some time this week, but we have been out to the beach so far. THe water is about eighty- five degrees, and the sand is sort of like sugar in texture.
Right now, it has been raining continuously for the whole day, but it should let up soon. I have to go now, but i'll come back on soon!

Leaving for Mexico in 12 hours and 27 minutes!

I can't belive that only 4 months has passed since i last saw Dad, and now i can see him again, avoiding a crazy tropical depression, and scuba diving! I'm so excited, I'm gettin' goose bumps on my goose bumps! I'll talk to readers later!

Greer

Trip to Mexico

Hola, seniors and senioritas! Put on your sombreros and serve up the enchiladas, I'm goin' away to Mexico! This trip will be for one week starting October 17th. I am planning to have a great time down there, scuba diving at 60 feet, going to the beach, visiting Chichinitza, and spending good quality time with my dad. He works overseas and my family and i don't get to see him until his R&R time, which is every four months for an average of two weeks, so we visit him all over the world. So far, the countries that i have visited with dad have been Bali (Indonesia), China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, Estonia, Honduras, and New Zealand (both islands). I'll try and update as often as i can on this blog and treat it like a journal, so keep up with the events. Chow!

Recent News: Sunspots Fewest Since 1954

Yesterday, the New York Times released an article that seemed quite disturbing to me. It said that the sun has had a minimal amount of sunspots on its surface since 50 years ago. Some people might think that this has been going on for about a week. Think about this: Yesterday was October 2nd, the 276th day in the year. The sun has had none of its usual blemishes for 205 days so far. Scientists at NASA have also noticed that the solar wind is at its lowest level, which has not happened for another 50 years. As stated from the article: "Scientists are not sure why this minimum has been especially minimal, and the episode is even playing into the global warming debate. Some wonder if this could be the start of an extended period of solar indolence that would more than offset the warming effect of human-made carbon dioxide emissions. From the middle of the 17th century to the early 18th, a period known as the Maunder Minimum, sunspots were extremely rare, and the reduced activity coincided with lower temperatures in what is known as the Little Ice Age." For more from the article, check out this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/science/space/03sun.html?ref=science

I can get quite emotional about things that are not likely to happen within my lifetime, but this seems like a posibility. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't necessarily fancy spending about five decades of my life with canned bean popsicles for an appetizer at KFC.

I'd like to know about what you guys think about this article because I like to hear about other people's different views and see if they make sense. Thanks alot.

Greer