Friday was my last day of Spanish classes! And there was much rejoicing in the streets (and in the school as we gorged on a buffet of delicious, Mexican delights). For the next two weeks in Merida I will be taking an anthropology course called The Maya: Ancient and Modern and a Biology lecture with Ellen Dawley.

Saturday we hit the rode again to check out the Mayan ruins of Oxintok!

We weren't allowed to climb on the ruins so the first part of the day was filled with birdwatching. Aided by our trusted guide Hugo, we traveled all over Oxintok pointing and marveling at all the pretty birdies. The best sighting of the day was an Turquoise-Browed Motmot. It is really a stunningly colorful and beautiful bird. This is the best picture I could get of it.



After a delicious lunch tucked away in the recesses of some small town, we headed to our next cenote! But we didn't drive all the way to the cenote, because it is located in a more remote area. Instead, we had to ride bikes! It was about a 5 mile trek, one half by paved road the other half by rocky trail. And in the middle of our adventure, the sky filled up with clouds and we were swallowed up by a storm. It was a blast, biking through the dry scrub of the Yucatan, surrounded by trees, with the rain falling all around us. We finally reached the cenote, a big hole in the ground and the only way to enter the pool was to climb down a rickety, ladder (actually, two ladders tied together) that had been slicked down by the rainstorm. It was just a pinch of danger to make the entire excursion delicious.



The cenote was as gorgeous as the last and there was an area where we could jump and dive (so much of our time there was spent doing just that). I don't think I will ever get tired or stop being amazed by the cenote trips. Never.

During the bike ride I got stung by something. I don't know what though. One minute I'm biking along, minding my own business, and the next there's this terrible stinging in my leg. I tried to keep going thinking a rock had just been spun up into my leg but when the pain persisted and got worse I pulled over to investigate. There, right above my knee on the back, right side of my leg was someone's stinger who had so kindly left it behind as a token to remember it by. I noticed that it's fleshy guts were left behind as well, so it was a suicide mission. I don't know what I did to disturb this insect so much that it felt the need to punish me in such a way that it too would perish. I guess he had the last laugh though, because I woke up yesterday with a red, bumpy rash all down both my legs (which is perplexing because my legs were the only body parts affected and I can't figure out how the rash got to the other leg...)A large red welt had also formed around the sting area. I've never had an allergic reaction to a bee sting before so I bet that sucker was combined his kamikaze attack with bio-warfare! I must have really pissed this thing off! Oh well he's dead and I'm a little itchy so we'll call it even.