Adios Lacandon Jungle!

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Today is the day we finally leave the jungle, which I am thrilled about I confess. The heat, the creepy crawlies, a literal security blanket for a door, the lack of variety in meals... I was seriously going crazy. However, at least I didn't sleep almost 24/7 like a certain someone did... hehehe.

We had to be up early, as usual, for the long drive to our hotel in a city (I know, the most useless information but I don't think I was ever told what city we were going to stay in for a night). We made a couple stops along the way, both to waterfalls, one called Agua Azul (the place screams 'TOURISTY!), the other called Misol-Ha (also touristy, but not as much as at Agua Azul). My former neighbouring classmate liked to (and still does sometimes) jokingly say 'Agua Azul' in a way that made it sound like one of the water advertisements back in SC (you'll hear more about this in my last posts) that we heard more often than we'd like.

Neither of these locations were that fun for me to swim in, due to the strong currents. At the spot we were at in A.A, it was mostly just to dive in since it would be unsafe to try swimming in it, but there was a shallow pool to the side but that wasn't going to be fun for me. I dove in once, and only once, because of how much of a challenge it was to get back out again. How hard is it to get out you ask? Well, hard when you can't climb back out the way you came and had to swim out to a certain point to go around the corner to the spot where you can get out.

My coordinator told me that to get back out, I would have to swim about 5 feet out and around the corner. I didn't take him seriously, so I just tried to swim around the corner up against the rocks. Well, the current just pushed me into the rocks so I wasn't getting anywhere. I finally swam out a short distance and barely made it around the corner. It was a bit nerve-wrecking because if I misjudged and went out too far, it was going to be a long, rough ride to who-knows-where.

As for Misol-Ha, my coordinator told me the current wasn't as strong as A.A. Who is he kidding? I swear the current there was so much stronger than the one at A.A, and it was in an enclosed area too. Lame. The water was pretty dark (partially because of the high up cliffs around it) and deep (obviously) so I was a little worried that if I was drowning and went under, it would be hard for me to be found.

There was a rope down center of the place, which for some really strange reason, I thought I wasn't supposed to cross (everyone was on the left side by coincidence). I had already tried swimming across the pool but didn't get too far, but tried again when I saw a bunch of the group hanging around on the other side of the pool that later moved in to almost directly underneath the waterfall. I got about halfway when things got crazy... for me anyways. I started to struggle to keep my head above the water, and I was weary from fighting the current. I clung to the rope which just sank under pressure so it wasn't too much of a help, but I took advantage of it to pull myself to shore. I'm not a bad swimmer but against a current like that, I was just like a toy boat in the middle of a churning ocean. I never went in again, because that was rather scary and I don't think anyone noticed that I was struggling. Too bad there wasn't a shallow area that I could hang out in, and no nibbly fish (there was a school of fish that hung out near the surface by the rocks that we enter from).

After that we headed the rest of the distance to our hotel, which had pretty nice rooms, and a few roaming cats (that thrilled the crazy cat ladies of the group, one that I dub the Cat Whisperer). Unfortunately for most of us, we had to be 3 in a room thus I had to share beds with one of my classmates, though if I had it my way, I would have just slept on the floor. I really wouldn't have minded that (I'm adaptable)...

I wasn't crazy about the service at meal time, since me and some of the group (not everyone was having dinner) that was first to order were last to be served (the few others that joined later and ordered got their stuff first). We didn't even get our drinks for an hour (I'm not kidding. I was clock watching)! To say we were unimpressed is an understatement.

Nothing else worth noting today so ta ta for now!

~Kedi~

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Photos

Agua Azul
Perdy isn't it :)

003
Perfect shot... ruined by the tree in the way D: didn't see it when I was taking the picture because well... screen not fully functioning.