Sun, fun, but what... no sand?

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So last blog entry I was still going about all the food in Mexico especially at this fair! It really was incredible, but of course I loved every part of it. I even think I enjoyed looking at all the food stalls more than seeing the dolphins jumping out of the water.

We spent the whole day at the fair and met up with some class mates there, which was great, I then had company on all the amusement rides. However I think I may have out rode the other two girls, I made them come on this crazy ride and the faces they were pulling whilst on the ride were hilarious. A mixture of sending me daggers and turning green and all I could do was laugh, but I swear that was all because of the adrenalin from the ride and not at all because I was laughing at them, he he.

As I mentioned we also watched an ice skating show, which was absolutely amazing, it was like a type Disney on Ice, with a more adult theme to it (no i dont mean x rated you dirty minded readers)!! It was more like pieces from Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of Carribean rather than Aladdin etc. The skaters were amazing, (I think they were from the US or something and the show travels around) and the perfromance went for about 45 minutes! It cost no extra to see this show, it was all included in the $1 fair entrance fee!! We were all blown away by it. It was also a pretty good perve, surprising I do not usually like men in Lycra, but these men could move and they looked so strong lifting the girls! The guys loved it to, the female skaters do not wear too much when they are "floating" around on the ice and spinning and jumping. No, really on a serious note, it was probably the highlight of the fair for all of us.

It was then back to DQ for another week of studying, however somehow I got sick and spent a good portion of that next week in bed feeling really sorry for myself. I am not sure what was to blame, but looking back I think I ate some dodgy street food, I saw the water they had used to cook my food a few days later and it was a nice soupy colour instead of clear!! So I will blame that. It took awhile to really clear up and for me to get my appetite back. Whenever I looked at food my stomach churned. My host mother was really concerned however and made me take spoonfuls of olive oil and she also proceeded to rub into my tummy as well. All a bit strange, but surprisingly it did help. Either that or I just ignored the pain that day and got out of bed so she would leave me in peace. It was a nice gesture but......you know!!!

The next week there was a long weekend in which we did not have to attend school on the Monday, so a group of us decided to make a weekend getaway. As I had been sick most of the week I just agreed to go along and paid the money, as far as I knew 15 students from DQ were going and we were going on an overnight first class coache to a beach about 10 hours away! I really had no idea where we were going, where we were staying, but it sounded like fun and I was feeling better so was looking forward to white sand, blue waters and the possible chance of seeing dolphins and whales!!

So the weekend came along and the big group of us went to the coach station at 10pm Friday night and boarded our coach ready for our weekend at Peurto Vallerta. No cameras or armed guards this time thankfully!! It was almost like school camp, everyone was buzzing with excitement, looking in their goodie bags, plugging in ear phones, get comfy with blankets and pillows, settling in for the 10 hours ahead. We were all talking and laughing and making plans for what we should do for the three days we had there. It was quite funny to see us all like kids who had a special treat in going away to the beach!!

As it turned out the 10 hours went by really quickly and most of us slept the whole way. It was great.

Arriving at our hotel we sorted out who was in which room and then we all changed excitedly into our bathers, slathered on the sun cream (we really should have had buckets and spades the way we were acting, as if we had never been to the beach before) and headed to the "beach". Yes I put it in inverted commas because, well, it was a beach but there was no way on earth I was going in the water. The red flags were out, meaning it was much to dangerous for us to swim and there was hardly any sand, so no sun baking either. Alas, it turned out fine as our hotel had a decent pool. I wasn't so disappointed at this prospect, I actually prefer to lay by the pool and swim in chlorine than have to fish sand out of my bathers and every other place when you are at the beach. It was nice to have the beach to walk along and look at from the pool, but it was much better to have a waiter serve cocktails on a lounge chair, than have to go for a ten minute walk from the beach to get a cool drink!!

We spent most of our time all sitting around the pool, throwing people in (very immature but that's I think men and their macho behaviour when they are together) and drinking two for one cocktails, listening to music and just relaxing together. It was good to get to know a few more of the students outside our classroom of 8 too.

Our final day there and we went on a boat "cruise" (think more like the Sydeny ferry as our craft)...okay not that bad! Lets just say the boat had a lot of "character"!!! Despite the look of the boat, we had an amazing day and we did get to see lots and lots of whales playing. It was awesome. We saw a mum and her baby in the morning frolicking together and on the way home so many more whales. It really was magical and made the trip more than worth it.
8 hours after we had left the shore that morning we arrived back, salty, sandy, red and exhausted, but all happy with the day shared together. An hour later we were on the coach and ready again for our 10 hour return overnight trip. Let's just say it didnt take long for it to be silent on the coach as we all were exhausted from a day in the surf and sun.

We arrived home on Tuesday morning at 5am in Guanajuato and had a decent two hours sleep before the alarm went off ready for school. We rolled over, looked at each other with the same expression and decided to skip the morning classes. In fact I think it was on that day that we decided we had had enough of school and we were ready for the next stage of our trip....Guatemala. Plus we also had to leave Mexico by the 9th february as we were only given 30 days here. We thought we could probably overstay this with not too many worries, but at the same time neither of us fancied trying to explain in our limited Spanish why we had stayed longer in Mexico than permitted to the border guards. I had thoughts of Bangkok Hilton in my head, so we decided to do the right thing and on that Thursday we would start our bus trip into Guatemala, crossing the border on the day our visas would expire. Phew!!

We didnt go to school on Wednesday, we started to arrange everything and empty our backpacks of things we had yet to use, to make room for our Spanish text books and all the notes we had written so we could continue learning as we travelled!!! (I will tell you in the next blog how we are going with that)!!!

It was all very exciting but we also felt a little apprehensive, especially on reading the "Rough Guide" book which quotes "Personal safety is of huge concern in Guatemala......." But there would be the two of us travelling together and we planned not to stay in Guatemala city which we heard in places was even unsafe in the day and thought would probably be the most unsafe place to be whilst in Guatemala. We were still new to this travelling in Central America and not sure what to expect, so we were taking extra precautions.

I will tell you all of the adventures of Guatemala and this wonderful country that should not be missed in my next blog. We have been here almost two weeks now, but tomorrow is time to move onto Belize! No doubt we will come back into Guatemala though to see some of the places south again, but whilst we are up North, it is most easy to access Belize and Caye Caulker for the snorkelling and diving.

So will leave this blog here for now and will write of my adventures in Guatemala with more photos in the next blog.

Enjoy!!

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