Rejoined the gang in Merida and the next day we travelled down to Palenque - stayed in the jungle in a hippy hideout and actually did some sightseeing! We went to look at some Mayan ruins - impressive, we went to some beautiful waterfalls and bathing places - refreshing in the very hot climate and also had a fantastic three hour horse ride - first time for all of us riding Western style and on stallions! We all loved it but are aching like mad today.
After riding yesterday we took the bus on a very winding road to San Cristobel and were met at the bus station by our host family for the week and the people who run the language school. The family are lovely and obviously very anxious to help us to learn Spanish. More about them later when we have got to know them better. They have four boys but only one of them is a child - Hector is 14 years old and very friendly and outgoing. We have great rooms, the girls have a room each for once and we were given a great breakfast too.
Today we started our course and our lovely teacher, Sandra, took me, Rosa and Melissa and Mark had the director Erica. The three hours flew by but we three are glad that we didn't opt to take more hours as we were all tired and there is a lot to absorb and homework to do also!! Mark is back there this afternoon as he opted for six hours per day - ha ha - I think he will be shattered but it will be worth it.
Tomorrow we are going to learn some dancing after class and on Wednesday we are going to do some cooking, Thursday more dance if we want and Friday a trip out to a very interesting small town near by - so we have plenty lined up to do. Our host family have a son who is an anthropology student and he has offered to take us to see some places of interest - we may have to stay another week just to take advantage of all there is on offer!
- Heather
