Monday, March 21st

We got up early today to get breakfast and then go river rafting. It took about 20 minutes by bus to get up there, then about 2 hours to get down by raft. It was a blast! We all got wet and most of us nearly fell out at one point or a another, but thankfully no one did. There were some pretty bumpy rapids there! After that we packed everything in the car and drove to our next destination, a waterfall called Xica (pronounced shica). We walked around there for a while and took some pictures before finally beginning the drive home. We arrived at about 10:00 after stopping for lunch, coffee, and dinner.

Sunday, March 20th

We got breakfast at a very popular restaurant this morning, it was really good! Then we rented a boat to take us out to Cancuncito, a tiny little scrap of sand with nothing but people on it. But we didn't go out there for the beach, we snorkeled the full hour we spent there. There were lots of fish, coral and anenomy, I saw a starfish and my mom saw an eel. It wasn't the best snorkeling place ever, but it wasn't bad. After we got cleaned up and packed, we picked up lunch and then drove to another little town, also in Veracruz. It was supposedly a 2 hour drive, but of course it turned out longer. When we arrived, we checked in and then walked down to the nearby river and then walked around town a bit. We found some late dinner (which wasn't a very good dinner) and then headed back to the room.

Saturday, March 19th

Today we left at about 7:00 to drive to Veracruz. It's typically a 4 hour drive, no big deal for those of us used to road trips. But of course, it didn't turn out that way. Instead, it became a 7 hour drive when we got caught in hours of traffic. And we were only 20 minutes away from the city! Well, at least I got time to knit. I finished a whole scarf before we got there! We finally got to the hotel and checked in at about 2:00, then we went down the street for lunch. After that, we walked from the hotel across the street to the beach. We snorkeled there a while, I found about 14 sand dollars total. The coolest thing we saw was a huge fish, about 3 feet long and silver with green and blue flecks, but I was the only one who saw it! After we got cleaned up we walked about 2 miles to the Zocalo, the main square, but we were all tired by the end and caught a taxi back to the hotel. From there we took the car to Dairy Queen, then back to the hotel where we all headed straight to bed.

Saturday, February 12th

Today we went with the Etters and the Owenbys to see the butterflies in Valle de Bravo. They migrate from Canada every year and always come to the same spot. We rented ponies to get up the mountain, then the last part we had to hike so that the ponies wouldn't disturb them. It was really cool to see so many butterflies so close and all together like that! The only problem was the dust. It was like moon dust, you take a step and it puffs up around your foot. As you can probably imagine, the ponies didn't just kick up little puffs! We were all dirty by the time we got back down the mountain. The guides kind of took us each on our own, but a few of us didn't have a guide because they wanted to control their own pony. One of the people without a guide was Mr. Etter. He fell behind, and then his pony took the wrong path. We waited for him at the bottom for a while, but then people started to go out looking for him, and they eventually found him. He had come out a LONG ways away from where we had! After that excitement we went into the town of Valle de Bravo to have lunch and then went our separate ways back to our houses.

It's hard to see, but those tiny orange dots are all butterflies!

Sunday, February 6th

We got up at 8:00 again this morning, and had breakfast the same as yesterday. Then we drove to Monte Alban, an archeological site with a lot of pyramids. We were allowed to climbmost of them, and it was pretty fun, but started getting pretty hot near the end.

After that the parents went black pottery shopping, which wasn't quite so much fun. We went to the Oaxaca Zocalo for lunch, then bought a launching balloon and played with that for a while before going back to the hotel. We kids stayed there for the rest of the day while the parents went out again.

Saturday, February 5th

We woke up at about 8:00 this morning and went to the restaurant downstairs to have breakfast. From there we went carpet/tapestry shopping and saw a little demonstration about how they make them. I liked the demonstration, but the shopping got a bit monotonous. After that we went to Hierva del Agua, a petrifiedwaterfall. To get up there we hired a truck to drive us up the mountain. Fourpeople sat in the cab of the truck, while the other six sat in the back, which was completely open to the wind. It would NEVER be allowed in the States, and it was a lot of fun! Oh, and the road wasn't paved. It was a very bumpy ride. Once we got to the top, Wyatt, Ethan, Lucy and Nate decided to swim in the infinity pools there. Ms. Ranee and Abbystayed there withthem while my mom, dad, Mr. Marcus and I hiked down the the bottom of thefalls. I really liked the hiking, it was pretty strenuous, but a lot of fun! We went back down in the truck again and then headed back to the hotel.

Friday, February 4th

Today we left straight from school to go to Oaxaca with the Owenbys. After a 5 hours car ride we arrived in the capital, Oaxaca in the state of Oaxaca. We checked into the hotel, ate dinner, then went to bed around 10:00.