Day 4: Take A Bow

I got to do something on day 4 in Mexico that I don't think I'll have the chance to do again. Not only was it was a sweet day, but there was a lot of driving involved meaning I didn't take 20,983 pictures and this entry won't take 2 hours to make like the others have. And I officially hate Photobucket btw.

So the day started with the long drive out to San Simon, a lovely little ranch where we were to spend the afternoon.

I actually loved the ranch and would totally live there if I moved to Mexico. First, I walked around and took some pics of the general scenery.

Then I took some pictures of the animals, and there were a lot on the ranch. There were some birds.
including Thanksgiving dinner!

and horses
and bulls!
and a bunch of dogs.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it yet, but there are a lot of dogs all around Mexico. In every single town, about one million stray dogs run around the streets. I felt bad for them because a lot of them were very thin and when you go to pet them, they seem scared and run away.

My teacher talked to the man who owned the ranch (and I got the best ever pic of my prof!)

And they thought it'd be a great idea if we went for a hike through the 'selva' around the ranch.... Which turned out to be EVERYONE'S least favorite part of the trip!

Don't I look nice in this hat?

At first it was kinda cool.... We found these things on the path that looked like huge eggs.

And then we found these shells and wondered why shells were in the middle of the forest.

Then we found these interesting trees.... They were covered in thorns and several of my companions grabbed onto them for support for an unpleasant surprise....

Then came everyone's favorite part. We came to a very wet area that we needed to cross by stepping on logs. The two people who went before me both fell off the logs and got their sneakers soaked in swampy water. Eww. Luckily, I didn't fall in.

When we finished crossing the logs, the guide noticed that it was too wet to continue the journey and told us all to turn around... Everyone was mad they had to cross the logs for no reason. My roommate Zach crossed the logs just in time to hear that we needed to return. But unluckily for him, he was standing in an army of ants and his ankles/lower legs were attacked by the ants.

So we left the 'selva' and everyone was complaining and scratching. In their time in the selva, all of my companions got many mosquito bites. One girl actually counted and she had over 50! I counted the bites on this one girl's arm, and she had 15, just on one arm!

But I didn't get any : )

We ate lunch while everyone complained and cried. We had poc chuc, a dish we had MANY more times while in Mexico.

After lunch, we went to this round area and played soccer, old people vs. young people.

Woah! It's me playing a sport! There's something you don't see every day!

Then the game got even more interesting because they let one of the bulls out.

It was fun, but scary. The bull just charged at whoever was around. In the above picture, he's charging at my teacher. Later, he charged at me!

Alright, well he was just looking my way, but still, I wasn't about to get trampled by a bull, even if it was a young'n.

Then we got to watch the guy who works there practices some bullfighting with the bull from our soccer game. It was really fun to watch. Each time the man stepped at the bull or yelled at him, you thought for sure the bull was just gonna jump on him and tear off his head or something.

But the guy survived.

And let me do it!

Bullfighting was awesome! It's a little scary when the bull first starts running at you, but as long as you keep the cape to the side and move as soon as it hits the cape, you're fine.

None of my other classmates wanted to do it alone though, even though I told them it was easy, especially when the bull gets confused and runs the wrong way...

After bullfighting, we left the ranch and made the trek back home. I was so glad I got to do it because I feel like it's not something I'll get to do very often (if ever) in my life. I'll never forget my cute (and scary) bull friend.

Oh yeah, and on the subject of bulls, I thought it was really cute how the bulls played with the little white birds. Everyone was waiting for the bulls to just eat them in one bite or something, but the bulls and the birds got along swimmingly.

We headed back to the hotel and I found the Palacio de Polt in San Simon. It was super regal.

Before returning to the hotel, we got dinner at this AMAZING restaurant, La Parrilla.

I had fajitas 'mixta' which had chicken and steak and another lemonade/lime-aid.

The people at the restaurant loved gringos and gave us huge sombreros!

Then we had dessert, which was coconut ice cream. I love coconut!

Then it was back to the hotel.

When I got there, I turned on the TV to see what was on Mexican TV. And I found:

Hombre de la Familia

Leona Lewis
and BRITNEY SPEARS!!!

I was so excited by seeing Brit on Mexican TV. I didn't think life could get better. But the next day proved to be awesome too, when I scored a very special front row seat.