Mon, 16 Jun 2003 15:10:29 -0700 (PDT)
Update

Well, it has been a while since I have sent out an update, so here it is. Last week I didn't do a lot, mostly hung out at the pool and took classes of Spanish. Friday morning, I went to Vinales with Nicole (the swiss doctor).

Vinales was really cool we got there at about 2 in the afternoon, so we had time to see a few things. Upon arrival, there were about 30 people waiting at the bus station (a word i use very looselyl), and they were all trying to convince people to come stay in their houses. We went with a lady who looked clean, and didn't have dirt under her fingernails. We had a lunch at her house as soon as we got there, and it was amazing, tons of food, and all really good stuff.

After settling in, we flagged down some guy on the side of the road, and asked him how much to drive us to the caves called "cuevas de los indios".. ended up getting a ride there and back for $5, and it also cost $5 per person to enter. The cave was a little too touristy for my liking ... it had lights in the tunnels, and there was an underground lake (just like the one in the lord of the rings), where there was a boat that takes people for a short ride through the cave. It wasn't anything really spectacular though.

On the way back, we were talking to the guy who was driving us, and he said that he knew a much better cave (which we also knew of from the guide books, and which are supposed to be the largest caves in Latin America). Though the cave was closed for some reason, but he said he could find us a guide for $8 each, and he could take us there and back for another $8 for him. It was totally worth it. We got there after about a half hour drive, and then we had to drive around for another half hour while the driver looked for the guide to take us through the cave. Then finally, he found the guide. This guy was really good, with only one problem ... the lights that he had. We had to climb over a fence, which conveniently had a ladder built out of old sticks on each side. Then when we got to the entrance of the cave, the guide pulled out a florescent hand held lamp about two feet long, which was pretty good, but I asked the guy why he only had one light (seemed risky to me). He said to me ... "it's a good one" ... then he said he had a back up in his pocket, which was in reality just a pen light. So, we entered the caves, and it was really amazing. We walked for about an hour and a half thorugh the caves, at some points literally crawling through holes on my stomach like a snake. Although we entered on one level, at some point we crossed over to another level, and exited at a different point on the side of the mountain. Along the way, there were super cool rock formations, that I have never seen anything like. Also, there were many pools of water in the cave.At one point, there were the bones of a dead dog in the cave ... I have pictures of the cave, which I will send out a lilnk to at some point. After that, we had dinner, which again was way too much food to eat, and it was super good.

The next day, I didn't do much, but was annoyed completley by the sound of the roosters crowing at 5 in the morning, and there wasn't just one or two, it was thousands, and all together (except for the really close ones), they blended into a sound like the sound that ghosts make (whoooooo) ... fucking annoying. This town had chickens and roosters running all around it ... I guess people just know whose cock is whose.

At about 12, some new people came to the house to move in as we were moving out ... turns out they were from the United States ... I have now increased my sample space of American people to 5, and I belive that my results are now statistically significant ... Americans (I'm now sure I can extrapolate to 300 million people) are fucking annoying. I was making small talk with they guys, and they were all cocky about how great their spanish was, and how they can travel around ... saying this to myself and a woman who speaks 5 languages fluently. Nicole had the same feeling about them, and we basically just got up and said goodby and left.

The next part of the day took a downward turn. We were at the bus station and were waiting in a plaza across the street from the station for the bus to leave, with our backs toward the road, facing some church in the Plaza. Some guy came up to us, and asked if we wanted to split a cab with him to Havana ... we said no, since we already had our tickets for the bus. Then ten seconds later, I heard a loud thud from the road, and I turned around to see the guy that I was just talking to falling to the road after a bus smaked into him. He collapsed completley, and the bus stopped after driving about 10 feet past the guy. then within 5 seconds, there were 4 guys who picked the guy up and threw him in the back of a car that was right behind the bus ... Later on, Nicole told me that the guy who was hit had been standing on the road about 2 feet in from the curb, and was taking a picture of the Plaza (with his back to the road), and the bus just came along and plowed into him (probably about 30 km per hour). I doubt he will survive. It was pretty disturbing to see, and I didn't feel quite right for the rest of the day.

On a better note, I am now in Curenavaca, Mexico. The school I am at seems like it will be really good. I have requested that the administrators find an apartment for me to rent, and probably tomorrow I will move from the residence at the school into a private apartment.

The mexican food kicks ass as expected, and I will probably go out tonight with some of the other studants.