Saturday January 17^th

This was the day I was the most waiting for...Day in Mexico! We slept better, because she snored less, so we had energy to put our alarm at 9am and get ready! The first thing we did was putting our sport clothes on and go run! There was a jogging track, all around deck 11, and as we wanted to stay in shape for basketball we decided to run! We actually ran for 25 minutes, which means, 22 times around the track. It doesn't seem a lot, but the fact that it was humid and hot, and that I wan't in shape anymore made it hard! All sweaty, we had a shower before having breakfast. We packed for one day in Mexico and then we went out of the boat and discovered...COZUMEL!

It was super warm there, around 27-29 Celcius, and...sunny! The water was exactly like in the postal cards, turquoise, we could see through...The port was very touristic, we could say it because of the very colorful houses, and the shops everywhere! We took the ferry to Mexico (Cozumel is an island of Mexico but it's not really the land) for 40 minutes. There, we found our group: we were only 12 people, so a really small group what is really rare! We also met the guide who was gonna bring us everywhere and do the activities with us. Her name was Martina and guess where she was from?...SWITZERLAND! What were the chances for that? Unfortunately, from Berne, so impossible to talk to her (I told her that Swiss German was something I would never be able to understand). We were on the peninsula of Yucatan, 1 hour south from Cancun. We took a minibus to the south, to our first activity. We arrived at “Dos Ojos”, 2 caverns of fresh water, water filtered by the rock. This was just amazing to see: the water was transparent, we could see every single rock at the bottom, there were stalagmites and stalactites everywhere...We received a mask and a tuba, and we had 30 minutes to snorkel in this place. It's really hard to describe how beautiful it was!

After that, we took the minibus again and we went to our next activity. We arrived at La Playa Del Carmel. It was a beautiful beach, white sand, turquoise water...We just snorkeled 5 minutes before seeing...SEA TURTLES! There were just so many! Each time we saw one, we did a circle around it, and observed it until it had to come on the surface to breath. This animal is just so majestic, and big! At least 1 meter long, often more! We spent I think 1 hour and a half observing them. And the best was that they were totally wild! No in one of these aquariums you can visit. I had two amazing moments, when the group swam away and I stayed alone with the turtles. Twice, one of them went on the surface, and I swam next to it. I was just a couple of centimeters away from it, maybe 5cm. I could so easily touch it! But I didn't because we were told that it could make them sick. Twice, I was in another world, alone with my turtle...That's a moment I will never forget!

We also saw 2 sand rays, and a barracuda! (I didn't see the barracuda, but other people from my group did). When we were done, we took some pictures on the beach and then we went back to the port where we had dinner in a Mexican restaurant. We had a superb view on the ocean, and the food (Mexican tortillas) was delicious.

We then said goodbye to Martina and thanked her for her kindness (I gave her 10$ of tip), and took the ferry back to Cozumel. There, we walked a bit around, and we bought some souvenirs and postal cards. I just bought a little turtle, to remember me this amazing day.

On the boat, after a shower, we danced on the deck with other people, we were filmed and we could see ourselves on the giant TV (of course they filmed the only moment where I didn't know the choreography and I did all wrong!)

We had a snack at the pizza bar (free) and we went 5 minutes to the young club, a night club for 15-17 years old. However, it didn't seem really fun so we didn't stay. We ate again (now that I write it, it seems like we only ate during this cruise!) and I stole a coconut of the decoration to eat it..it was good! I talked with 6 other exchange students for a long time and then went to sleep around 1am.