The Big New York Summary Post

(Note: I have decided to just write a big summary post for the rest of my time in New York and another for all my time in Washington D.C)

After my last post we did a few things but I don't remember what order they were in.

One day we went to see a very funny off-Broadway play called The Government Inspector which is about a man who is mistaken for a government inspector in a pre-Soviet Russian village.

Another day I went to the amusement park at Coney Island and had hotdogs at Nathan's. I had a lot of fun going on the rides and got very dizzy because of them. In the evening I went to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium with my uncle. It was the Yankees vs. the Rays.  

One day I went and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was very windy and there were a lot of padlocks and tumbler locks attached to it. Afterwards we went to the same burger place we went to before and had lunch. After lunch I went back to the apartment and that was the end of the day.

The next day I went to a flea market. As I expected it was filled with other people's trash and I didn't find it very interesting. Afterwards we went to a small cafe for a snack and went for a walk by the sea. There was a lot of wind and it was warm and sunny. I then went to a Hot Topic and brought some shirts.

The Intrepid Museum and Wax Statues

26th July. Today we went to go visit the Intrepid Museum. The first thing that we saw was a submarine called the Growler which launched nukes and was one of two ever made. It was used during the Cold War against the Soviet Union and was designed to attack cities from out at sea.

We saw a Concorde and multiple American planes. They also had two Soviet planes, the Mig 17 and the Mig 21. In another room they had a Lego scale model of the aircraft carrier that was the museum. In another room they had a space shuttle which was really big.

My favourite things were the space shuttle and some safety cartoons that had a character called Dilbert the pilot and another one called Spoiler the mechanic. I liked these because they were very funny.

After the Intrepid Museum we went to Madame Tussaud’s to look at the waxwork collection. I didn’t understand who quite a bit of the people were but I liked it. They even had one of Donald Trump that you could take a photo with.

For dinner we had moules frites at a nearby restaurant which was very good.

Some Museums and Cheesecake

27th July. Today we went to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. It didn’t have a lot of things but I liked it. One room had a giant iguana in it. They also had boa constrictors, some different types of fish, and an orange parrot that was very pretty to look at but didn’t talk.

Next we went to the Brooklyn museum which had a lot of Egyptian artefacts. An interesting thing I learned was the reason why many of the statues didn’t have noses. It was because the Egyptians believed that spirits could enter through the eyes and noses of the statues so in order to prevent this from happening they knocked off the noses. Another reason it happened was because the Christian minority who lived in Egypt defaced the statues because they belonged to a pagan religion.

We then took a ferry that went round Ellis Island so we could go look at the Statue of Liberty. We had seen it a few times before but this was the first time we had got to see it close up. I liked the boat ride because there was a nice breeze and we got some good views of the cityscape and the statue.

Afterwards we went to Juniors for dinner and had some of the best cheesecake ever. It came in very large quantities, too. My piece was as big as my own face.

When dinner was over we went home and went to bed. 

The Met

25th July. Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum. There we saw many interesting things including lots of Egyptian artefacts, suits of knight armour, and ornate pistols that were made by Samuel Colt. The pistols and the knight amour were the best things that I saw.

One interesting section of the museum had many different things from Japan made of bamboo.   

Afterwards my Dad went to go and meet a friend so my Mum, my sister, and I all went to the top of the Empire State Building together. We had a really good view from the top and could see the whole city.

For dinner we had bagels at home.   

Dinosaurs!

Six days ago my uncle finally arrived. The next day we took the train to the Museum of Natural History.

When we got there we saw a lot of amazing things. We started by looking at the African animals where they had preserved lions, tigers, and other animals. The coolest of all of these was a whole elephant that was mounted on a pedestal in the middle of the room. 

The next thing we saw was the Asian items. They had samurai amour, various weapons, and uniforms of different peoples. 

The next and best things we saw were the dinosaurs. They had the galleries arranged chronologically so you could see how the dinosaurs evolved over time. They had many whole skeletons and one of a brontosaurus poking through the doorway at the entrance to greet you.

After the dinosaurs we went to the see the sea creatures and the wall of biodiversity. The wall of biodiversity was a wall entirely covered in models and pictures of creatures from every single animal family on earth. The sea creatures section had a giant whale floating in the middle of it. They had many different types of fish on display as well as sea lions, otters, and some types of sea birds.

Then we walked across Central Park and went to the Guggenheim museum. While we were walking we passed the obelisk there. 

After the Guggenheim museum we went to a ramen place near the house for dinner and had some really good ramen.

Arrival and First Day in New York

Yesterday I got up very early to go to the airport at around 5am. First we flew from Vancouver to Toronto. The plane flight was boring but it had movies so it wasn't all bad. Luckily we were not flying with United Airlines so we got where we wanted to go without being thrown off the plane part way. In Toronto we had sandwiches for lunch and then got on our flight to New York. The New York flight was shorter than the one to Toronto and I ended up watching more movies on it.

When we got to New York we tried to get an Uber car to take us to our apartment but something went wrong and we had to settle for a taxi instead. When we finally got to the apartment my Dad and I went to go find some dinner. We went to a pizza place with a wood-fired oven which had the best pizza ever. It had puffy crust and the toppings were good as well. After that I went to bed. 

Today I went on a bus tour of some of the famous buildings in New York. We went out to a nice restaurant for breakfast where I had a big plate of eggs, toast, and sausage. We then boarded the subway to go to the bus tour starting place. On the first train we were on (we had to change twice) there was a black Trump supporter who was yelling some sort of hate speech with religion mixed in. 

When we got to our destination we saw a lot of ads as we were in Times Square. I also saw a large two story shop that was just filled with M&M products. 

While we were on the tour we saw the Empire State, the Chrysler Building, and The Flat Iron Building as well as 5th Avenue. The most interesting thing I learned was about the church which had not been damaged in 9/11 because the large old tree behind it had taken all the damage instead of the church.

Eventually we got off the bus because it was too hot. We saw the Statue of Liberty from afar and had lunch at a small place in Greenwich Village afterwards that had homemade lemonade.

We took the subway back to the apartment and I had a nap. 

When I woke up we went for dinner at a burger place. We had to take a bus there and for some reason the driver went completely off route. We got there eventually there though and had really good burgers. The fries were good too but my mouth went on fire due to the pepper. While we were going there it started raining. It stopped for a brief period but on the way back it started again. It wasn't very heavy rain but it was still enough to make you significantly wet.    

Two Days of News

This is the day before yesterday's post. Sorry about missing it. I was very tired once we got to the hotel. [He was too lazy—Ed.] Anyway here it is.

Yesterday after starting out from our old rented house we drove to a nearby farmers' market before continuing to the hotel. Personally I wasn't very sad about leaving the rented house because I knew we were going to be in a nice comfy hotel.

At the market there I saw there was lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. The nice thing about being in the tropics is that the fruit can be brought as fresh as you can get it, right off the tree. Once we had finished looking at the market (which was, by the way, a lot smaller than I expected it to be) we went to a little place nearby and had smoothies. There were also some weird decorations in there including a row of white-plastic hands and coat hangers bent into strange shapes.

Parliament Buildings of local limestone

We left for the hotel after that and found our room was not ready. So we left our luggage at the hotel and drove into Bridgetown to find some lunch. We came to a nice place that served pizza called Mamma Mia's. We looked through the menu and found a nice deal where you could get an eight-inch pizza and a glass of home-made lemonade. The pizza was nice and warm with delicious pieces of Italian sausage, pepperoni, and cheese that stretched from the pizza to your mouth when you took a bite.

Lord Nelson (erected 30 years before the one
in London's Trafalgar Sq.)

Next we went to The Barbados Museum. There we saw some interesting artifacts including a drip stone which is a device that was used to remove solid contaminants from water.

Then we went to the hotel and found the room was ready. Me and my dad went to look at the executive lounge while my mom and my sister went to the pool. The executive lounge had chandeliers.

Then we had dinner and went to bed.

Yesterday we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel's buffet which I liked it very much.  We spent most of the morning after that swimming. There were three pools at the hotel a baby pool, a regular pool, and an infinity pool which was deeper and had a waterfall that went over the edge.

Then we went to look at Bridgetown, which is the capital city of Barbados. The place was a bit ragged and in a state of disrepair. There wasn't much that was interesting either the only two things that we did see were a statue of Lord Nelson and the Parliament Building.

Then we drove to a small restaurant called Blakeleys that was on a beach. We got a table on the balcony and ate lamb chops with BBQ sauce and fries. Then we went home.

Answers

Sorry, something's wrong with the software and I can't reply to comments with comments at the moment. So here's a posting with replies instead. Thanks for the comments.

> Wow. That blue sea looks just wonderful. I am very envious of all your turtle encounters. Have you seen the film Cool Runnings? Fish seems to be the preferred supper on this trip. Swim with them in the day, eat them at night. Keep the holiday tales coming. A. Wendy x

No I have not seen that movie but I was told a little about it by my editor. Also yes your right I do seem to have fish for dinner a lot these days, but then again this is an island so seafood is the easiest thing to get. 

> Awesome! This experience sounds amazing, but I'd LOVE to know more about how it made you feel. What made you feel surprised? Nervous? Brave? Excited? Scared? Lucky?

Mainly I felt excited and also happy because of all the great things I got to see. I also got tired because of all the swimming.

A Cave, A Rum Factory, and A Plantation House.

The Village

Today we went out to a cave. We didn't have to drive for very long compared to some of our other sightseeing expeditions.

Once we got to the cave we boarded a sort of tram and we began to descend. We saw lots of stalagmites and stalactites. There was one really big room called The Great Hall that had a huge mountain of rock in it. There was another formation called the altar that had two shimmering white pieces of rock in a little pool of water. The two rocks looked a bit like two people standing together. I also saw a lot of holes which looked like miniature caves with their own mini stalactites and stalagmites. I also learned why the water here in Barbados tastes of minerals. Its because water is brought up from the caves for use but it's been filtered by the limestone. Also only 20% of the water in the caves is actually used, the rest flows into the sea. Another thing I learned is it takes around 300 days for one drop of water to come down from the surface and drip into the cave.

I also took a lot of really good pictures of the caves but unfortunately the camera I took them on is nearly out of power so I can't put them on this blog. Luckily my editor has been kind enough to provide some images.

Once we were done with our tour in the cave we went to find lunch. After a long time of driving we came to a restaurant where I had chicken, some rice with vegetables, and a salad.

We went to a rum factory after lunch. When I stepped inside the place where the rum was made I got a huge whiff of rum. Personally I don't think the smell of rum is very pleasant (makes even my grandmother's soup smell good) so I went quickly to look at the machinery. There were also lots of barrels that were stacked up on top of each other.

When we were done with the rum factory we went to an old plantation house. When we went into the first room we saw that there were two creepy waxwork statues. One was of a woman and the other was of a man. Both were dressed in nice clothes. The scary thing about the one of the man was that it was inside a wooden box with large glass panels, like a coffin. On the top floor there was a room filled with chipped porcelain-headed dolls. In the basement there were lots of carriages with huge wheels.

Once we got back home we all had cinnamon buns.

A Catamaran Cruise

Today we woke early to go to a hotel. We were picked up in a minivan and taken to a pier in Bridgetown where we boarded a catamaran called Cool Runnings II.

From there we went off on our cruise. There was music coming from some speakers and there was a bar that had basically every possible drink in the world. I went and sat on the safety net at the front of the boat and watched the dark ocean go by. The water was turquoise in the shallow area by the beach and dark blue further out. Most of the ride was actually sail-powered not engine-powered which gave it a different feeling than the alternative because sometimes we ended up going really slowly and other times we sped up.

While we were going to the first destination we saw some flying fish. They only stayed around for a second or two, but they looked like tiny silver dots that flew through the air and landed back in the water. 

Once we reached our first destination the crew lowered a ramp by the front of the catamaran into the water and everyone got out to look at the turtles. 

There was actually only one turtle but it was amazing. The person who was showing us around in the water fed it and it came up to us. We were allowed to pat its shell but when I did it my hand was all slimy. There were also a shoal of greedy silver-coloured fish that followed us and ate whatever food the turtle didn't get. 

Then we got back on the boat and continued.

Cool Runnings (sister vessel)

The second destination was a coral reef with a nearby wreck. At the wreck our guide told us that it was a barge used by another company who picked up people on the beach for boat trips. They used the barge to get the passengers to and from the beach. Then the barge got too old and the company decided to sink it.

At the reef we were shown some fire coral which was orange and had a white top. Because of the top it looked like it was a paper cut out. We also were shown a plant called an animal flower that had a little tube for a stem and strands sticking out of the top that looked like spaghetti. When it was touched all the strands were sucked into the stem.

Once everyone was done with the coral reef and a little bit of time had passed lunch was served. I had some very nice battered fish, a delicious potato salad, and a bread roll. 

Then we ended up staying anchored by a beach for an hour before we went back to the pier and the bus collected us.

My sister Lucy meets a pirate.

A Great Day At The Barbados Wildlife Reserve

Before entering the reserve we went to a place called Grenade Hall that was used a long time ago as a signal tower that people could climb quickly to relay messages across the island. It had been opened so you could look out and there was a great view of the Atlantic Ocean and the surrounding forest. 

Then we went on a hike through a lush green tropical forest along moss-covered stone walkways. The trees covered up most of the sun but they also kept some of the heat in so it made me hot. There were also a lot of places where the tall trees drooped over the path. We saw a cave that was believed to be inhabited by native peoples at sometime or other. It was quite moist in the forest and there was a sign saying that frogs didn't even go to ponds to lay their eggs they simply layed them on the forest floor and there was a fish that was blind and lived there hunting insects.

Afterwards we had a snack by the place where you buy the tickets and the ticket seller threw bits of coconut so that the local green monkeys came. I was glad this happened becuse I didn't see any monkeys while we were hiking. There was one monkey that seemed to be the alpha male and a mother with two babies.

Then we went to the neighbouring Barbados Wildlife Reserve where they kept the rest of the animals including birds, fish, turtles, and tortoises. There were tortoises everywhere and there seemed to be more tortoises than anything else. They were playing follow the leader and mating (but not at the same time). 

As we walked down the path we saw a peacock and many tropical birds. In the aviary they had a grate that allowed you to see down to where there were rabbits, other birds, and guinea pigs—a group of five or six. After looking around a bit more we drove to Speightstown to eat at a nice restaurant with a view into the sea where I had a delicious burger.  There were lava lamps on the tables. 

One thing I've noticed about the burgers in Barbados is that they make they burger patties really thick. Also I had a delicious little cake with vanilla ice cream called a toffee pudding. When we were finished and stuffed to the brim with good food we drove to a huge rock which had a bench on top. While we were there a boy climbed it. I was a bit impressed because the rock was huge and jagged. 

There are lots of little lizards here and a few nasty centipedes. Also its very hot here at noon. The local diet seems to have a lot of starch. One tasty thing they have here is called macaroni pie. It's a bit like macaroni and cheese but its all stuck together in one big blob. The island is quite small. Some people say that everything is half an hour away. Even so we still manage to get lost a lot. Things are pretty good here its a enjoyable little place.

A Day Where Not Much Happens

Today we went out to the beach and we had to wake up early in the morning. I didn't feel like going in the water so I just sat on the beach. After that we went to a small restaurant by the beach and had fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. Then we went to a little restaurant and had ice cream. After walking around a bit we went home.

[Ed's version of the day: We've been sleeping on Pacific Time which means, especially in André's case, only rising at 10am here. We decided that this morning everyone should rise at 8am so we could actually get to a beach and into the water before the sun was too high in the sky, but as it was overcast André was allowed to sleep in until 9am anyway. 

Neither Google Maps on the phone, nor the Garmin GPS that came with the car seem to have the faintest idea which roads are actually navigable, and following their advice tends to lead to routes only navigable by tractor, and from which it can take some time to escape if you're only in a tinny little Kia. So we compare those two with a paper map and while doing so inevitably miss an ill-signposted turning. Getting to a beach on the west coast takes at least 30 minutes and sometimes 45 minutes. Getting to historic sights in the north should take 45 minutes and is more likely to take an hour and a quarter.

Today we returned to the small Payne's Beach we'd already visited, and once again had it almost entirely to ourselves. A flat layer of rock just offshore teems with fish at its edge (the drop-off, for lovers of Finding Nemo, perfect for André's younger sister, Lucy. Lucy and I spent an hour snorkelling hand-in-hand admiring a large variety of slivers of tropical brilliance. Lucy could swim well out of her depth, but see the shallow flat rock close at hand, and get there quickly to drain her mask, or take a rest. André moped on the shore.

We ate local Bajan food for lunch at a restaurant that was little more than a shack, with food served school dinners-style. There's a lot of Indian influence on what is basically a diet of starches, at least two on the plate at a time. Curried goat was on the menu. André had some fried chicken with macaroni pie and a small salad, which, very surprisingly, he tucked into without being prompted, and without complaining. (I had a spicy version of the chicken that reminded me in flavour, although not texture, of Jamaica's jerk chicken, along with a mixture of beans and potatoes and some lightly curried spinach. It was excellent.) This was declared a success, but icecream (a rare treat, and then usually home-made) was vociferously requested as a follow-up. A neighbouring icecream shack was closed, so we drove slowly north up the west coast, looking at other beaches, and past numerous rather pompous resorts, to the iceland's second-biggest town, still little more than a village, and found locally made icecream in a pleasant café. We strolled around the centre of Speightstown, all wooden buildings of some antiquity with sagging verandahs, which was cordoned off for the current Crop Over festival, a month-long celebration of the end of the sugar cane harvest (although sugar plays only a small role in the Bajan economy these days). Stalls selling rum, beer, and snacks lined the streets. On a large stage a children's choir was just getting stuck into a song called 'Reject the Devil', which the audience was also being encouraged to shout. Advertisements for another event promised 'Christian calypso'. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The return journey was the first we'd ever accomplished in Barbados without a single wrong turning.

Tomorrow I will require the boy to describe Barbados in more general terms, and how he thinks it compares so far to other beach destinations he's visited, particularly nearby ones in Venezuela, Curaçao, Aruba, Colombia, and Panama. If he's not willing to put a bit more life into this then we'll abandon it.]

Worst Day Ever (No Joke)

Today was probably the worst day of the whole holiday. First I woke up tired and then we had to go on a drive that took forever to go to a boring old house that was a rum factory which didn't have anything interesting in it except for a chair called a gentlemen's chair. I guess they had ok sandwiches there which I had for lunch and some tropical birds but that was it for interesting and remarkable things. Later after driving back to the house we went out to a place that had lots of restaurants selling fresh fish. We went into one and got kind of ripped off because there was almost no fish and a ton of rather tasteless french fries with a tiny bit of salt. I also had a disgusting plantain and some awful salad.

Getting There and the First Day

Our rented house.

We started out for the airport yesterday evening after dinner and after getting through all the tiring security and other procedures we got on the plane. Since it was Air Canada I expected to be packed in a tin can being treated worse than the baggage but it turned out to be ok. Unfortunately we had the nice comfy plane from the shorter flight from Vancouver to Toronto instead of the longer one from Toronto to Barbados. Anyway when we got to Toronto we stopped and got sandwhiches and waited around for a bit. Then we got on the second plane and flew to Barbados. We were met at the airport by the lady who owned the house we were renting and were driven there.

Then we went out to do some shopping. We ended up having dinner at a local fast food chain called "Chefette". They had shakes there that were so thick it took all the air out of your lungs to get the liquid into your mouth.

I woke up the next morning very cold because the AC made the room all chilly. After we got up we went out and after driving for a long time we came to a nice beach. Unfortunately it was too hot and  we couldn't stay long. While I was there I saw lots of fish in all different shapes and sizes by the rocks. After going to the beach we went and found a restaurant that had fairly good pizza. While we were eating some birds flew in and one hopped onto a seat at our table.

Retired windmill.

Afterwards we saw a mill that had a sign claiming it was the only working sugar mill on the island or something along those lines. It turned out the place was shut and the windmill blades had been tied up. We still looked at it but we couldn't go inside. Then we took a scenic drive and saw lots of mango and banana trees. We also got lost and it took a while to get back to the house again.

View of the east coast from where we were lost.

Public Service Announcement

Ummm..... Don't put um!

Dad! Stop!

Seriously. I mean it.

Oy. This isn't funny.

Ladies and gentlemen and any other random person who happens to be reading this blog. I'm re-starting in a few days. We are going to Barbados for ten days and this year's holiday is shorter than last year's holiday, as you can probably tell.

We leave tomorrow evening.

So please come and read the blog which will start in two days' time.

Last Day With Pizza And Greatest Hits

Yesterday we went to the beach for our last beach trip. Unfortunately there was not enough wind to fly a kite so instead I dug a big hole near the sea where the sand was softer. It wasn't very wide but it was pretty deep. It was so deep that I hit water. It was salt water of course not fresh. I couldn't dig any deeper because every time I dug some sand out of the bottom some more wet sand and water slid in. Eventually my hole was flooded by the sea so I abandoned the project.

We stayed in for the rest of the day and went out in the evening to a very nice pizza restaurant. We ordered a pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms. I ate almost half of it because I was so hungry. Also we got a free tiramisu from a very nice person who worked there. 

Greatest hits of this trip:

Hello from a cenote

Climbing at Cobá

Lifting a pyramid at Chichén-Itzá

The Dwarf Magician's Pyramid at Uxmal

It tickles

Fishy Feet

Today we went to mail some post cards and had to wait a long time. After that I asked if we could go for ice cream and Mum said we could go for something better. We went to a fish spa. It was two tubs connected together with enough space in each for two people to put their feet in. First I had my feet sprayed with something to clean them. Once I put my feet in the water all the fish started coming towards my feet. They were small and had three sets of fins near their undersides. Also they had a grey colour and small black eyes. Since they only have suckers in their mouths it felt all ticklish like an iPhone vibrating against you. Each tank had 200 fish in them and they were all called Pedro. It went on for about fifteen minutes and then they made me pull my feet out. After that they dried my feet off and put some massage lotion on my feet. After it all my skin felt all smooth and soft. Then we went for smoothies and got some take-out burritos for dinner.

We are hungry

Burritos And A New Hat

Yesterday we stayed at home for part of the morning and later went out to a fish restaurant we had gone to before to have lunch but it didn't open until much later so we went to a little place around the corner called Old Burrito. We ordered some egg burritos and orange juice. After we were done our waiter asked us if we would help him with a marketing campaign where he was taking photos to put on the restaurant's Facebook page and saying what country they were from. Later we went shopping for a new hat because my panama was getting travel worn. We also went to the beach but I didn't have that much fun because there wasn't enough wind to fly my kite. Lucy swam for most of the time and had great fun.

In the evening we went out to the fish place and had sea bass and octopus that were cooked very nicely.

A Dwarf Magician's Pyramid

Yesterday we got up early and we went to the ancient Mayan site at Uxmal. It was empty.

We saw a pyramid that was supposed to belong to a dwarf magician. It was really big, slightly rounded, and had a big hole in the middle. Also there were some buildings that had swallows living in them. Swallows were flying everywhere. The building entrances were sealed off by mesh doors and the swallows had to fly in at very precise angles to get into the buildings through places where the fittings had come loose.

Also, no vendors, which was a relief.

We got in our car and started to drive back to Playa Del Carmen. On the way we saw a bunch of vultures circling. We stopped in a small town for lunch. I had a sort of pancake that was made out of chicken breaded and deep-fried. We drove for a long while and then stopped to get creamsicles at an Oxxo. Once we got back to Playa it was very late so we had dinner in.

Two Days of Pyramids

The before day yesterday we picked up a rental car early and drove to Cobá. When we got there I climbed a very large pyramid. It felt like it took years to climb but it was worth it. When I got to the top I felt like I was on top of the world. As far as the eye could see there were trees. We saw another part of the site and it looked tiny compared to where we were. The descent was bit scary because the distance down looked much taller when I was heading down than when I was going up.

After I had come down I had a snack.

As we were walking back we saw a bird had made a nest in a very low tree and a fat little chick was loudly crying out as if to say, 'Feed me.' Later as we were walking back towards the exit we saw two bikers suddenly halt to let an orange snake with black stripes that looked venomous pass. The snake paid them no attention and slithered off into the bushes.

Next we drove to the town of Valladolid to eat lunch in a restaurant that was in a courtyard of a mansion. Then we went to look in a ferreteria (ironmonger, not a place where you buy ferrets) for a juicer but we didn't find one. Next we drove to a hotel in Chichén-Itzá. We went to a convenience store called Oxxo to get some sandwiches. While we were eating rain started coming down in buckets. ['Buckets'

Feed me! Feed me!

The world's strongest person. [I knew I should never have let him watch 'Despicable Me'. Ed]

He shoots! He scores!

Mayan noughts and crosses? X cheated and still lost.

doesn't even begin to describe it. It was coming down in swimming pools. Ed.] Dad offered to run back to the hotel to get the car. He came back with it and we got home. Our room was gloomy with one bed one bathroom. Also to make things gloomier a tiny part of the ceiling started to leak.

Yesterday we got up and had breakfast very early and drove to Chichen-Itzá. When we got in the place was like a ghost town. The main pyramid was huge and made in layers like a cubed wedding cake. Also there was the biggest ball court with a small building at the end. I said maybe the Mayans used it as the press box for ball games. After around two hours vendors came out and started to try to sell us little souvenirs and other bits of junk. Then a lot of tour buses started to arrive.

We drove to Merida and had lunch in another courtyard restaurant. Next we found a juicer and we also got an electric tennis bat to kill bugs with. We also saw some cool D.I.Y. solar-powered robots in the electric tennis bat shop. Next we drove to our hotel which was much better than our last one. It had nice comfy beds, AC, and a patio. I shared a chicken sandwich with my sister in the restaurant for dinner and then we went to bed.