November 16 , 2005 - page 3

$400 just on her dress, and put a great deal of time and effort into the preparations for her special day.  It was pretty cool that we were able to crash the party and be treated so hospitably, though – I kind of wish my fifteenth had been so luxurious.

Sunday morning we arose to travel again, this time to the cenotes of Cuzamá.  Our traveling conditions weren’t nearly as nice, as we discovered just how many students one can cram into a mid-size car (six).  We passed through several

small towns on the way, finally arriving in Cuzamá, near the hacienda of Chunkanán.  A cenote is a large freshwater well, often underground and usually produced by the natural erosion of limestone.  To access the cenotes, we rode four-person horse-drawn wooden buggies on old rails that were used to cart sisal crops during the hacienda’s heyday.  And even though on a number of occasions I felt like I was going to fall off the cart and tumble into a ravine, it was a nice little 7-kilometer ride.