Wednesday, May 28, 2008

An Adventure to Mexico!

Hello Class! Since Proud Panther and I spent our Spring Break wearing scarves and gloves in England, we decided to take a nice, warm trip to Mexico together! We had so much fun! We saw lots of different kinds of sea life. While taking a walk on the beach we spotted a purple jellyfish, several sea turtle nests, and almost stepped on some sand color crabs (ouch!). Can you find the crab in the picture?






Then we went snorkeling. When snorkeling, you have to wear goggles, a life vest, and a tube that sticks out of your mouth. The life vest helps you to float, the goggles help you to see the coral reef under the water, and the tube sticks out of the water so that you can still breath while your face is under water. The coral reef is where the fish live (like in Finding Nemo). We saw lots of very bright blue, yellow, and multicolored fish. We even saw a starfish, a stingray, and a barracuda!!

After our water adventures, we took a trip to see the Mayan ruins. This is where the Mayans lived hundreds of years ago. The reason that none of the buildings in the photos have a roof is because they were made out of palm branches. The palm branches weren't sturdy enough to stay in place all of these years, so all that is left now is the stone part of the buildings. The Mayan village was built right on the edge of a cliff, next to the ocean, so that they could not get attacked by enemies and so that they could have access to boats. The building that has the most steps was the most important building. This is where they performed their important ceremonies and sacrifices. A sacrifice is when they would offer valuable things to the higher power they worshipped. The biggest house in the village was located next to the most important building. That's because only the most important person in the village could live close to it.




While in Mexico, we also discovered that their lizards are much larger than the lizards in Florida! Proud Panther became pretty good friends with some of them!


Proud Panther and I also spent some time shopping. Most of the items being sold were handmade, so they were all a little different than the rest. They were selling lots of clay pottery and blankets. There were also some items made of wood. Almost everything was painted with very bright colors.


After all of our exploring, Proud Panther and I still found some time to relax and enjoy the beach!

I think his favorite part of the trip was the towel animals that housekeeping left for us everyday!


Well, I hope that you all enjoyed your virtual field trip of Mexico! I hope you found it as interesting as Proud Panther and I did. Proud Panther will be back in your class shortly, but I will still be missing you all from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

2 comments:

Ms. Snyder said...

Thank you for the wonderful pictures from Mexico. It looks like you had a blast! We had a few questions to ask.

1. What was the body of water? Was that the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico?

2. What kind of lizards were those?

3. What kind of jellyfish was that?

4. Were those the same ruins from Indiana Jones?

5. Is Pittsburgh cooler than here?

Thank you for the pictures. We MISS YOU!!!!!!!!

Love, Your Class

Mrs. Robinson said...

Hi everybody! I'm so glad you enjoyed the pictures! Here are the answers to your questions:

1. The body of water that Proud Panther and I were enjoying was the Caribbean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.

2. Proud Panther's lizard friends were Green and Black Iguanas. There are many other kinds of lizards that live in Mexico also.

3. The jellyfish in the picture was a Portuguese Man-of-War. These aren't actually jellyfish, but siphonophores (jelly-like invertebrate marine animals).

4. Those ruins were not the same as the ones in Indiana Jones, but they were in the movie Apocalypto.

5. Pittsburgh has been about the same temperature as Florida lately. It has a tendency to feel cooler in Pittsburgh, because there is less humidity in the air. Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air. It is what makes you feel sticky in the summer.

I hope these answer your questions!

Mrs. Robinson's Adventures


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