Out of all the natural wonders in the world, the two which I find the most wonderful are cenotes, and the ocean. It's just funny because I am scared to death of the ocean. I don't go the full length and never set foot in the ocean, I still jump in water bikes and little boats, but to just wander around swimming when the water level is higher that my waist, then we are going to have an issue. I just get too anxious, scared and with fear of the unknown.
Dos de las creaciones de la tierra que me parecen más increíbles, son los cenotes y el mar. Es gracioso, pero le tengo pavor al mar, no al grado de no subirme a la banana, motos de agua o lanchas, pero si al grado de que cuando el agua me llega arriba de la cintura, no me animo a meterme más.
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I think I already wrote about this in another post, but my sister and I are very good swimmers and we learned to swim at a very young age. My sister learned around one and a half and learned when I was two. It simply was very important for my mom that we learned because when my mom was young one of her brothers drowned and died when he was very little.
We became good swimmers and, when we were around 8 & 6 years old my mom enrolled us on a swimming team. The coach noticed how good we were and he referred us to the best swimming coach in Puebla.
My parents decided to get in touch with him and we changed swimming clubs, we moved to the "Alpha two" club, which is where the team practiced. It wasn't even a week since we moved that we got tested to se how good we were. After the tests, the coach spoke with my parents and just said "bring them tomorrow, they are now part of the high performance team, they are now squalos".
Ya lo había escrito en otros posts, pero mi hermana y yo aprendimos a nadar muy pequeñas, mi mamá dice que mi hermana Natalie aprendio al año y medio y yo a los dos. Para mi mamá era muy importante que aprendiéramos a nadar, porque se le murió un hermano ahogado cuando tenía dos años. Así que a los ocho años nos metió a un equipo de natación, nuestro profesor le comento a mi mamá que teníamos mucho talento y les dio el número del mejor profesor en puebla, llamado Francisco Martinez.
Mis papás decidieron contactarlo y él les dijo que fuéramos a un club llamado "Alpha 2", que es en donde él entrenaba a su equipo. Fuimos una semana después y nos hizo algunas pruebas, al finalizarlas, hablo con mis papás y les dijo que nos volvieran a llevar mañana porque ya íbamos a ser partes del equipo de alto rendimiento, llamado "escualos".
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We were part of the team for seven years. Every competition was brutal and required a lot of preparation: weeks before the competition (which were quite frequent) we would train since 5 am every day, then go to school, and then head back to the pool all evening. I remember one day I was just too tired, and I ended up fainting. I mean, after the pool we used to go to the gym to strengthen specific muscles! It was an amazing part of my life, and I can't deny that winning is a feeling I love, especially when you really work for the victory and you put your all into it. When I was 15 and my sister 17 we dropped the team... and how wouldn't we? The time of friends, boyfriends, and party was upon us and we were normal girls, not some prodigies that swimming becomes their whole life. I am proud of winning a National Event, and my sister even went far enough to win a National Olympic event! We couldn't ask for anything else.
Estuvimos en el equipo 7 años, los entrenamientos eran brutales, antes de competencias (que era muy seguido), entrenábamos a las 5 de la mañana y después por la tarde. Hubo un día en el que me desmaye de cansancio, porque ademas de los dos entrenamientos, debíamos ir al gym. Fue una época muy padre, no puedo negar que el ganar es algo increíble y más cuando hubo mucho esfuerzo. Cuando cumplí 15 años y mi hermana Natalie 17, decidimos salirnos. Claro, ya empezaba la época de las amigas, los novios y la fiesta. Me quede orgullosa con mi nacional y mi hermana con llegar a la olimpiada nacional, no podíamos pedir más.
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All of this comes because one of the things I am most proud about my sister is that she used to compete (and win) in open water competitions where women would swim for 10km! I mean, can you imagine the fear I would have doing that? No sir, that's not for me, imagine there are sharks surrounding the pod of swimmers? No.
I remember one time that my sister was competing in Cancun, she was in the middle of the ocean, almost on the other side of the start and suddenly, some swimmers saw a shark's fin and they all panicked, to the point where the weren't swimming anyymore, they were flying. In the end it turned out to be a dolphin, who in turn gave them a nice hello by jumping in front of them.
Todo esto lo saque, porque lo que quería decir es que una de las cosas por las que estoy muy orgullosa de mi hermana, es porque nadaba competencias de 10 km en mar abierto, queeee pavor, pero que admiración. Debe de ser fascinante ver animales, menos tiburones. Recuerdo mucho cuando mi hermana me contó que en una competencia en el mar de cancun, varias nadadoras vieron una aleta, el pánico llego y ya no nadabas, parecía que iban volando. Pero al final se dieron cuenta que esa aleta no era de un tiburón, si no, de un delfín.
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We also found some fish, according to my records these are puffer fish but my sister says otherwise. We returned them to the ocean but I don't know how long they had been out of the water, so I'm not really sure they survided. There was this one fish that the moment we put it in the water, it began swimming but very slow and shaky. Don't think that we were just picking up dead fish from the sand and tossing them in the water, they were still moving, but what I am not sure is how long they can survive outside, and even when returning to the water, perhaps they won't make it if they spent too long outside.
También encontramos algunos peces, según yo era peces globos y según mi hermana no. Los regresamos al mar, pero desconozco cuando tiempo llevaban afuera, espero que hayan sobrevivido. Hubo uno que metimos y comenzó a nadar chueco, después se quedo quieto y no se volvió a mover. No se mucho de peces, pero me imagino que si están un buen rato afuera del agua, ya no sobreviven cuando los vuelves a meter al mar. No piensen que los aventábamos muertos xdxd, aun se seguían moviendo.
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Cenotes can be amazing. Those small backwards mountains are called stalactites and they form by carbon water being vaporized through millenia.
Los cenotes también son asombrosos, las mini montañas al revés que pueden ver en la foto, se llaman estalactitas, estás se van formando por la evaporación de agua carbonatada.
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I took many pictures of this cenote, the one I visited last before traveling back to my city. Check out how many stalactites it has! Just amazing. This experience was amazing because the water was completely crystal clear and while the place was completely dark - there are light inside, but the guy in charge turned them off - we received a healing tradition from the locals. Definitely one of the best experiences I've had.
Tome muchas fotos de este cenote, que fue al último que entramos, porque el número de estalactitas que tiene, es impresionante. Fue muy padre la experiencia en este ojo de agua, porque el agua era completamente cristalina y un señor (no recuerdo su nombre) nos dio una platica muy linda para que nos relajáramos y viviéramos la experiencia al 100.
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I hope you liked my post, it was a bit random and all over the place but, that's how I like it 😄