The cruising life is awesome, crazy, cool and freaky all at the same time. Everything is different. [Okay maybe not everything] But school, food, the people, climate, lifestyle and activities are different. One thing that is a constant is my friends and family.

First I'll talk about lifestyle and food. The food here is so different. I mean obviously its Mexico and all that but still. It's not like there's Burger Kings or Wendy's every few blocks especially where we are. Our most used food source, at least when we go out, are the palapa beach restaurants. These beach huts are so different than home. They're made out of palm fronds with no walls. You guys have probably seen these before but I've got to say they're weird. The food is sometimes fantastic, but other times it's terrible. The only consistency is that the service is never very good and all the food never gets to the table at the same time. But that's okay because you're not sitting in some stuffy, loud, overcrowded indoor restaurant. You sit in plastic Corona chairs with the loudest noise, usually, being the crash of the surf. The architecture and homes here are completely different and so is living on a boat.

Living on a boat, at least our boat, is like living in a large apartment that's always moving and always has some kind of mechanical sound running in the background. Like the freezer, fridge, generator, invertor, ENGINE, or water maker is always running. But it's also surprisingly peaceful. Each night as you go to bed the gentle rocking motion puts you to sleep like a baby, but there's a downside. During the day, it makes you lazy, especially coupled with the eighty degree weather and a good book!! And being lazy definitely doesn't help with school.

School on the boat is strange to say the least. It only lasts a few hours, I read my books in my bunk, and after school I don't go in the backyard and mess around. OH NO!!! We hop in the kayaks to paddle into shore to surf the waves, [Or I read], sometimes we'll swing off the whisker pole into the water. [Or I'll read] It's like a permanent vacation. But there's a downside, there's always a downside. I don't get to see my friends every day at school, and I don't get to see my family during holidays. But I got to say there is one thing that I don't miss about home, the weather!!!!!! Yah you guys know what I'm talking about. The climate here is the complete opposite compared to home. I haven't put on a sweatshirt or a long sleeve shirt in almost three months! But, contrary to what you might believe, it has rained. It poured, and I mean middle of January poured, for four days straight. There was just one difference. It was still warm.

Traveling on a boat is strange!! A fifteen minute drive in a car takes an hour and a half on the boat. If the water's rough, riding on a boat is miserable. Your stomach takes an elevator ride up to your throat, then down, and then side to side, especially on the open ocean. But if its calm out, there's nothing better. You can sit in the cockpit or out on the bow with the wind on you face and the spray in your hair. And sometimes if we're lucky we'll get some entertainment!! Sometimes we'll get ten to fifteen dolphins swimming three times our average speed of seven knots. Then they'll jump out of the water and play in our wake. Other times we'll see manta rays jumping two or three feet out of the water. [That's my favorite] Still other times, if we're really lucky we'll see a pod of whales, blowing spray out of their blowholes, and waving hello with their gigantic tails. And sometimes there's nothing. Just the gentle rock and creak of the boat and the wind flapping the sails.

So as you can see pretty much everything is different on a boat in Mexico. I can't wait to see everybody again this summer. I miss you guys so much!!!