Touring Cenotes

    My parents and I traveled to Mexico to visit my grandparents last summer, and we visited the cenotes (say-NO-tays), the natural swimming holes located on the Yucatán Peninsula. The term "swimming hole" might make you think that cenotes are just average, but cenotes are truly {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. I had the most exciting experience of my life exploring these wonders of nature.

    Thousands of years old, the cenotes formed and created sinkholes underneath. Though the ancient Mayans (玛雅人) used the cenotes as water {#blank#}2{#/blank#}, people can now swim, dive, take photographs, and admire local trees and {#blank#}3{#/blank#} life, all through water as clear as liquid diamond.

    In Cenote Azul, my parents, my grandparents, and I swam through water that seemed too blue to be real. I {#blank#}4{#/blank#} countless younger kids diving into the water from a small cliff, but I dared not to jump at first. I finally worked up the courage, and my {#blank#}5{#/blank#} try instantly put all my worries to rest.

    A few days later, we went to Cenote Ponderosa. We stayed in the sun-covered pond, where we {#blank#}6{#/blank#} floated while others did diving and took underwater photographs. Being surrounded by a valley of trees made everything else in the world seem to disappear.

    Grutas de Loltún were definitely the most magnificent of all the cenotes, even though there was no swimming involved. Grutas are caves, and the Grutas de Loltún are among the biggest caves on the entire Peninsula. Our guide, Carolina, walked us through several caves, where we saw many drawings thousands of years old on the cave walls! Just one brief look at those drawings made me feel like I had stepped back in time to a(n) {#blank#}7{#/blank#} era of history. Our group thought Carolina was joking when she claimed she could make the stalagmites(石笋) sing for us, but when she {#blank#}8{#/blank#} them, we heard what sounded like the words "Lol" and "Tun"—the name of the caves! I cannot imagine that a(n) {#blank#}9{#/blank#} played at a concert at Carnegie Hall would have been any better.

    Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula is filled with beauty, but the cenotes are a one-of-a-kind opportunity to commune with nature in a way that is impossible anywhere else on Earth, and I would not {#blank#}10{#/blank#} to do it all again.

    An {#blank#}1{#/blank#} arson attack on a respected Japanese animation studio left a shocked nation grieving, as investigators looked to identify victims and determine a possible motive in one of the deadliest acts of {#blank#}2{#/blank#} in Japan's modern history.

    A total of 33 people — many of them young — were killed a day earlier when a man {#blank#}3{#/blank#} to douse flammable liquid through the Kyoto Animation Co. studio and set it alight, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} an inferno, officials said. Some 36 others were injured, about 10 critically.

    The blaze at the production house struck at a pillar of Japan's anime industry, an obsession in the country and a cherished cultural {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Kyoto Animation, known as KyoAni, had produced hits such as "Lucky Star," "K-On!" and "Haruhi Suzumiya, " {#blank#}6{#/blank#} worldwide acclaim for its skilled drawings.

    Outside the charred shell of the company's workspace in Kyoto's outskirts on Friday, crowds of well-wishers left flowers and messages of support for the victims. Many bowed, or {#blank#}7{#/blank#} down and prayed as they offered their respects.

    The {#blank#}8{#/blank#}, Shinji Aoba, aged 41, remained in the hospital after {#blank#}9{#/blank#} burns all over his body. A woman who saw police detain the man a day earlier told reporters that he "seemed to be discontented, he seemed to get angry, shouting something about how he had been plagiarized, " according to Reuters.

    Hideaki Hatta, a co-founder and president of Kyoto Animation, said Thursday that the studio had been receiving {#blank#}10{#/blank#}, including emails threatening murder. He said the attack had "broken our hearts."