Tennis in Mérida

The first courts we saw in Mérida were in bad condition. The net was ripped off, and the paint was wearing out. Our landlord told us about a sports center where they had volleyball, basketball, racketball, martial arts, and tennis. We wanted to play there, but we did not have any tennis balls! We forgot to pack them so we called a few sporting goods stores to ask them how much one of their cans of tennis balls cost. There are three balls in a can. One was 26 bolivars, which is worth about 13 dollars. One was 20 bolivars (ten dollars), one cost 25 bolivars, and one cost 30 bolivars!

For that price you could buy seven cans of tennis balls in the USA - that’s 21 balls! We wanted to get the ten doller one, but we got the wrong address and ended up getting the 25 bolivar one. We have an idea to ask someone to mail us a few balls from the United States.

Then I went off to play tennis with my dad. When we got there I warmed up and started to play. The courts were a lot more slipery and the altitude made them bounce higher and faster compared to Iowa. To make matters worse, I had not played tennis in a while. So I did not play very well at first. It had rained a lot in the past few days (figures -it’s the rainy season). One court was closed because of the weather. Afterward, I played tennis with a p.e. teacher and my dad, and she hit me some very fast balls. I returned a few of them, but most of the balls were too hard. In a week I will be taking tennis lessons in Spanish! The sports complex that my dad and I played at is for kids. My sister will be taking martial arts at the same place. It was hard to get used to the courts, but I was glad to finally play tennis.