Translation of popularidad

In the that time of the year, when I used to go to school, I had to get up very early and leave the house at around seven o'clock in the morning. At this time it was still night, dark and cold outside.
The other visitors in my group were from the United States, Canada, Germany and from other parts in Mexico. I need to say that it was so much fun to meet people and spend an entire trip with them.
My wife joined me two hours later and everybody went to breakfast. The plan for the day was to visit a cave on one of the islands. We took smaller boats to get there as the ship was too large to approach the island.