We were at breakfast by 8:00 a.m., because we're at our first port--Costa Maya. Our portmates are Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas and Norwegian’s Escape (which is the ship we were on last).
Off to breakfast
The excursion process was far more organized than our NE trip.
Our ship
Natives dancing for disinterested tourists
We were on a comfortable air conditioned bus in a matter of minutes for a 1 hour drive to the ruins. Our guide Diego gave his shpiel, much of which involved a math lesson on the Mayan numbering system (it's bidecimal), and a detailed description of how they make gum here (sponsored by the Mexican Gum Council).
We arrived at the official entrance aka gift shop…
…and began to stroll through the ruins. I was kind of expecting A ruin, but instead we had a whole town of ruins--probably a dozen structures in all.
I bought an official certificate stating I could take video ($4—the number above is in pesos)--taking photos was free. I think I was the only one to do this, and never saw an official asking for my papers. Oh well—it’s a cheap souvenir.
Boorish American taking a selfie
It's all extremely impressive--although the sisters seemed more interested in the trees than the ruins. You could climb one of the structures, so we did--and survived. Amy initially balked at this, but the rest of us thought we had to climb it to continue the tour (turned out we just went back down). I started heating up as we went, so I was glad to return to the bus.
Guess what? More structures.
Sisters looking at said structures—very Spielbergian.
We skipped this climb—steeper than it looks.
Our wacky guide Diego.
Local fauna
We wandered around the shopping area--if you've ever been to a cruise port, you know what that looks like. We also stopped for some nachos.
Tonight on Costa Maya Vice!
Be sure to separate your coconuts from your recyclables.
It took us awhile to find our way through the warrens of shops until we realized that egress to the port required going through the duty-free shop. Finally exhausted, we went back to the ship…
…had another snack, and sacked out on deck chairs as the various ships took off.
A shot of the “Centrum” - the multi-story atrium mid-ship.
It's “White Night” for dinner, which sounds terrible until you know it's how to dress. Not many people followed the rule. Dinner included corn cakes, pork enchilada, butter chicken, carne asada, chili salmon--and a kind of deconstructed tofu taco. That last one was NOT a hit. I suspect they made it up on the spot when I was the only one that ordered it. Desserts included coconut layer cake, tres leches cake, and caramel flan.
Really a burrito
So—flavorless tofu cubes, tortilla chips (both in tortilla bowls), and a bland sauce. Agung suggested it was “too small” and to order something in addition. Good call.
Well, section manager Leivon DID try to upsell us the steakhouse as an alternative to this evening’s fare. She warned us. I think that if even the wait staff knows a menu is a loser, it’s time to swap it out.
We were all dragging by this point--the sun had taken it out of us--so I took a nap before the night's big show. “IMPACT: An Entertainment Explosion” is Stomp meets Riverdance meets Argentine Tango meets Double Dutch, along with singing and schtick.
“Oh damn—we’re on in five minutes! Well, you two can dance, you can drum a bit, and I’ve got these bolos—let’s put on a show!”
We retired for the night after that. Tomorrow--Cozumel!