Friday, November 16, 2018
Costa Maya, Mexico
Got up to the sound of my phone's alarm since I didn't want to be late for my excursion and I knew it'd be a little bit of a walk.
As we were positioning around 6:30 in the morning, it looked, from my vantage point, that we were going to be closer to the dock than the long pier at Harvest Caye yesterday. Once on the pier though, I could see it was still a good walk.
There were two other cruise ships sharing the pier with us: another Norwegian, the "Norwegian Pearl" (a bit smaller than us) and the Royal Caribbean "Allure of the Seas" which, I think, is the largest cruise ship in the world. (EDIT: It's the 3rd largest cruise ship as of this writing) Oh what a boon for the little shop keepers hawking their wares!
I remembered from the YouTube video I watched that it was tricky navigating through this little mall-like bazaar area to get to the port proper so you could walk to the tour company office. Man, was that video right. In the video, they ended up going through the back of one of the shops but each one I looked through, I couldn't see a way through. I gave up and asked a jewelry store clerk, after he tried to haggle me of course. All of a sudden, he plays dumb like he doesn't know English! He was just trying to sell me diamonds and gold in English! The video warned of this. If they know you don't need them to buy from, they just cut you loose acting dumb. Fucker! And the other clerks nearby who definitely heard me just stood there and said nothing. Searching around a bit more, I eventually found a door that was meant to be a service entrance, I think. Fuck it, I went through it. In a matter of just a couple of days I've already invaded a foreign country illegally and now I was likely trespassing.
I found the port and made my way to the office, using my memory of the YouTube video and Streetview. It wasn't super far, but my back and legs were aching really bad now. All this freakin' walking! You know I'd never have been able to do that Amazon job.
Our tour guide on the van to the ruin site was really animated and interacted with us 9 or so passengers a lot asking all kinds of questions. Unfortunately, the group I was put with were all in the added package where they eat a lunch at a Mayan village but I got the cheaper package so I had to join another group once at the site. The new guide was okay but less animated and a much thicker accent.
The archaeological site was well laid out and, with three huge cruise ships in the nearby port, they accommodated the hundreds of guests well. The paths were mostly flat and easy to walk despite my frailties...I just took it easy. But, for the temple at the end of the trail, we had to climb up this high set of stairs made of stones where each step was maybe two feet high! Fatigue, muscle aches and fear of heights had me practically crawling up them by the time I was half way up. Damn this was a chore. Other people just walked normally up (well a few older folks got help from their partners or family) but for me it was like climbing a mountain!
On the drive back to the port after spending about an hour and a half at the Mayan ruins, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and bought fresh-picked bananas and pineapple. Yummy! And only a dollar!
The van dropped us off at the port so I didn't have to trek down the town streets again, but now I had to make my way through the maze of this bazaar to get to the pier. After several rest stops, I finally made it through. Oh, luckily, I didn't need to buy a magnet here since I bought one at the historical site shop.
Back on the ship I made a beeline for my cabin for a shower and a much needed rest. It hadn't been very hot at all, just a nice sunny mid-to-upper '70s day, but nevertheless I was drenched in sweat from all the exertion. After my shower I decided to crack open my second bag, the larger one, of my rum runners rum. I was sipping some of that on ice when again, who's at my fucking door. Albert coming to do the turndown at 2:00 already! He excused himself saying he'd come back later.
I also had some of the Chianti left so I drank that too and ended up finishing the whole bag of rum. Needless to say, by dinnertime I was shit-faced. So much so that I don't remember going up to the buffet but I do remember the slight reprimand I got from one of the automatons. Apparently, in the drunken state I was in, I'd forgotten to put on shoes so there I was in the buffet barefoot!
And, as you read on the previous post, I apparently tried to write up a post!
Somehow, I made it back to my room to put on shoes, of course, but also to change out of the bathing suit and tank top I was wearing (that's right, I went to dinner in a bathing suit and tank top as well!)
Around 8:30 pm I was sobering up a little but I was seeing double like I was the other night so I sat through a performance of Carole king classics by a guy vocal group called "Carole's Kings." I think they were a trio but honestly, I counted 6 of them all throughout the show!
I made my way to Syd Norman's Pour House for the 10:30 movie "Purple Rain." But whoever was running it played the DVD commentary track. When the bartender was alerted, they restarted the movie, but it was still the commentary! A lady crew member in an officer's uniform walked by me and I asked her what was up with the movie. Of course she had no clue what the phrase "What's up" means so she said in her heavily-accented English "Yes, do you like it?" Oh man, she couldn't even tell it was commentary even though the director was a chatty one for this flick so he was speaking non-stop, over-dubbing the movie dialogue and score. I educated her about DVD options and she realized what the issue was so she went back there to correct it, I guess, since on the third try, they finally got it right. But 20 minutes of this had already passed so they started the movie ALL THE WAY FROM THE BEGINNING AGAIN. Ugh! Half the audience of 8 had already left so it was me and two other people watching the movie. Well, being a classic that I hadn't seen in ages, and a big Prince fan, I stayed and watched the whole thing, getting back to my cabin after midnight.