Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Costa Maya, Mexico
Outfit: Dk. blue "Cozumel" T (bought last November) and jeans shorts; for dinner wore tan khakis with dark blue button-down.
Breakfast: Garden Cafe
Lunch: Skipped
Dinner: Veal Marsala with pasta alfredo @ La Cuchina.
Drinks: 3 huge frozen Margarita "yards," maybe 5 Margarita rocks at Cantina Latina in port, a martini and 3 other drinks at Mixx Bar and a glass of Chianti at La Cuchina.
Entertainment: Mariachi band and a wild tag-team "Lucha Libre" match at Cantina Latina in Costa Maya and later "Rock of Ages" in the Breakaway Theater
Bright sunny morning turned into warm and perfect day, low humidity and temps in the 80s. Today, all around, was what my birthday SHOULD have been. Oh well, a day late but appreciated nevertheless. And not just the weather...the food today, even the buffet breakfast tasted better, and the activities, quite literally, rocked!
Last time here in Costa Maya, I had to rush in order to walk the mile or so at great pain to the excursion office. That time was awesome as well, but I hadn't had the opportunity I had this time to enjoy the port at all. And enjoy it I did.
Lounging at the beach shaded under beautiful palm trees with the crystal blue waters of the big pool and the sea beyond it, enjoying cheap and tasty margaritas and seeing two awesome shows at the tiki-canopied restaurant/bar on land was awesome. Especially the Mexican masked wrestling called "Lucha Libre." Now this was pure camp and clearly an exhibition put on in a small ring for us bar patrons but the enthusiasms these guys had was just so captivating. Even two shirtless pre-pubescent boys in bathing suits got into it, jumping in the rig and "beating up" the "bad guys." It was made to look like they were kids of fellow patrons but I'm sure they were part of the act.
Met an older lady who struck up a conversation with me. I was getting quite buzzed on my non-stop helpings of margaritas so I was quite social and chatty. She came off a bit sad though and admitted she was still trying to adjust to life alone since her husband had passed. She asked out right if I were gay and I thought it a little odd at the time that she was so bold and perceptive. I was comfortable with her so I didn't mince around and told her I was indeed. She mentioned something about her husband in reference to that but I didn't understand then nor did I really care. I was drunk enough to be falling for her interest in me so I mentioned that I thought it was too bad she was on another of the 3 ships in port, we could have dinner together. But she said that she was in fact on the same ship and so she wrote out her contact info on a cocktail napkin. She soon headed back to the ship since it was getting late and I had one more margarita which nearly cost me greatly since, when I got to the dock, the officers chided me for being late. Damn, that would have sucked had I been abandoned. I only have a birth certificate and would be stranded. Oh, I sobered up a bit later and decided not to call on my old lady friend after all. I looked up the info she jotted down for me about her husband and got what she was saying...he had been a sociologist at ASU who studied homosexuality in various cultures and wrote books on the subject. I'm sure with everything she'd learned from him over the years, she'd have made on hell of a fag hag.
I chose to upgrade my dining tonight and paid the extra for a nice meal at La Cuchina, the ship's specialty dining Italian cuisine option. Sat on the Waterfront section and dined elegantly watching the sunset.
"Rock of Ages" was great, like the last time, but it was a new cast and they were good but I missed the "old" cast, especially the mutton-chop sportin' leather jacket guy who serves mainly as our narrator. The actor didn't play him up "as gay" as the actor who played him in November.
Oh, as I was going down the stairs to my seat for the show, I do remember...barely...falling almost flat on my face. The nice thing about being stinkin' drunk though...I hopped right back up, quickly dusted myself off and went on my merry way assuring nearby shocked on-lookers that I was fine.