Today was one of 10 days in the top 5 best days of the entire winter. ;-)
We have long loved the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, and the southern-most part of it most of all. In fact, every time we come here, we think we should do an extended stay of a few weeks somewhere around Mahahual (Ma-ha-wal) and drink Mexican beers and eat Mexican food and dive ourselves silly, but then we compare the prices to cruising and...we end up just visiting the area on cruise ships. We were very sad to see that, on all these Emerald Princess itineraries we are doing, we get to Costa Maya, the pier near the little town of Mahahual, just one time. We hoped for a nice day (which was quite a pipe dream considering our weather of late), and we certainly had it today.
We were up before sunrise (not too difficult considering we are so far west on EST right now) and sitting down for breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room before 7:30am. By 9am we were walking off the ship, packed for another beach day. We took a few minutes to walk around the Costa Maya cruise pier area, and watch the Dolphin Discovery already underway. I am not a fan of penned in dolphins but understand that not everyone can see pods of them in the wild as we have been fortunate to do while diving. Of course, the operators always assert that dolphins used in dolphin encounters were born in captivity but, at some point back in time, dolphins had to be captured for the purpose of human amusement. Not good.
We went out to the taxi stand and caught one of the long trams into 'downtown' Mahahual (that's harious...only recently have the couple of roads in Mahahual been paved) for $3pp. We rode the tram to the far end of the beach that runs the entire length of Mahahual, about a 20 minute ride only because there are three stops before that last one. Specifically, we went to the hotel/bar/restaurant called Playa El Fuerte, and set ourselves up under a palapa a couple of rows back from the water. There were still loungers available closer to the water, but the day was already hot, and it was considerably cooler a few rows back.
We quickly ordered a bucket of five beers for $10 (we ordered a mix of local brands) and got the password for the marginal WiFi and settled in for the day.
Downtown Mahahual
The beautiful thing about the beach at Mahahual- well, there are two beautiful things- are the gorgeous water color (a lot like French Polynesia) and the fact that there is a barrier reef just offshore that takes the brunt of the waves and protects the beach, also like French Polynesia.
We stayed on the beach until a little after 3pm, enjoying frequent swims in the water and ordering quesadillas for lunch and chips and salsa for a snack. I loved every minute of it. I loved the lime wedges and coarse sea salt served with the beers, I loved the Mexican food, I loved the sun (I was well protected) and sand...I didn't even mind the 105 vendors that stopped by, all selling the same stuff (I didn't buy anything this year). It was our first full day of sun in a couple of cruises, and there was a strong wind that, had we brought our floats to use in the water today (we didn't), would have blown us clear to Belize. But it kept us comfortable and mosquito-free, which was not a bad thing at all.
The sunset part of this is funny; Mahahual is on the east coast of Mexico and only gets sunrises
We walked back just one block from the beach I. Mahahual to catch a small taxi ($2pp) back to the ship. They are not allowed to enter the port of Costa Maya to pick up passengers (hence, the tram) but may enter to drop off. Some people walk outside the port in the morning to catch one of the taxis there to save $1pp but it wasn't worth it to us. This year we were not entertained by college student feet and legs hanging out of taxi windows on the way back to the port.
We were back on the ship around 4pm and had to wash and rinse and generally put things away after our beach day. We are usually neat people but we're trying to be extra tidy to help out Ambrish right now. All of the cabin stewards are truly suffering with this new bedding. I feel so badly for them. I also feel badly for us. G has awakened tangled in sheets both mornings so far. The linens are too slippery for the duvet to stay tucked in that pocket at the top of the bed cover, and the comforter is too slippery to stay on the top sheet and...well, there is stuff everywhere come morning. I guess it's even worse in the cabins with upper bunks. The linens feel and look great; they were simply designed by a designer who lacked any knowledge about how beds are used on cruise ships (they are used a lot, as chairs and for naps on sea days) and how little floor space space surrounds them for putting all this stuff together twice a day. And it simply doesn't stay looking nice and tucked in for long.
Dinner was quick and easy. We weren't especially hungry and we needed to be outside Club Fusion at 6:45pm for early entrance into this cruise's Captains Circle party. We were #3 MTP this cruise, and the top three were as follows:
#1 MTP- 1068 Princess days
#2 MTP- 1005 Princess days
#3 MTP- 839 Princess days
We asked #4 MTP Bernard and Lois to join us, and then left the party to go directly to the Princess Theater for the 8:30pm performance of production show Disco: Blame it on the Boogie. We were able to get seats in the front row (which we don't mind) just before the show started, ad then left after the performance to catch David Pitchfork and the Emerald Princess orchestra playing Dixieland jazz in the Piazza. Guitarist Terry Conlond was also playing in the Explorers Lounge two times tonight. It was a good entertainment night!
We should be leaving the cabin right now to go up on deck for the Love Boat Disco Deck party but I don't think we're going to make it this cruise. Two days on beaches and two nights of cocktail parties have done us in.