Dangling natives
The very long Costa Maya pier
Our first port of call was Costa Maya, Mexico. We have visited Costa Maya twice before and we still don’t like it. It is fine as a place to embark on an excursion, to a Mayan site or a snorkeling adventure, but it useless as a destination. There is nothing there but souvenir shops and some overpriced ($18 tacos) restaurants and bars.
And, as with just about every cruise port in the Caribbean, a Diamonds International store. If you want to drop a lot of money on a precious stone, you can do it here. Jett was jonesing for some tanzanite studs, so that was our first stop once we got ashore. That happened after a leisurely breakfast and a short ride on the trolley that traverses the very long pier (probably 300 yards). She found some nice stud earrings for under $300. Less than I won at the casino a day earlier, so I couldn’t get too upset.
While she was buying, her sisters and I watched the native Mayan tower performance. Four guys in native costumes climb to the top of a 75-foot tower, then descend slowly, dangling inverted from ropes. I don’t know how traditional this performance is – seems hard to believe that the Mayans did anything like this 700 years ago – but it is a captivating spectacle.
The only other activity of interest was consuming some very tasty mojitos with guacamole and chips. Expensive, but a pleasant time. We had a table near the pool in the middle of the port area, so it had a bit of a “beach bar” feel to it.
We had another fine dinner on board. I had a seafood cioppino entrée that was superb.
Guacamole and chips
Port pool
We did have a surprise though, delivered just before dinner – a gift of a bottle of champagne and a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. Jett’s sisters got the same gift delivered to their cabin. The benefactors were two people that Jett and I had never heard of and were convinced that a mistake had been made. But Christine knew at least one of the names – the niece of her daughter-in-law. Furthermore, she knew why we had all received such a generous gift from a fairly distant (for us, anyway) relative: she held a high-level position at the corporate level at MSC and could easily request special treatment for guests on one of their ships. It turns out that this was just one of a series of gifts that we were to receive, the result being that we are now viewed as some kind of VIPs among the staff. Totally undeserved, of course, but nice nevertheless. It pays to have friends – even unknown ones – in high places.
Seafood cioppino
Bottles of champagne, plates of strawberries