Vacation Travel Log: Part 2
After a light breakfast on our first day at sea, I started feeling a little better. The whole day was fairly uneventful. It was mostly about my recovery. We explored the ship, ate light meals, watched movies goofed around. It was this day that we discovered that the ship had possibly the worst ventilation system ever. Cigarette smoke came into our room from a couple of cabins down. While I don't care that people smoke (hell, I used to smoke), I do care that my sinuses are clogged and draining because of smoke in the cabin that we didn't put there. Smoke all throughout the ship would be a problem for much of the rest of the cruise. On some nights, you could actually see it hanging in the air on parts of the boat. We still kept a positive attitude. And there were good parts of the cruise as well.
We played putt-putt on the upper outside deck. It was really fun. There were some good movies on board (Pirates 3, Shrek The Third, Fractured, No Reservations, Ratatouille and others). Our dinner table mates (while very young) were a lot of fun to talk to and have fun with. We met tons of great and interesting people. That first breakfast morning, we even met a couple that live only 20 minutes away from us.
It was the night for formal dress. My pressed shirt had arrived just in time to go. We had pictures taken and dinner was really good. We crashed that night without going to any shows retiring early to get a good nights sleep for our first port. Puerto Progreso.
Progreso is a fairly typical port town in Mexico. Lots of people, lots of shopping for local fare. It's about a mile or so drive on a bus from the dock to dry land. After hanging around the market place for awhile, we hopped on a bus filled with other tourists and headed for Dzibilchaltún. It's not the largest or most sprawling set of ruins, but it was fascinating just the same. It is one of few ancient Mayan cities to still be in use during the Spanish conquest. There was even a Spanish church installed to convert the locals. Its heyday was 600-900 AD. Dzibilchaltún also has one of the few cenotes that tourists are allowed to swim in. It's cool glass green water is home to several species of fish (including some monster sized cichlids). At one end, the cenote extends down at an angle reaching about 150 ft.
Our tour guide for this journey was hilarious. He said a lot of off color jokes and had a very random "joke from nowhere" slightly bumbling kind of vibe. It was literally like listening to a Mayan, Mr. Bean. He even looked and sounded a bit like Atkinson. Very entertaining.
There were other great things about Dzibilchaltún. Climbing was allowed on pretty much every climbable structure. I took tons of pics (I'll post those soon). Around every corner was something else to explore. After lunch (which was amazing chicken wrapped in banana leaves with tons of spices and cooked in the ground on hot coals. yummy!), we walked to the Temple of the Seven Dolls. The energy there was amazing. I could feel the energy of those who lived there so long ago. kulilinei had her own very vivid experience there. The temple is a bit larger than most of this style (at least the ones I've seen). While walking towards it, it seems closer than it really is.
We headed back to the bus and traveled back to the Market, snapped a few pics and went back to the ship. Dinner was good and we crashed early again. Next stop... Cozumel.
We played putt-putt on the upper outside deck. It was really fun. There were some good movies on board (Pirates 3, Shrek The Third, Fractured, No Reservations, Ratatouille and others). Our dinner table mates (while very young) were a lot of fun to talk to and have fun with. We met tons of great and interesting people. That first breakfast morning, we even met a couple that live only 20 minutes away from us.
It was the night for formal dress. My pressed shirt had arrived just in time to go. We had pictures taken and dinner was really good. We crashed that night without going to any shows retiring early to get a good nights sleep for our first port. Puerto Progreso.
Progreso is a fairly typical port town in Mexico. Lots of people, lots of shopping for local fare. It's about a mile or so drive on a bus from the dock to dry land. After hanging around the market place for awhile, we hopped on a bus filled with other tourists and headed for Dzibilchaltún. It's not the largest or most sprawling set of ruins, but it was fascinating just the same. It is one of few ancient Mayan cities to still be in use during the Spanish conquest. There was even a Spanish church installed to convert the locals. Its heyday was 600-900 AD. Dzibilchaltún also has one of the few cenotes that tourists are allowed to swim in. It's cool glass green water is home to several species of fish (including some monster sized cichlids). At one end, the cenote extends down at an angle reaching about 150 ft.
Our tour guide for this journey was hilarious. He said a lot of off color jokes and had a very random "joke from nowhere" slightly bumbling kind of vibe. It was literally like listening to a Mayan, Mr. Bean. He even looked and sounded a bit like Atkinson. Very entertaining.
There were other great things about Dzibilchaltún. Climbing was allowed on pretty much every climbable structure. I took tons of pics (I'll post those soon). Around every corner was something else to explore. After lunch (which was amazing chicken wrapped in banana leaves with tons of spices and cooked in the ground on hot coals. yummy!), we walked to the Temple of the Seven Dolls. The energy there was amazing. I could feel the energy of those who lived there so long ago. kulilinei had her own very vivid experience there. The temple is a bit larger than most of this style (at least the ones I've seen). While walking towards it, it seems closer than it really is.
We headed back to the bus and traveled back to the Market, snapped a few pics and went back to the ship. Dinner was good and we crashed early again. Next stop... Cozumel.