ASCSA Cruise Day 6 (Thursday)
I’ve been anticipating this day. None of the rest of our group planned to do this tour, but since I haven’t seen any Mayan ruins before, I was eager to do that. I hoped to get some good pictures, even though I didn’t bring the new camera, the Canon 7D Mark II. I’m using my old Canon Rebel 350 XT because it’s easier to pack and carry and that’s what I need right now. I plan to use the 7D when I’m able to take more time taking pictures rather than trying to catch some good pictures while I’m on a tour where time is limited.
Anyway, I was up early enough to get two miles walking in before grabbing my stuff and heading for the meeting place. While I was walking, the ship docked at the pier, so I was able to keep tabs on that activity. That happened about 9:30 and my meeting time was 10:00.
A lot of this day was stand-in-line-and-wait, as others have been, so I won’t reiterate that. When called, we walked down the pier to a ferry that was to take us from the island of Cozumel to the Mexican mainland. The water-time was about 40 minutes. Then we were separated into bus-size groups and we boarded for the 40-minute drive to Tulum.
Our tour guide was Pamela. Because she was Mayan, she was able to tell us some interesting facts about the Mayan culture and language as one who knows. She had a good sense of humor, too.
Getting to the Tulum ruins involves navigating through a shopping area (“80% of the stores are owned by two brothers, so don’t think you’ll be able to find better prices on things in another store”) with some restaurants, including a Starbucks and a Subway (“yours are better than ours, so why would you come all this way to eat there?”). She gave us her recommendations and then we walked through this area to the entrance to the ruins themselves (“the bathroom at the entrance is free; in the shopping area you’ll have to pay, so use the one at the entrance”).
Once inside, Pamela gave us an overview, then we stopped at only two places where she pointed out the buildings. Then she let us go. This way, we had time to do whatever we wanted on our own schedule (walk the ruins, swim on the beautiful beach, go back to the shopping area to shop or get lunch). Since I was there principally to take pictures, I really appreciated this freedom.
I spent most of the time in the ruins, keeping an eye on the time so I’d be able to get a refrigerator magnet and postcard on the way out. I also planned a quick lunch. But we had to be on the bus no later than 3:30 (“at 3:35, it’s ‘welcome to my country’ because we’re going to leave you here”). I cut it pretty close, finishing up my tacos standing in front of the bus!
Then we headed straight back on the bus, then the ferry to where we’d started. It was a pretty long day. We didn’t make it back to the pier until 5:30. Our group has standing reservations for dinner at 5:30, so I knew I was going to be late. After a long and sweaty day, though, I just had to take a quick shower to rinse off. I had signed up to see the “Burn the floor” dance show at 7:00, too, so I knew it was going to be a busy night.
Well, I made it to dinner by 6:00 and our waiter made a super-human effort to get my table done by 7:00. I even got to finish dessert! Kudos to him. (We’ve spent 2 1/2 hours at dinner most nights.)
Four of us headed to the show, and it was really good. The dancers and singers were very professional and the music was great.
Then, back to the room and here I am writing. Not sure I’ll get any pictures chosen in time to upload tonight (I took a lot!), so I might not get this online until tomorrow. But I did buy a souvenir booklet from Tulum with my picture. The pic was taken in front of a green screen and the background photoshopped in. I took a pic of that, which I’ll include. It’s the only picture that “proves” I was there. I took a bunch of pictures for other people (either I offered or they asked), but didn’t bother with getting any selfies.
Tomorrow is an at-sea day. Bob and Steve worked out a tentative schedule for our group to hang out and do some activities together, which will be nice. Without that, it’s easy to not see any of our folks because of all the other people on board. There are a lot of people on this cruise!
The towel-animal of the day was a lamb or sheep. Very cute.
