Day Four, which is actually Day 5

I realize that I didn't post anything about our actual day one. Day one was a half day on the ship.

It consisted of getting on the ship and running around ecstatically saying, "I can't believe we're here!"

Then there was some ice cream and some food and some sleeping and swimming that occurred, but I'm sorry that I left out our first day.

Day Four was another day at sea, and more relaxation. We ate, swam, ate, got facials, ate, sunbathed, ate and read books.

It was a rough last day on the boat.

We ended up spending our last evening on the ship walking around discovering all the places that we hadn't visited before and trying not to shed tears that it was almost over.

It was such a fun and relaxing week. The next day we docked in Tampa and headed back home.
I'm really glad we went, and I'm hoping there will be a repeat in the future.
Thanks for the good times Angie.
Thanks for taking care of the boys Kyle.
And thanks for the extra 2 lbs Royal Caribbean.

Day Three

 

Cozumel. 

We headed out early for some shopping and to look around the town. It was beautiful. We shopped for several hours during which I became a master at haggling. But haggling gets old, and I got really tired of it, really quick. 

So then we headed to the water.

To play with these guys.

This is Jack and Simba, and we had the amazing experience of swimming around with them. 

(Lots of photos, I'll let them do most of the talking)

This is Angie doing a foot push with the dolphins, both dolphins get behind you and push you up out of the water by your feet. It was an amazing feeling. The dolphins got a little more excited with Angie and shoved her completely out of the water.

 

  

 Then it was my turn.

 

It was awesome. We were also able to have them pull us along while we held onto their dorsal fins.

 

Amy is the lady right next to me in these next photos.

I'm not quite sure how much she enjoyed this next part.

 

We also went snorkeling afterwards, and found some interesting fish along the way.

 

This is a freaky looking fish. Eyes on the same side of his head and his mouth sideways...

It was a busy day, but we had a blast. We also forgot to eat while we were swimming with dolphins and shopping, but don't worry... we made up for it when we got back on the ship. 

We ended up going to the 24 hour cafe and ordering just about everything on their menu. It was literally plate to plate (like 8-9 plates) on our table. And we finished every last bite. The waitress told us that they had bets going on as to whether we would finish it or not. She said that everyone lost.

Everyone but us... it was really good food.

When we got back to our room we had a visitor that our amazing stateroom attendant Marcello left for us.

And I'm happy to say that our pig/chicken friend stayed for the remainder of our trip.

Day three was fun.

Day Two

We hopped off the ship at Costa Maya and climbed aboard a bus for a 2 1/2 hour ride into the Mexican jungle to get to the Dzibanche ruins.

 

This is our tour guide, Jesus. We were part of his Mexican family... we called him "Papa"

As we were driving, Papa told us that all the mounds of dirt we were seeing were actually ruins that were buried, just waiting to be excavated. I didn't fully understand what he meant until we got to Dzibanche.

All of these ruins had been completely buried under dirt and had enormous trees growing out of them before they were excavated. The excavation started in 1992 and stopped last year when the archeologist in that particular area, passed away.  So many of the ruins are only partially excavated and some aren't excavated at all.

It was absolutely beautiful.

 

Angie practicing her excavation skills. She wants the job as the next archeologist for the site.

 

Me in front of Temple #1.

 

Temple #2

I love that the trees are growing right out of the temple here.There are several tombs in this temple that have been opened and excavated. The trees are growing over the entrances to the tombs yet to be unearthed.

This was my particular favorite. This is the Temple of the Owl.

 

We got to climb to the top of this one, and the view was well worth the steep climb.

Angie climbing the Temple of the Owl. I tell you, the picture doesn't do justice to how steep it really was.

Me and Angie at the top of the Temple of the Owl. 

The ruins of Dzibanche were stunning.

We climbed back into our bus and headed to the Kohunlich ruins. Kohunlich is well known for the Temple of the masks. They were covered in red stucco at the time that people lived here, and that red stucco is fairly well preserved. Papa told us that soon they would be enclosed in glass casing for their preservation.

It was a beautiful day, 80 degree weather and 90ish percent humidity. We headed back on the bus for our 2.5 hour drive back to the boat.

We stopped at a little shop near the pier and haggled for some beautiful little necklaces and then climbed back aboard the ship for some dinner and an early bedtime. 

After all, day 3 was going to be busy.

(I always love asking people to take a picture... it's kind of like a box of chocolates...)