We had never planned on doing anything big in Costa Maya; our big plans were for Belize and Roatan so we had always decided today would most likely be a quiet beach day.
With Suzanne feeling under the weather, and the boys kind of tired as well, we just stuck with those plans. Ship docked at 7 am; we didn’t get off until almost 9:30 am. Hopped on a bus and headed over to the ‘downtown’ section (about 3 km away from the port) and walked out and found a table with shade to act as the base for the day.
We swam, did some snorkeling close to the beach and didn’t see much, and eventually Matthew and I ‘hired’ a local to take us out on a small boat for an hour of snorkeling near the reef…..
The club (Pez Quadro? I forget…) from out in the water. We went out in that boat on the left. I liked the beach here more than Cozumel…..Cozumel had more rocks and wasn’t someplace you could play with the boys (football or frisbee). Here, you could (even though we didn’t….)
My snorkeling buddy. My oldest snorkeling buddy completely bailed at this stop and did not endear himself to his parents by being a total lump today.
The beginning of the snorkeling pictures. Where Belize was just grass and then huge sections of reef, Costa Maya was a lot of sand, some grass, and isolated sections of reef. We were closer to where the waves were breaking this time, so, there were more air bubbles and sediment in the water which clouded up the view sometimes but it was still pretty neat
This fish was one of the highlights of the the trip…there were two of them here, just hovering with their fins moving kind of like a hummingbird. They were really cool! I still have no idea what they are called though
Matthew really did a great job (here, and at Belize) of snorkeling…he was always diving down to check things out more and never really seemed to have any issues in keeping up. Here, again, I thought the guy would just drive us, park, and let us swim around where he parked, but, instead he grabbed a life preserver and swam out (a lot farther than I would have thought). Definitely more of a trip than what the $20/person was buying….had Matthew run off as soon as we docked to get him more tip money….
I never got a really REALLY good picture of this fish, but, by far, it was the prettiest of the fish that I saw on this trip. Pretty decently sized and this really nice aquamarine color with some yellow and red markings…
My best picture of a big school of fish heading away from us
A sailboat that sunk when Hurricane Dean (a Category 5 hurricane) did its best to wipe Costa Maya off the map a few years back. There’s still a lot of rebuilding going on and you can see hurricane damage (trees, etc) everywhere
The Dream, off in the distance at the Port.
Headed back to the port about an hour after we returned from the trip….the one problem with Costa Maya compared to Cozumel is the constant barrage of people coming by offering you massages, Cuban cigars, necklaces (they were successful here…the boys each picked up a shark tooth necklace) etc.
Got in the taxi, headed back….and the disaster of the trip occurred. I had asked Suzanne to pull out her wallet for money for the cab, she didn’t put the black coach ‘purselet’ back in her bag, and the black purselet didn’t stand out enough on the black upholstery of the taxi…..and got left behind. I could kick myself…I saw it there and almost told Suzanne to put it back in her backpack…..I should have looked twice, but was so focused on the bag that Kevin had left behind three times earlier in this trip (the snorkeling bag) that I was avidly watching him as he stepped out of the cab.
Well, one Mexican certainly had a nice April present…..cancelled the credit card that was in there before we left dock….Suzanne also lost her drivers license. And the dinero….which could have been a lot worse but today was a day of cash, not credit, purchases…..
The boys on the stairs as we waited to go to dinner
The problem with me waiting to blog the last few days is that my memory has faded on what exactly happened. I know we went to the dining room for dinner Thursday night but can’t provide the details of each dinner (I think I had the Cornish Game Hen). The boys did attend the late night party (from 10 pm to 3:30 am)……we encouraged the boys to take naps in preparation for this. Christopher did not have a problem catching a 90 minute power nap in the darkness that is the inside cabin….Matthew had a tougher time of it. Both boys made it all the way through to 3:30 and were delivered back to their rooms at that point.
Each night there’s a different towel animal in your room….
This was the night we did the comedy show with the boys….it was ok, I think Matthew found it funnier than Cpher. We went back for the adult show that I didn’t find very amusing at all, but Suzanne enjoyed. I think we went to the casino…not a lot of luck finding its way to me this trip….
The Dream, heading northeast at the end of the day
