Cruise Day 5--Costa Maya

This morning we had breakfast at the Flamingo, another buffet style restaurant that is very small and all Latin America themed. Meredith left her room card there, but we didn't know that until later. This morning Meri didn't want to go on shore. We tried to get her to come but she just really didn't want to and even reminded us that she had never wanted to go on a cruise in the first place, but we had made her. In the end, after a frantic search for her room card and getting a new one issued from guest services just as Lissa found her old one, we left her on board with instructions to stay in her room or the library or the buffet for lunch. 

The pier is so long at Costa Maya that they have shuttles to take you from the ship to the shore. 

We didn't want to wait for one going or coming, so we walked. Then we had to get a taxi/open bus out to the beaches. We had planned on going to one that was closest to the good snorkeling, but a salesman for a different resort offered us access to kayaks, paddleboards, shade, etc. at such a good price that we went there instead. 

It was a fair swim to get out to the good snorkeling, but there was an old dock along the way where a log of big fish were hanging out.

I followed Rosalie out to the dock and we snorkeled for a little before heading back. The rocks were really close to the surface if you headed for the beach too soon and at one point I scolded Rosie for not paying attention to where she was swimming. She headed for shore so quickly that before I could stop her, she beached herself on shell encrusted pokey rocks. I couldn't swim to her and with flippers on I couldn't walk to her. She squatted on some rocks and glared at me while I stood forty feet away in eight inches of water and glared at her. For ten minutes. Then I calmed down enough to walk to her backwards. She showed me the urchins hiding in holes in the rock above the water line--the waves refilled them every few seconds. And I showed her there were hermit crabs everywhere. We carefully picked our way out to deeper water and went back to the beach.

And this is where my brain let us down big time. Rosalie wanted to go try out the kayaks, so I said we should reapply sunscreen first, but I only did our faces. What? And Rosalie had brought her short sleeve rashguard instead of her long sleeve one. 

So first we tried a paddle board, but it was taking on water, so we got a kayak and headed out. Ani paddled out with another Kayak and we tied them to the old dock. When we reached the others they excitedly showed us what we thought was a skate, but later learned was a yellow stingray. We also saw barracuda.

And Lissa saw a porcupine fish hiding under a rock and swam away yelling into her snorkel because she remembered that we'd said puffer fish were dangerous. ( They are, if you eat them.)

We had a great time. I really love snorkeling. I could do it all day. 

Casey and Anderson took the kayaks back and then Rosie and I headed back snorkeling. After reeling her in from heading out to sea for the fourth or fifth time I linked arms with her. We noticed little hollows in the sea grasses where there were collections of conch shells, mostly long dead. And we saw a sand dollar, also dead. I'd have taken it as a souvenir but for the sign in Roatan saying "Preserve our National Parks. Don't take our shells."

Relaxing in the shade. One problem with underwater cameras is you forget they might have water droplets on the lens afterwards.

It took us a while to rinse off all our gear in the low pressure shower. Rosalie headed down the row of vendors and bought a tiny stone toucan. Anderson bought a bracelet like he had at the two previous ports. We considered buying woven name bracelets simply because it's so rare to see "Anika" and "Clarissa" in personalized items. And then as we were finally ready to head back and the cooling effects of the water had evaporated, I realized I was burned. Badly. And so were Rosalie and Clarissa. Regret! Especially for Rosie, who had leg burns like Clarissa and me, but also arm burns. And I was going to be so careful! Bah.

When we got to the long pier Rosalie was discouraged, so Anderson offered her a piggy-back ride and ran her halfway down the pier before it got too jouncy for her. Then he held up a towel to shade her legs while she walked the rest of the way.

I had to take a cold shower this time. We used a lot of aloe vera gel but it was from last year and over the next few days it didn't seem to help me any. 

We went to another sit-down restaurant for dinner but left without dessert to go see "Million Dollar Quartet." It was awesome! But I was squirming the whole time from my super heated legs. We all enjoyed the show except for Rosalie, who opted to stay in the room and watch movies.