TimesToCome

This past week we took our first five day cruise from Galveston, TX to Cozumel and Chichen Mexico on Carnival’s Ecstasy.

All in all I was happy with the trip and would gladly do it again. Since we live close to Galveston we can pick up last minute fares pretty cheap.

We spent a day at sea, a day at Cozumel, a day at Chichen and a day at sea.

The food in the main dining is very good but you have to put on real clothing to use the main dining room. The come-as-you are food was about what you’d find in any fast food chain and not so good.

The gym was well equipped, but running on a treadmill while the ship is rocking is a challenge even in calm waters. So I only managed one run.

There is a spa on the ship, shops, clubs and plenty to do. I was curled up with a book most of the time. The back decks are quiet and sheltered from the wind and a good place to have coffee and read.

We had a balcony with our cabin, but when you aren’t in port the wind on the balcony makes it unusable.

I wish I’d brought more clothing, especially warmer clothing and jeans. Galveston’s chilly this time of year and indoors everywhere the a/c was on high. It turns out you can wear blue jeans in the main dining hall now.

I’d've brought more Dramamine too, I went through two containers. Turns out that sea-sick pills are available at the information desk and that’s a very good thing or I’d not have survived our last night out at sea.

We stopped at Cozumel, Mexico on our cruise this week. The island is tiny and most of it is geared to tourist entertainment: shopping, drinking, snorkeling, swimming. But I love to wander around cities and explore so that’s what we did.

We made a break from the tourist area down an alley and headed north. The first 3 or so miles we walked we had a line of taxis parked along the street. There were hundreds of them all lined up to pick up tourists from the cruise ship ports.

Eventually we found a road leading inland away from the tourist area. The housing is a mix of old, new, wealthy and poor as you can see in the photos. Everywhere there were dogs, more than a few came out to chase us off. Nowhere did I see a cat.

The locals all get around on foot, bike and scooter. You’ll see young children, mom and dad all piled up on a single scooter.

Cozumel was originally a Mayan settlement and the island was a religious site. Women who were pregnant or hoping to become pregnant traveled to the island to pray to Ix Chel the goddess of the moon, pregnancy and childbirth.