Our first day consisted of unpacking, organizing, re-organizing and settling in for our 9-month journey. Our front-and-center stateroom has a ledge in front of the window, big enough to lounge with added inflatable bed and cushions, creating a reading/ lounging nook.
We brought plenty of books, and Royal Caribbean provided an extensive library to augment our own collection.
Our first port was Coco Cay, an island in the Bahamas owned and developed by Royal Caribbean International. If you have some coin and plan to spend it instead of leaving an inheritance, you can rent for the day for an over-water beach cabana and Coco Beach Club for $3500.
For $2300 you can enjoy the adults only Hideaway Beach cabana and beach club, or for a mere $400 you can rent a beach bed for the day.
John and I are not that into the whole “cabana” scene, so I walked around the island and he dumped his stuff on a free beach chair and played beach volleyball for a few hours.
The drink package you have onboard is in effect in CocoCay, and several restaurants offer chicken sandwiches, hot wings and other snacks included with your Royal cruise.
Our first sea day we started to develop what will likely be our pattern – I posted my Miami blog, successfully toggling between the laptop and cell phone being connected to Wifi (we get one device per person, but can switch the device at will), although the first couple of times I had to restart my laptop to get it to login to the Royal App (as is often the case the first rule of technology applied– if it doesn’t work the first time, restart the device and try again).
Day 4 we docked in Cozumel, which included our first “Wonder of the Modern World”. John and I visited Chichen Itza about 20 years ago during the vernal equinox – the site was crowded with druids and buskers – giving it a Holiday atmosphere complete with interesting characters despite the clouds preventing the solar effect created by the equinox. John decided he needed to go to the dentist for his cleaning, and I went to the Wonder with 600 other world cruisers. We met at 6:50AM in the ship’s Tropical theater to get organized into our groups. At 7:15, group by group was herded to the ferry parked next to the ship to begin the journey. The choppy ferry ride from took us from Isla Cozumel to Playa del Carmen on the mainland, back into our 12 groups and into buses a few blocks away, followed by a 3+ hour bus ride to the site. The first hour on the bus, our Bus #5 guides Alejandro and Ulysis gave us geographical and history lessons about the region and the Mayan culture. Then we napped for an hour or so, and finally joined the long line into the World Heritage Site. Unfortunately, due to road construction that caused delays, we could only get a 1-hour “express” tour of the ruins.
The main pyramid – the “Castle” (aka “Temple of Kukulcan)– has been restored on three sides. This building is the outermost of 3 buildings, with a throne-like structure in the middle of the innermost building. An interesting acoustic effect occurs if you loudly clap in front of the steps – the echo causes a chirping effect like a large bird that is the call of the Feathered Serpent deity (referred to as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs).
On top of the castle, ritual human sacrifice was performed, but recent information indicates that the sacrifice had to be willing and not scared or angry (negative emotions would affect the quality of the sacrifice) – one stone carving showed the beheaded person with snakes (fertility) and morning glories coming out of the head. The sacrifice likely consumed morning glories (which contains LSA – a compound similar to LSD) prior to the beheading, making the person feel closer to the deity.
Not that the site did not have a lot of evidence of other types of ritualized death – scores of skulls have been found, many have evidence that they were set on spikes.
The hoops on the walls of the arena – long assumed to have been part of a game – may have simply been the holders of something that extended across what has been called the arena, so the use of heads as balls, and other theories are suppositions. No one piece of evidence has confirmed how the game was played or why.
After the express tour, we loaded back into our buses for lunch at a nearby restaurant. Overall, the food was good, but the entertainment where locals of Mayan descent dressed in traditional Mayan garb danced and mimicked a hunt.
Although the Mayans disappeared hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived, their language and cultural traditions continue. The children of Quintana Roo, Yucatan and Campeche States learn Mayan at home and in school.
Our return journey ended in a rush through port security (they didn’t even x-ray our backpacks) to make it to the ferry and not delay it too much. We set off at about 6:15, and were over half-way across when the power (and engines) cut out. We sat bobbing in the dark for what felt like 15 minutes (but was likely 5), with crew repeating “everything’s OK” (as an aside – if its pitch black and the engines are not running – it’s not “OK” – we might not be in any immediate danger, but it’s not “OK”). We docked at 7. It took a while to get everyone off since they didn’t make their official count prior to setting sale. All aboard was 7:30 – I got on board at 7:15 with many still streaming in behind me. At 7:31 the gangway was up and the boat pulled away from port at 7:35. Captain Stieg really likes to be on time.
We get a couple of sea days before I get to return to Aruba and the ABC Islands!.
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