Day 7 - Thu August 16, 2018 Puerto Chiapas, Mexico - Crystal Symphony - San Francisco to New York

Day 7 - Thu August 16, 2018 Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

We managed to get up at 5:30 am and set out on our hour long walk on the Promenade Deck.  Julie was the first one out there this morning.  It was great to get the walk in before the sun was up and the heat oppressive.

It is good news to see in the Reflections today that there will be an internet outage this afternoon due to a satellite system upgrade.  We have struggled with internet access since boarding and are hopeful this upgrade will fix it.

Puerto Chiapas is the port for Tapachula, Mexico, population approximately 500,000.  It is in southwest Mexico, about a 30 minute drive from Guatemala.  Tapachula is about 20 miles from the port, a 40 minute drive.  Crystal provided a shuttle into town for those that had not booked a shore excursion. 

For reasons we don't understand what looked like small waves were really crashing on the shore. It could be related to very deep water, right up until the beach.

Coming into port - a nice dock area and a Chiquita Banana boat.

The rocks were encrusted with some kind of shells or barnacles maybe.

Container after container of what we assume are bananas.

We booked the “Hands On Mexican Cooking Class” at the Loma Real Hotel.  It was a small group – only 16 of us.  Our guide (Cora) provided information on the area on the bus ride to the Hotel. Cora was quite dynamic and a very happy person.  

Cora

The venue for the cooking class was a private outdoor patio, which with the fans running was quite comfortable.  

Yes, we had to wear funny hats.

The class kicked off with a choice of 3 different types of Margaritas – Tamarind, Lime/Lemon or Hibiscus.  Bob had the Tamarind, which was quite tasty, and Julie the Lemon/Lime Traditional one which was also quite good.  In the cooking class we cooked MahiMahi with vegetables, and lime juice wrapped in banana leaves.  Guacamole, and we made our own corn tortillas.  The best part was getting to eat it all in the end.  They also provided a salsa verde that was incredible.  

There was a mini-Spanish lesson at the end which was sort of like Bingo.  You had to cover your card that had pictures and the Spanish name.  The winning team each won the tallest shot of tequila we’ve ever seen.  We were glad we hadn’t won! Not sure we could have put back those shots.  After a short tour of downtown Tapachula we arrived back at the ship.

Typical street scene.

Inlesta La Luz Del Mundo (church)

Back at the dock area.

Puerto Chiapas is a commercial port as well as a cruise ship port.  The cruise ship section has beautifully maintained pleasant grounds.  There is a soccer field where many of the ship’s crew were playing, and also a swimming pool that the crew were enjoying.  Clearly they are trying to make it a desirable place to visit for both passengers and crew.

We went to “Name That Tune” with Scott Mitchell in the Starlight Club.  With very few correct answers we felt our knowledge of Broadway Musicals and composers was woefully inadequate.

After the Mexican meal on our shore excursion we decided on a light dinner at the Trident Grill.  

Sorry, no fancy food or pictures tonight.

The evening’s entertainment was the “Imagine” show in the Galaxy Lounge.  This show is completely in the dark with the cast members wearing illuminated costumes.  This show is done in association with iLuminate from America’s Got Talent. 

Dixieland Jazz was in full swing when “Imagine” was finished and we enjoyed watching the Showband perform as well as the dancers.

Tonight we move our clocks back again after having moved two time zones forward so far on this cruise.

By the way, the highest temperature that we've heard is in the low 90's. The weather forecast for each day has been in the mid 80's, but it is clearly hotter than that some times.

Today we walked 16,083 steps and 7.22 miles.