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.
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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. |
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Coming into port - a nice dock area and a Chiquita Banana boat. |
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The rocks were encrusted with some kind of shells or barnacles maybe. |
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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.
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Cora |
The venue for the cooking class
was a private outdoor patio, which with the fans running was quite
comfortable.
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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.
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Typical street scene. |
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Inlesta La Luz Del Mundo (church) |
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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.
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