Caribbean Cruise - Day 3

Day 3 - Monday, December 1, 2014.

I was up at 6:00AM to practice in the fitness center. This morning I found something that I could use as a substitute sword during my practice, there was part of the frame of an easel that had come apart and was laying in a corner of the aerobics room. It was the right length. About ten minutes into my practice an older gentleman came into the room dressed in exercise clothing. He had a yoga mat with him as well as a timer and some other gear. He set himself up in one of the corners of the room and went through a kind of timed yoga routine where he held modified yoga poses for a timed period. I went through my practice, when I got to the sword practice I took the piece of the easel that \i had found. as soon as the piece was in my hand I could do the form again, it was as if part of my that had been missing had been restored to me.

After breakfast, my wife and I spent the morning in the tourist area of San Miguel, in Cozumel Cozumel, a island off of the coast of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

The tourist area is a long strip along the waterfront starting at the dock. It isa series of streets with stores and restaurants, all for the benefit of tourists to deposit their American dollars. We were also looking for opportunities to spend some of our cash on souvenirs to take home. Some of the stores did spill off the main street onto the side streets but I did not want my wife to wander to far off the beaten track because I did not know how safe it was. On the main street there were armed police on every street, I imagine to keep order for the tourists.

Here is a picture of our boat from the terminal in San Miguel, Cozumel

I was amazed at how blue the water is

We wound up buying two maracas for our grand daughter as well as some clothing. We also bought two bottles of tequila to give away when we got back home. We returned to the ship around noon for lunch then we went back out again. When we were returning to the ship, my wife noticed that there were several people with bags of groceries from a store called Mega, we could see the store from the ship. When we returned to the town after lunch, we went to Mega. We bought a bar of soap for $.35 because we were tired of using the liquid soap on the ship. We also bought a bag of ancho chilis that my wife will use for cooking Mexican food, and finally, we bought three palmiers, two plain and one with chocolate. Palmiers are a French pastry from the Langedoc area of France. I would guess that they are one of the traditions that Mexico kept after the French left Mexico in 1866. My wife was happy, she got to shop  in an authentic Mexican super store instead of a touristy shop on the waterfront.

locals dressed up as natives to entertain the tourists

Back on the ship we had an early dinner so that we could go to an art lecture on Rembrandt, Chagall, Picasso and Dali. It was an  interesting talk. The speaker was very enthusiastic and we got to see some original art by these artists. After the talk we to see a  comedian, David Naster  David Naster, in the theatrer David was very funny.

I was a long day so we went to bed early. Tomorrow promises to be an equally long and interesting day.