Day at Sea and First Port - Costa Maya

 Our first full day on the cruise ship (after the great Super Bowl party the night we boarded) was a day at sea.  This made me happy so we could begin to decompress and relax. 

Lorne and I are big participators when it comes to cruises and we always decide the activities that we want to do on the ship the night before and plan accordingly. 

There were many fun things to choose from and the first was morning trivia.  Ever since cruising with Lorne's parents a few years ago and discovering cruise trivia with them, we have taken part on each subsequent cruise.  Usually it is only Lorne and I playing together against teams with 6-10 people that vary in age from us.  We do remarkably well for only two brains answering the questions other teams have more brain power to pull from. 

After that, we relaxed a while and then had lunch.  There was a magic show that Lorne wanted to check out (as he absolutely loves magic) and so I told him to go ahead while I finished my dessert to save me a seat.  As I got off the elevator to go to the theater, before the doors of the elevator could close, I felt a wall smack me with full force from behind and I found myself falling and a tall man landed on top of me.  I never saw it coming.  It seems that this man was running (more like sprinting) and he had his head turned to talk to his wife who was walking behind him, so he didn't see me and ran me down. 

I was very scared, as being pregnant, the last thing you want to do is fall on your belly.  Or take any other kind of fall.  And this man's sneaker dug into my right ankle and I had carpet burns all over my legs.  He helped me up only after I asked for assistance and he grumbled an apology that didn't sound very sincere.  I was in such shock trying to process what had just happened that I started apologizing to him.  Crazy, I know.  I limped into the theater and found Lorne and he was pretty upset and told me I should have gotten the man's information.  It is hard when you are in a situation like that where you are in shock and you can't register what to do. 

For a couple of days after that, my whole right side was sore - the muscles in my leg cramped up and my ankle was swollen and painful.  I limped on it for a few days.  Oh well - the good news was that the baby was ok - I felt movement and so I was comforted in that fact. 

We did the evening trivia, had dinner, watched another show and went to sleep. 

The next morning we were docked at Costa Maya Mexico.  One of the things I love to do in the morning is sit next to a window while I eat breakfast on the ship and look at the beautiful scenery.  Beaches and palm trees is not a bad view when you are waking up. 

We don't always purchase excursions on the ship - sometimes we make our own way and find things to do that are less expensive.  We were on a trip with a tight budget and since we have been to this port before, we decided to take our chances. 

We had met a fun couple that we got along with on the boat, Kory and Brittany Briley and they had just found out they were expecting so we had fun hanging out together.  We decided to find our adventures on Costa Maya together and we met them after breakfast and morning trivia. 

We decided to rent a golf cart and Lorne negotiated us a good deal.  With the golf cart, we could explore Costa Maya and go down dirt roads where they don't allow cabs to go.  We took the cart out for two hours and had an absolute blast.  The beaches were pretty and fun to explore, the iguanas were fun to spot and we even stopped at a small beach side shack to enjoy a drink and relax by the sea. 

At one point as we were driving we encountered red water flowing into the ocean.  That was something I had never seen before.  We found out that there was a mango tree with a variety of mango that produces a chemical that makes the water red.  So this is a natural occurrence and when you got past the fact that the water wasn't dirty, it was quite pretty.

One of my many observations in most central American countries I have visited is that they don't seem to have littering laws like we do here in the States.  The beautiful views are often spoiled because everywhere you look is littered with trash of all types and a lot of it.  I never thought much about the laws here and the difference a find for littering can make, but it does and I am grateful we don't have that kind of problem here. 

That being said, we had a great time and soon it was time to return the golf cart and head back on the ship for showering, evening trivia, dinner and a show.  It was a tough life we were leading to be sure.