Thursday, October 7th

Cozumel is an island off the eastern coast of Mexico. Our boat docked in the water between Cozumel and the mainland. ILC and the rest went on a kayaking expedition in a see-through kayak, which was off Cozumel. GKY and I went on an excursion taking us to the mainland.

We had to take a ferry to get to the mainland, which is pretty normal, but this was the first time I've boarded a ferry from a boat! Our tour group was led from one area of the boat down to a lower deck, where we stepped precariously across a plank that stretched from our boat to the awaiting ferry. Thank goodness I was dead tired, and the ride was only about half an hour, cause the ferry was exceptionally rocky! I couldn’t look out the window without feeling queasy, as I watched the horizon dip below and reach above the window frame.

We landed at Playa del Carmen, and followed the tour guides with the trusty flags and other identifiable gadgets to the awaiting tour bus. Along the way, GKY noticed some pretty amusing signage, which I'm pretty sure I caught on film, though for the life of me right now I can't remember what it said.

We were to take a 45 min bus ride to get to our first stop, Tulum. Tulum is one of the many sites of ancient Mayan ruins. Those in our age range and having similar educational curriculum may remember the unit called "Voyage of the Mimi". In part 2, they talked about the Mayans. GKY periodically bursted into her personal rendition of the them song throughout the day. Definatley an amusing day =)

On the way to Tulum, we had a pit stop. In typical tour-bus fashion, there was a bustling market next to the bathrooms that sold everything a tourist could ever want. GKY and I spotted some turtle figurines that were pretty cute, so we inquired about the price. The lady said $3 each. We said thanks and put it back down. Kinda hefty for tiny, but cute, turtles, esp when it's in USD. We wandered around the rest of the market, and ended up back at the turtles. This time, the male shop owner was nearby, and he noticed our interest. He came over, took a look as us two girls smiling sweetly, and said "I give you $1 for 2". WHAT A DEAL!!! That 10 minutes it took us to walk the market resulted in a 83% drop in price!

Lesson learnt: Always find the male store owner, and smile sweetly. Don't attempt to bargain with the women. Not sure if applies when the shopper is male, use at your own discretion.

Got to Tulum. For someone who's never been to Europe, and has only seen Chinese artifacts/ruins, the Mayan temples and structures were definately different. Not quite as looming as China's Forbidden City, but those Mayans sure know how to pick locations! The temple was situated on a cliff that had a beautiful view of the Gulf of Mexico, complete with palm trees swaying in the breeze, a beach front, and the most beautiful blue-green water I've seen. I think I took more shots of the view than the ruins!

We got back on the bus, and inhaled our boxed lunches. A short drive brought us to Xel Ha. Designed like an amusement park, this Mexican Disneyland had real animals, not just cartoon ones. Activities included swimming with dophins, floating down the lazy river, and going snorkelling. We opted for the snokelling.

Having never done this before, and not being a strong swimmer by any stretch of the imagination, GKY gave me the abridged snorkelling lessson: Close your nose, breathe only through your mouth, and don't tilt your head back. And we were off.

We didn't get very far before I had to stop. The cool thing about snorkelling is that you really can see everything that's in the water, provided the water is clear. That means all the fishies are really close, and you can see every single detail about them. The problem was that we had chosen to get into the water in some bizarro area where the fish were HUGE. I'm talking golf-ball sized eye balls. Needless to say, I was freaked out. I had been holding the underwater camera, intending to take pics, but I had to stop. I lifted my head out of the water, and told GKY to take the camera. I was terrified of the huge fish staring right back at me, and being SOOOO close!! Thankfully she agreed that the fish were abnormally large (ie I'm not a freak), and I swam with my head out of the water until we were past the mega-fish area.

After that it was a lot better, and we saw some fishies that had the really nice blue colour that reminds me of tropical fish. Also saw some yellow striped ones, and other interesting underwater creatures and plants. Didn't find Nemo.

Snokelling with a life jacket on was a little difficult, and did result in me feeling a little more queasy than I would have liked. Good thing my strong stomach prevailed, and I didn't puke. That would have been gross.

We got back on the bus, went back to Playa del Carmen, and onto the crazy ferry again. This time the ferry docked at the Cozumel shore, and GKY and I did the quick walk through of the market there. Nothing to buy, stuff was either a good price, but horrible looking, or looked nice but cost a fortune. Went back on the boat.

GKY went back to the stateroom, I went to the salsa lesson. It was even more amusing when I got there cause I hadn't realised during the first lesson that Eric was one of the teachers! In classic dance class form, there were more girls than guys, resulting in the teachers having to dance with the remaining non-paired female student. You got it, Eric was my dance partner. Pretty stressful if you ask me, trying to dance (and I'm not a dancer) with a guy who does it for a living, and look good while he dances! Lesson was fun, and then I hurried back to shower and change for dinner.

At dinner, Adrian had another challenge for us. He placed a square packet of butter on a saucer, and poured water on the saucer. He called the butter our boat. How do we make the boat float? He brought over a candle, and stuck it in the "boat". He lit the candle, but of course, the boat still wasn't floating ontop of the water. Then he went and placed an overturned wine glass over the boat and pressed it firmly down onto the saucer. Slowly, the boat started to rise, until it was floating on top of the water! Reason: the candle burned the oxygen in the glass. Because the glass is pressed onto the saucer, the boat is in a vaccuum. As the oxygen is burnt, the vaccuum sucks up the boat, causing it to look like it's floating!! Pretty neat, eh? =)

[Note: Please feel free to correct my explanation, I'm not a physicist!]

We went to the show that night, but left partway in, cause it was pretty boring. We wandered around, and ended up at the piano bar. That's when we met Bing, the piano bar guy. His job was to sit at the piano, play whatever he (or the guests) wanted, and sing. And he did an awesome job! He went for a break, and wandered over to talk to us. Normal questions, where are you from, what do you do. Our answers: Toronto, Accountants. Hahaha! He was really nice, we found out he's an ex-lawyer who wanted a different life, so started playing and singing for a living. And he loves it!! He was pretty empathetic to us; I guess lawyers aren't always the most welcomed people either.

There was a Summer Songs show on the promenade, so we went there to watch and listen to Kristin and Shawn, the two lead singers, sing oldies. I loved it!

Waiting for the show to start

After the singing, we (minus IW and AC) went to the Rock'n Through the Ages Dance Party. Essentially, they put the floor back on the skating rink, and play crazy songs from throughout times, to get people onto the dance floor to dance. There was the typical "Shout" and "YMCA" and tons more. The camera guy kept trying to film us while we were boogying, and we figured out why: demographics. We were pretty much the only people in our age category on the dance floor (everyone else was either my parents' age, or little kids), plus we were the only representation of our visible minority. Even after all of our efforts to avoid the camera and turn around every time he came near us, he somehow (zoom lens?!) managed to get footage of us... which was included on the DVD! Horrors!!

It was a lot of fun, and I got to practice line dancing again (which I still think is a lot of fun, good exercise, much like an aerobics class!). When that ended, we attempted to meet up with IW and AC at the Latin Fiesta Party, but that was at the front of the boat, and it was an extremely tippy night, so we all left, and headed back to the piano bar.

When we arrived, Bing smiled at us, and after he finished the song, he said into his mic "and there are the accountants from Toronto"!!! What an introduction! We stayed in spite of that, and good thing we did too, cause we got to meet some more cool people. Shawn, the male lead singer from the boat, was hanging out at the piano bar too, and him and Bing sang some songs together.

Then they called up John to sing. If you have ever heard the group Third Day, that's what John sounded like. His was the most soulful voice I have ever heard. Bing introduced him as the music pastor from a really big church in southern California. After he finished singing, I went over to talk to John, and found out that he's the Creative Arts Minister for a big (5000+ congregation) church in San Bernardino, affiliated/associated with Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA (Rick Warren's church, the Purpose Driven Life author). I asked him to sing a Third Day song, but he was pretty hesitant, given the secular setting. Instead, John played (but didn't sing) a Christian song when he was covering for Bing on his bathroom run. John sang numerous other songs, and by far he had a better voice than anyone else that performed, even better than Ryan, the guy from the NYC Mama Mia cast. And the depth in his voice, and the soulfulness beneath it showed maturity beyond the other younger singers.

We toggled between the piano bar and the Dungeon all night, since they were next to each other. The piano bar ended around 2am (which was already later than the 1am scheduled close), so all of us headed down to the Dungeon. The Dungeon was *trying* to close too, and when it was approaching 2:45am they turned on all the house lights, and turned off the music. Didn't do much, we were all still hanging out, chatting. Kinda weird seeing the same people at the same club all week, knowing that the cruise was nearing its end.

All in all it was a really fun and relaxing night, complete with stuffing ourselves with food at 2:55am cause the last remaining food outlet closed at 3am. I had my nightly dose of pizza toppings (didn't want the crust, was craving instant noodles!), and then we wandered back downstairs to see if people were still around. John and Bing were still at the piano bar, just chatting. GKY asked if we could play the piano, but unfortunately we weren't allowed. Then John mentioned that there's a piano up on the 14th deck, next to the Jazz Club!! If only we had known earlier in the week!

[Aside: speaking of the Jazz Club, we went up there for a couple nights, and one night (I think it was Sunday), we attempted to dance while the jazz ensemble was performing. Standard four step dance, box step etc. The other couples made it look SO easier. Obviously, we just suck. While we were making our lame attempts, my dad snuck up right behind me, and freaked me out! ILC was a gracious dance partner and let my dad cut in. We weren't doing too bad for awhile, until I kept stumbling and tripping. Dad says I can't follow. I claim he doesn't lead firmly enough. Reality is, he was all but picking me up off my feet to make me move, but I'm just a klutz and not a dancer. But it was fun, and I think my dad was giving AC and IW some pointers. My dad's a great dancer, too bad all the women in our family are not coordinated!]

GKY, SW, and I headed up to the piano room for awhile before going to bed. The funny part was that we had accidentally hit the "record" button on the midi box attached to the piano, and it had recorded what we played. I finally noticed the box, and hit play, which was a little freaky, cause the keys would be depressed to replay everything, even though no ones fingers were touching it! Kinda like a ghost was playing =)

At some ridiculous hour, GKY and I crashed in our stateroom. Friday was to be packing day...groan... =)