Huatulco

After our day at sea, we docked in Huatulco, Mexico.  For the first time we encountered a rain storm.  Most of the shore excursions were cancelled, to the disappointment of virtually no one.  Those truly disappointed were those whose trips were not cancelled.  One of our party (the man in a wheelchair) and his wife were off on the tour where they got soaked and could have caught a cold or Pneumonia.  So far as we know they didn’t.  The rain was warm and mostly gentle, but they were forced to get off the bus with A/C, get somewhat wet, and return to the A/C in the bus.  This doesn’t make for a good time.  Evelyn had a book that LuAnn had loaned her, so she read most of the day.  Her goal was to finish the book before the end of the cruise so she could return it before we parted ways.  I played some Free Cell on my tablet that I had thought to have left in San Antonio and some solitaire with a deck I had got from the Guest services.  I normally gather many decks that are given away on our cruises, and had promised Linda, our neighbor, to get them a set of 6 so we could use them when playing hand and foot at their house.  I had collected 8 decks when I was told they had run out.  I was 4 decks short because we need a new set as well.  Ours stick together too badly.  I finally went ashore when the rain subsided a bit.  I found a small, cute nearly deserted shopping area and looked for some gifts.  I found a gift for Pieder and took it back to the ship.  I also had a person take a picture of me.

We had thought ahead when packing and put the small umbrella into our suitcase.  It usually rains more than it did during this season of the year.

Hautalco is another charming small village that we had visited twice before.  Most coastlines are full of fishing boats, but they must have gone fishing despite the rain.  We had taken a ride to other parts of the harbor when there before.  We were taken to a “blow hole” where the cave seems to swallow the ocean water before blowing it back out.  We went to a tribute to Elvis presented by the 2 young men from India before going to the evening performance.  It was too frenetic for me to enjoy much.  We then went to the Spinnaker lounge to dance a short while.

This is the large dance area on nearly every NCL ship.  Waiters circulate constantly trying to sell drinks, but we seldom buy anything other than a diet Pepsi.  You can see that many people enjoy dancing even though the ship sometimes rolls, making it difficult to keep balanced.  Our shoes stick to the floor, so I removed my shoes and danced in socks which worked much better.

After sailing all night, as we always do, we docked at Puerto Chiapas, Mexico.  Once again I chose to not take an excursion but hung around the small welcoming area.  Evelyn chose to take an excursion to see how chocolate was made from cocoa beans.  It was hot again and the members of the crew who were off duty enjoyed a large drinking area and swimming pool.  I couldn’t take a photo because Evelyn had taken the camera.  She did get some pictures of the display of some Mayan culture and chocolate.  I don’t understand exactly what happened, but the guide explained some myth about life coming from a tree I will publish and a rock that records it.  This idol worship reminds me of many passages in Scripture that talk of foolish man making an idol and then worshipping it as though it were a god instead of a craft.  They also showed how they treated the cocoa bean in the past.

The local sacred rock of the Mayans.

Fabio, the tour guide, explaining the history of the sacred rock.

This is the most sacred ‘Tree of Life”.  I don’t know exactly what was said because I wasn’t there. 

The Roman Catholic Spaniards built many missions that have been improved to small churches in nearly every village.  It was their way of attempting to rescue the locals from idolatry.  Unfortunately, they only replaced one idol with another, The Virgin Mary.  Christ did retain a prominent place in the church, however.

This is the cocoa bean after being crushed with a rolling pin like object.  It took a great deal of strength to pulverize the bean.

This is a display of the entire procedure.  We think Mr. Hershey improved on the process.

A local lady distributing samples of the crushed cocoa bean.

These are some of the local children who performed for the people on the escursion.

Evelyn had left the camera on the bus, but the staff had found it.  I wanted a ship’s crew member to get a picture of us on the ship, but the battery had run down.  I was sorry to have missed the neat swimming area just off the aft of the ship.