Huatalco, Oaxaca, Mexico

In his talk from the bridge the Captain had told us that we’d be travelling a little faster to get to Huatalco; 19 knots instead of the 13 or so we’ve been doing, which gives a nice deep vibration to the ship. In addition we’d be travelling past a narrow portion of Southern Mexico where there’s a gap in the Continental Divide, so it’s often windy and rough for a section that lasts about 5 hours. Sure enough, from about 5 to 10 am it was very windy and the ship was rocking and rolling. Dave spent a lot of time outside; it was Suyash’s day off so I went and set up in the gym and did my Nia practice looking out the windows. Dave came up and one point and went out on the deck through the secret door that goes outside, which involved him battling the door and me fighting the curtains that can be pulled across it. I kept dancing but after a while started thinking he’d been out there for an awfully long time; I looked around the small area of the deck but didn’t see him. I had a short moment of panic until my brain registered the stairs that go down from the center. He’s fine.

I had breakfast in the dining room (steel cut oatmeal!) and then took my laptop up to our spot on the lido deck aft to do some blogging. There was a lot to write about. Dave came to join me around lunchtime, so we took turns going to get out lunches so we could hang on to our table. We went forward to watch us come into port, and then I went down and relaxed on our couch.

A word here about ports. Loraine from our 8:00 table said, back at the beginning of the cruise, “we hate Holland America but we love their itineraries”, and I didn’t really think about what she meant. But of the four cruise ports we’ve stopped at this trip, we were the only ship in port for 3, and one of two ships in the fourth. Two of our ports – Puntarenas in Costa Rica and here in Huatalco  - didn’t even have cruise ship terminals, just a long concrete pier sticking out into the ocean. It makes for a much nicer experience.

Our excursion today was a simple one. We were on a sailboat with 17 other people. We first went to a secluded beach and swam for 45 minutes or so, then climber back on the boat (well, ok, everyone but me was on the boat already) and ate papaya and watermelon and quesilla cheese and drank beer and margaritas, and then sailed around for a bit. The sailing part is always a little disappointing because they never seem to really do much with the sails, but we did see several big sea turtles and a couple of sea snakes. It was a lovely, relaxing afternoon.

We got back, showered and had dinner. The Ocean bar band had the night off. We went to the show, which was the dancers again. The show was called musicology and had a fun premise, which was highlighting and dancing to various instruments. It was good, but not as good as the first one.

Our BeReal for today was the best one; a picture of us in front of the ship. I tried all day, but BeReal refused to post or save it. Grrr.