Thursday Wa Tool Co (Huatulco)
Thursday we watched the ship arrive in Huatulco while doing our daily Gym. I can say I literally walked into Huatulco. It is amazing how they can pilot this boat into such a small harbor and gently dock without disturbing my gait on the treadmill. What a quaint town. reminds me of a cross between Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada only much much smaller. After a leisurely breakfast with gang we decided to depart the ship and walk the town. Byron excused himself as he said he had already walked enough having gone round the promenade this morning. Like good travelers do…. we left him. It was surprising how much cooler it was than Puerto Vallarta. And less humid. We walked the short distance to the town and and browsed the shops. It was great having Joe along to help with the bartering. I was looking for some Gym shorts and they were extremely helpfull in showing me all the stuff I might fit into, none of which is what I was looking for. I did find a great shirt for Anthony which I purchased along with some Mezcal. We ventured over toward the cove with a beach and what to my wondering eye should appear, but a Cantina. Joe got us a table out in the sand where we had perfectly chilled Negro Modello, a G&T (guess who ordered that?), and chips with Guacamole. Shade under the umbrella, with a gentle continuous breeze, gentle surf lapping at the beach on a cove that seemed it was created as a movie set. Yeah, Life Sucks…..
Update to Wednesday Formal night. Joe, Joan and I are all standing around the entrance to the dining room waiting for Byron, Jan, Deblet and Gigi to arrive as they had gone to the show. Byron shows up first and greets us and explains he hadn't gone to the show but instead had taken a nap. Joan asks him if he notices anything wrong in this picture, and he replies "nope!". Joe and I are both dressed in full Tux and Joan says "Dad, It's Formal Night". Byron gives us all an "oh Hell!" and turns to the elevators to change. See the picture below.
Friday Last Day in Mexico
Today we had a great day arriving into an extremely small port of Puerto Chiapas. This the foundation of civilization in Mexico. It predates the Mayan and Aztecs. It is also the center of where what is now known as the Mayan Calendar was created. 12/12/2012 is centered right here in Itzapa. But first we visited the small town where we had a cultural experience with local dances and a demonstration of making Chocolate. The are farms of cocoa trees here where the fruit actually grows on the trunk of the tree rather than the branches. The nut is broken open which exposes the moist fruit inside. The fruit is then sun dried for 4 days which turns it very light brown. The beans are the roasted similarly to the way coffee is made. The dark roasted bean is then shelled exposing the cocoa meat which is then pulverized along with sugar and a little almond or vanilla to make chocolate. We had some right off the pedestal and pin which was the ancient way of preparation….. delicious.
We then went to the ruins of Itzapa. These are the oldest ruins in Mexico and they are of the Oxocetal people which predated the Mayans. They were the first second epic of the great Indians of Mexico/South America. The Mayan are the 3rd and the Aztecs are the most recent. The ruins are spread across a large area that has all become farmland and so most cannot be seen. But it is here in Itzapa that the calendar which became the Mayan Calendar was created. The calendar is so accurate that unlike our time and date system we use today, it only needs to be adjusted one day every 54 years whereas we need to add a day every 4 years. It holds the date of 12/12/2012 as the most significant date. Their calendar is based on their observations of the heavens and so their Calendar ends on 12/12/2012 at 6:00pm This is not the end of the world, but the time to generate a new Calendar. It also represents the day where two important astrological events occur. The first, is that as observed in Itzapa, the Sun will cross every single planets location in the same day. The second event is that the Milky Way will be perfectly aligned horizontally which happens only once every 2,160 years. They are extremely worried about the influx of media and visitors in 2012 as so much has been said about the end of the world. They are trying hard to correct the message and the incorrect interpretation.
Back to the ship and Joan is listening to her book, I am sitting in the Ocean lounge working on the blog, Deb, Joe, and Gigi haven't been seen since early this morning, Jan is by the pool, and Byron, when last we saw was reading a Harlan Corban novel by the pool. But I am sure by now he has opted for a nap. Happy hour is due up soon, but that hasn't stopped us from recognizing that it is 5:00 somewhere…..
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