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Costa Maya:

Carnival always offers many different options for shore excursions, all of which are marked up so that Carnival can get their share. One of these was a Jungle Beach Break, which allowed for some time at a beach (with open bar) - at $39/person. With the kids in tow, it just wasn't worth it. Now I had known beforehand that we were going to Costa Maya instead of Grand Cayman, so I had done a little bit of research and had found a different all-inclusive at Pez Quadro for $25/adults and $15/kids. Hmm. $156 to be herded with several hundred other people to a beach, or $80 to strike it out on our own. OK, so the bus we took to "downtown" Costa Maya was in desperate need of a good cleaning, and "downtown" consisted of a sand road and a ton of tourist traps all selling the same things - silver jewelry, blankets, carved bone statues, and snorkeling tours - but Pez Quadro. Ohhhh, Pez Quadro.
If there is one picture of all of these that you look at full-size, make it this one.  Just incredible.
They barely speak English - had a bit of difficulty trying to find a "changing room" until Chris said "cambio" and worked to bathroom from there (should have asked some variation on "uno ban~o para cambio" and we would have gotten a bit further) and the light dawned on what we were looking for - but the water was warm, clear, and nearly all our own. They had two kayak excursions show up while we were there, and maybe another half dozen people showed up on their own - half from our ship and the other half from the Holland America's Zuiderdam (which had followed us from Cozumel) but that was it. Pez Quadro is near the end of "downtown" so I can understand why there were fewer people. We had ordered two plates of nachos/quesadillas with the package (at a total cost of $10 extra) and we had those very tasty items for lunch. Stephen was happy - he had a Coke. Like Canadian pop, they don't use corn syrup in the pop in Mexico, so he could have some. Mommie and Daddy had a bit more than just a Coke. We pretty much worked our way down their list of 10 or so different drinks.  Some of them we skipped - after all, gin is nasty stuff :^P, and I can get a pina colada anywhere - but there was one on the bottom we'd never heard of.  Something called a kaiperoska.  Hmm, no idea what's in that - and don't forget, we're working with a major language barrier here - but let's have one.  And another...and another... The kids were giving me "spa treatments" all afternoon - taking wet sand off the bottom and scrubbing my back. Unfortunately, the "spa treatments" also washed off my sunscreen, and my back was pretty burned for the next couple of days.
The kids also found some shells, and some of the other tourists had found this...thing...that Chris made me hold so he could take a picture of it.

Pez Quadro is right next to one of the primary schools there, and after school let out two young girls canvassed the beach selling bracelets they had made. Talia and I each bought one - and even today Talia was telling me about the girls that sold them to us "so they could eat food". Now I'm hardly the first person to say that a cruise is an educational experience, but I'm hoping that at the least, the kids will realize that there are people in this world who don't live like we are fortunate enough to be able to.

Talia also didn't like that there were stray dogs everywhere, and at one point she wanted to take that one dog home. Chris had bought her a bag of popcorn from a man that was walking down the street, and she was feeding one of the strays.

But anyway, the kids managed to get us to a taxi and back to the ship before she set sail. :^D

Next: Another Day at Sea

Cast of Characters | Pre-Cruise "Fun" | Embarkation! | Hurricane Jeanne Changes Everything | Final Thoughts

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