Days 5-7 (cruise days 4-6) - As we head to the next port of call, Huatulco, Mexico, I have finally settled into a pretty good onboard routine onboard and the full day at sea yesterday helped me buckle down to tackle a few outstanding admin tasks and some writing. I start with early morning in the Oceanview Cafe to work, have coffee, and a bite of breakfast. Then I drop the computer off in the cabin to be re-charged and go do laps of the ship.
The main track on deck 14 is only 266 steps and it takes 5 laps to equal 1 km. To get a sense of the total circumference of the ship I did a full lap on my deck (#8)...much to the amusement of my cabin attendant. I discovered that going around deck #8 is 870 Dan steps (about 0.75 km). I do the stairs, traverse the decks and usually end up doing 10,000+ steps per day...plus frolick in the pool and occasionally go to the gym (but it is surprisingly crowded) when we are at sea. Anyway, I have located about 5 spots with comfortable enough chairs to work from and tables at the right height for laptop work. So after exercise I seek out these spaces to continue work
Huatulco was an opportunity for me to go ashore and just walk on solid ground for a bit. Really, there is not much to the immediate area around the dock. Like most cruise ship stops there are kiosks with memorabilia, some cute colonial buildings and, in behind, a few hotels. The bay has a beautiful beach area of white, fine sand and lots of early morning swimmers.
One of the things that really seems at odds with the time of year is the juxtaposition of Christmas and palm trees...OK, not much different from Vancouver when the weather is cooperating. Most of the countries from Mexico southwards were settled by colonies tied to the Catholic religion - mainly Spain, so the celebration of Christmas is a serious thing. But seeing the Christmas trees and Santa in tropical lands is quite amusing. It was reassuring that at least one place knew Santa's country of residence đ In the public square of Huatulco, school children spanning from primary to high school in their uniforms were performing skits and passion plays (the kinds with morals and values) while Christmas music was blaring on loud speakers. It reminded me of the plays and concerts we did as kids in grade school except in Yellowknife we were definitely not out in shorts and light shirts this close to Christmas. The kids were clearly fascinated seeing strangers wandering around and were saluting us as we walked by - it really was quite charming.
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