Cozumel, Costa Maya and the last day at sea

I walked into Cozumel by myself and wandered along the road next to the beaches - mostly filled with bars, restaurants and kiosks selling all manner of excursions.

The following day, we strolled around the Costa Maya port area, with its diamond and tourist trinket shops and dolphin encounters and bars. What a difference from our first time at this port! Several years ago, we decided to see the Tulum on our own, avoiding the $100 per person shore excursion fee. We walked out of the port and flagged down the collectivo (local bus) to Tulum and then back again to the port. It was fantastically cheap - a total of $11 - $5 for the bus and $3 each for the entry to the ruins. But (and there’s always a but), when we got back to the port, they would not let us walk in and forced a taxi driver to take us along with the existing fare. So we thought we’d just give the other taxi patrons 1/2 the fare cost. It turned out - we learned this much too late - the two women in the cab had been robbed and the cabbie was taking them back to the ship for free. Had we known, we would have paid the driver, of course. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. This time we just took a few pics in the port area, enjoying the walk around.

Finished yesterday with a great meal in the Izumi specialty restaurant.

Today is a lazy day at sea. We’re getting a few things done we’d missed so far, like a milkshake at Johnny Rockets and our free pulls at the casino - Steve won $27! Which partially paid for the pub beer we had afterwards. They don’t have good beer in our free lounge, so it was nice to have a good stout.

We’ll be walking off the ship early to catch an 11am flight back home. It’s been a great vacay and nice to visit with Steve’s family. Also, we had great table mates at dinner and in the lounge, with whom we’ve also chatted around the ship. This is our favourite ship and brother-in-law Jim said the same.

From our balcony, this afternoon. Another beautiful day in paradise