Day 4 of our cruise was in Costa Maya!  Disney has really odd hours at these ports.  We were in Costa Maya from 12:45 to 5:30.  Definitely not the best times but I guess being Disney they can get away with that and still fill a ship.  The amount of madness on a Disney cruise ship is mind blowing.  It is like being in the middle of Disney World during peak season.  There are characters in the lobby and around the area and long lines of kids waiting to meet them.  There are tired, hungry, and over stimulated kids running around miserable and the complete obnoxious brats that end up somehow right beside you no matter what deck you seem to migrate to!  LOL!  I definitely am having a great time but don't believe I would choose Disney again - not unless i had small children that would make it worth the extra hassle and stress :)

Now - back to the fun stuff!  For breakfast Lara and I had a vegetarian omelett which I really love.  I have had it each morning.  Here is a picture:

We did a really cool excursion in Costa Maya today.  We didn't spend any time at all in port, which is fine with us since it is a man made port just for tourism and not authentic in any way, because our excursion went the entire time we were in Costa Maya.  We did this excursion called, "Mayan Through the Ages".  We took a bus about 45 minutes out into a small village where a small amount of locals live and got to spend several hours learning about the modern Mayan culture, medicines, their way of life, etc…we toured their village and then the husband and wife in the village cooked us an authentic lunch in the ground!  The chicken they made cooked underground for several hours and it was SO tender and moist.  They made corn tortillas by hand and each one was perfectly rounded and shaped.  We learned all kinds of neat things.  It takes the woman in the village about 4 hours to cook tortillas for her family.  They use a fire with wood over it to cook on because using a gas stove could take a couple of hours to cook food and the cost of gas is too expensive.  The average Mayan family has anywhere from 5 to 10 kids so you can just imagine how long it takes her to do laundry each day by hand.  For special occasions they cook underground which is such a neat concept.  There is a large hole in the ground surrounded by limestone rock which has to be changed every 3 months  They put the food in a cooking pot and then put that in the ground with wood, rocks, and coal around it.  It is then covered with banana leaves and dirt and left for hours to cook.  Once it is ready they use a shovel to remove the dirt and then lift the banana leaves off the area and remove the pot.  The banana leaves also add flavor to what is being cooked.  This is how they cooked the chicken for our lunch.  Lunch was SUPER YUMMY!!!  Cristian really enjoyed it all.

We also saw how they make strong threads to make their own rope for products that they handmade such as hammocks.  It is quite the process!  They have to use an instrument to scrape off everything off the specific leaf and what is left looks like the mane of a horse and is super strong.  You can tie it together to form rope and use that to make things.  It will take an entire days work to make a small purse out of the material.  The time and cost to make things homemade like that are too great as the commercial business of plastic and cheaper products make it difficult for the villagers to sell their authentic pieces.

We stopped by the Mayan temple that is in this village and saw a small Mayan ruin.  The temple was built for their god of fertility.  Most of the Mayans no longer believe in many gods but rather just one god overall but there are still classic Mayans that believe in the god of fertility and the various gods.  The temple was built to worship this god.  

Our cruise guide, Gerardo, was showing us an interesting leaf from a tree on the bus.  He was telling us that the leaf has many uses for the Mayans.  One use of it is to prevent or combat diabetes.  People use the leaf to make tea.  Once the leaf is dried up - it is also used in the same way that the Native Americans use Peyote.  After the leaf is gone if you split the bark you are left with in half you will see that it has a hollow hole in the middle and entire length of it.  This is what they use as a pipe.  

After we got back on the ship we headed to the Walt Disney Theater and watched the musical production they had called "Wishes".  It was pretty good.  They integrated all of the different characters into the show.  It was about 3 high school graduates - twins (girl and boy) and their best friend and them experiencing the magic of Disney for the last time before graduation.  As we were heading back to the cabin to change for dinner we ran into some characters that Cristian just HAD to get a picture with and there were only 5 - 10 people in line so we hopped in.  Just look at that smile:

Dinner tonight was in the Royal Court.  The theme was "Prince & Princess".  I wasn't crazy about any of the appetizers so I skipped them entirely.  They had salmon, goat cheese, blue cheese, and duck on the appetizer menu which are my least favorite things to eat. Lara and I ended up getting the same thing - go figure.  We had a lentil and sausage soup followed by a vegetable lasagna that was the BEST thing ever!!!  Here is a pic:

After dinner we caught Buzz Lightyear with NO line.  Now, that is amazing.  Settled down in the room pretty late and watched the rest of Disney's Up.  Tomorrow is Cozumel and since we are not getting off the ship we will get to spend the day exploring the ship and swimming without the mass mobs of people!  Tomorrow is also PIRATE DAY!!!  Cristian is getting all decked out at the Pirate's League as Jack Sparrow and Lara and I have a themed hat to wear for the festivities.  Dinner will be pirate themed and they will have pirate activities throughout the afternoon.  At 7:45 there will be a Pirate deck party and at 10:30 there will be a fireworks show!!!  It is going to be a lot of fun.

Another pretty cool thing is that they actually have movies in 3D showing here on board in the theater that are STILL in the movie theaters back home!!  Tonight at 11pm they have John Carter and tomorrow they have AVENGERS!!!!  We decided to skip John Carter but are hitting up Avengers at 4:30!!  How awesome!!

Heading to bed and will get to actually sleep in tomorrow!  Yes!

Cheers,

M E