January 2, 2008: Day 5 – Godness Gracious

Ah up, bright and early today, especially since we both had so much sleep the night before, Gary had 11! He’s feeling much better anyway and so we proceeded with breakfast and then met up with the tour group at 8:45. It was pretty much a self-guided tour. They provided taxis to the Golden Zone where there was a small arena where we watched a folkloric show, dancing and the Papantla Fliers who did routines hanging from ropes, etc. There was a marketplace and I bought myself a pretty black shawl with dragonflies.

From there we walked a few blocks, checking out shops along the way, to the resort hotel, Hotel Playa Mazatlan. It was pretty nice, 3 pools, on the beach. We sat on the beach for a little while, hopefully gaining some colour and trying to fend off the beach vendors. We eventually grabbed our buffet lunch which was pretty good and we also had 2 free drinks. Even bought a colourful fish mobile from one of the beach vendors. Couldn’t find any chairs by the pool so we just ditched the hotel and grabbed a cab back to the ship. There was a marketplace there and Gary managed to find a nicely carved stingray.

Once back on the ship we once again tried to get internet access but failed miserably. Instead we read and headed down to our cabin to change at 5:30. Unfortunately it seems that 2 passengers didn’t show up, they probably forgot to set their watches forward last night.

Dinner was yummy again. I started with the Shrimp & Crabmeat Salad, Jalapeno Potato Soup then the Turkey Medallions. Dessert was Choco-Chino Trilogy, consisting of milk, dark & white chocolate offerings. We had good dinner conversation too, everyone was there and very talkative.

We meandered thru the shops to kill some time and then went to showtime which was BoogieWonderland. Gary and I believe we saw the same show in 2006 but the music was catchy so it was fun. After we went and staked out our spots to watch all the shenanigans at the Quest. We declined to participate this time, just watched everyone else and once again it was very funny. Never gets old.

BTW, the band entertaining us while waiting for the Quest was from the Ukraine. They played very well but the lead singer, a woman, hasn’t quite the grasp of the English language so it was terribly funny listening to her butcher Great Balls of Fire, as in Godness Gracious Great Balls of Fire. Gary and I found it hilarious.

After a slice of pizza for me and a hotdog for Gary in the Solarium, we trekked down to the casino and managed to blow $23 total between us, Gary’s lasted much longer though. We had to set our clocks ahead again so lost another hour, by the time we finished reading it was 2 am!