Almost home!!

Well, it's our last day at sea.  The sea is pretty rough today, the roughest that we've experienced since we took off.  We're not bouncing around nearly as bad as we were on the Holiday last October.

Our two stops on this leg of the trip were nice.  On Monday we were in Progresso, which is on the Yucatan Peninsula.   It's about 40 miles north east of Meridia, which is the capital of that region.  We were going to take an excursion into Meridia, but we were pretty tired and decided to just take the free shuttle into town, the ship ports at a very long pier which is about 5 miles from the town, so you've got to take a taxi or shuttle to get into town.  The town itself is pretty rough looking.  It's what a lot of people call real Mexico, not glitzed up for the tourist.  However you can tell they thrive on the tourist trade.  Everywhere there were people trying to sell cuban cigars, hair braiding, hats, etc, really pushing for you to come into their stores, slightly worse than the little shops at Cozumel or Calica.  We walked about 4 blocks from the shuttle stop to find a little store to stock up on Coca-Cola Light, their version of Diet Coke, to take back to the ship.  Then it was back to the shuttle and back to the ship.  The temperature and humidity was higher here than at any other of our stops on the trip, so it was nice to get back to our air conditioned ship.

Back on board we grabbed some lunch, and since the ship was almost empty, almost everyone seemed to th be onshore, we decided to hit the pool.  The main pool isn't the biggest in the world, and it's usually packed with kids, but with so many people onshore, the pool was almost empty.  We stayed in for quite awhile and took quite a few trips down the water slide.  It was a blast, some more adults showed up and we were seeing who could make the biggest splash and get down the slide the fastest.  I wasn't quite the biggest splash or the fastest, but I was close  :-)

Willies' splash!!!

More people started coming back onboard so the pool started filling up a bit, so we headed back to the cabin with a snack.  I took a nap while Willie went up on deck to watch us leaving port, she even got to see a few runners getting to the ship right before we took off.
We skipped supper in the main dining room and decided to hit the Lido buffett for supper, then we saw the early show.  The show this night was the second of their Vegas style shows.  It was called Spin and was very entertaining. 

On Tuesday we were back in Cozumel.  We did the same thing we did on our previous visit which was to visit a beach called the Money Bar for some snorkeling.

Pirate puppet in Cozumel

We discovered however that two snorkeling trips in less than a week isn't a good idea, we didn't stay in the water real long as it was very tiring this time around, and the water was pulling us way out to sea, unlike last time when it was gently moving us into shore.  We stayed at the little beach area for awhile and watched other snorklers and ships, then caught a taxi back to the port.  We did some shopping, picking up a few gifts.  Willie finally got a color changing back from the Del Sol shop.  It's a really neat shop, everything in it changes color in the sun.  The it was back on the ship for supper in the main dining room, the we did a little gambling and it was time for bed.

Outside the Pirate Shop in Cozumel

Since we left Cozumel the seas have been pretty rough, there was a storm brewing off the coast, we got some video of the lightening from our stateroom window.  Thing kept getting rougher for the rest of the night.  Willie actually is taking it rougher than I am, she's a little lightheaded and quesy from time to time and it doesn't seem to be affecting me except for the fact I keep
walking into the walls  lol.  Right now it's about 4:20 and the winds are blowing strait into our starboard side at about 45 mph, and we've got some pretty impressive swells hitting the side of the ship.  We're only about 200 miles from Mobile, and we've heard that right after we left Cozumel is when tropical storm, I think it's name Karl, was hitting the Yucatan Peninso we actually got out of there right in time.  The ship was really crusing last night, we're pretty sure it was to get clear of the storm.

Leaving Cozumel

Grand Atrium on the Elation

 

 

Elation and sister ship Inspiration at Cozumel Pier

Well that's all for now.  I think we'll drive all the way home tommorrow, but you never know we might stop if we get tired.  We're hoping to be back on the road by 10am or so, so that'll put us back home by 11 or 12 Thursday, otherwise we'll be home friday.

We're looking forward to being home and seeing everyone and our puppies, cats and the birds.