Cruising to Mexico -- Day 3!! (in Costa Maya)

We docked early this AM in Costa Maya. The weather was gorgeous -- around 80 degrees, breezy, sunny, WONDERFUL!!! I may never go back to Maryland...... :) Here are pictures of our day......


We awoke to find another Royal Caribbean ship had docked next to ours -- this is the "Independence of the Seas".

After leaving the ship, we walked down the pier and through the tourist trap area -- which actually was very pretty and kind of interesting!!  They even had a pool, complete with sand, lounge chairs, and an in-pool bar, in case you didn't want to leave the tourist area and go out into the "real" world!

This next group of pictures of the tourist area are Morgan's -- you can definitely see her creative streak and eye for the unusual in them!!

We more adventurous types decided to head off to a real beach, so we hopped a ride on a bus and headed off to one of many private beaches in the area.  We ended up at the Tequila Beach Club.

 

Here's a view down the beach showing our cruise ship (Grandeur of the Seas, Royal Caribbean).

 

Looking down the beach the other direction......

 

The girls say that I absolutely MUST share this video -- as ridiculous as it is!! Story here -- I was starting to do a video with the girls when this guy named Mike walked up. Says he wants to do "a funny joke" with me! Uh-oh..... He was trying to get me to give him my camera and for me to take his cheap looking Ipod. I thought he might be trying to steal my camera!! You'll have to watch the video to see what actually happened!!

The girls hopped into the water almost immediately -- it was so warm and great for swimming! 

 

Mackenzie decided to try her hand at kayaking.......

 

....and then Morgan joined in!

 

While swimming, the girls found all kinds of interesting "treasures" to study:  various kinds of seaweed......

 

.......a piece of sponge (still soft and squishy!).......

.....a beautiful shell with a live crab in it......

We saw this beautiful bird flying overhead; we haven't had time to try to identify it yet, but it was really cool!!  Mackenzie said it looked like a pteradactyl!!

UPDATE: I did some searching, and I'm reasonably certain that what I'm showing is a male Magnificent Frigatebird. Anybody else think so?

When Kenzie got a bit tired and cold (from the breeze on wet skin, not from the temperature!!), she decided to take a break and bury herself in the sand for a while.

 

Our trip back to the ship was an adventure in itself!  We ended up in a taxi (van) with five other ladies who were drunk as skunks!!  Wild, screeching singing all the way back to the ship!!  And the music blaring on the radio sounded like Mexican polka music, complete with accordians!!  Who knew???

The girls posed for a picture before getting back on ship -- tired, suntanned and happy!

 

And our bedtime towel creation...... We THINK maybe it's a bulldog??  It's cute, whatever it is!!

 

More posts tomorrow after our trip to Cozumel and Tulum!!