Spring Vaca - Day 4

Day 4 (Tuesday 3/24) - we arrived in Costa Maya around 8am. We enjoyed breakfast on the ship and then went off to do a little shopping before our Costa Maya Highlights shore excursion.

This was only the Carnival Valor's second time back to Costa Maya since Hurricane Dean in 2007. The pier and local area was mostly wiped away, and tourism didn't start back up until late 2008. The locals were very eager to get the tourism back - 80% of Mexico's funds come from the tourism industry. The poverty here was still very visible once you were off of the pier and shopping area. Most of the people that had lived in Costa Maya before the hurricane, have still not yet returned.

Costa Maya & pier from the ship

loved this sign!

Due to the bright sunshine (which you will never hear me complain about) several of my pictures were overexposed. Once I got to really look at them, I liked the way that many of them turned out - like the picture of Makena below and of the boat a little farther down. That's what happens when amateur photographers like myself are still practicing! : )

After some shopping, we had lunch and were ready to tour Costa Maya! The excursion that we had chosen took us in a large safari-type jeep around the island, to a private beach and to another shopping area with a stop for cervezas!

A woman has rescued this money (Poncho) during the hurricane and then tried to set it free once they were safe. Poncho decided to continue living with the woman rather than return to the jungle.

Once back at the pier, we only had a short time to get back on the ship. I think we only picked up a couple of souvenirs in Costa Maya.

he was playing a song for me and wanted to see a picture of himself

After returning to the boat, we got ready for dinner and another show. It was a busy and great day in Costa Maya!

I did finally get all of my pictures sorted/loaded onto our Picasa site if you would like to see them. I deleted several hundred of my 2000+ photos but also added all of Makena's pictures in the same album. It is probably easiest to select the album and then click on 'slideshow' to view the pictures. Due to size restrictions, there are three albums total. I did use a polarizer on my lenses for some of the day - again, being an amateur photographer, it's still a learning process.

More vacation posts to follow...