kept building, the waves got perkier and white caps became cooks hats
all over the ocean. When I was typing my email up last night, I was
sitting in the bet with my foot hooked around the edge of the mattress
and the other one spread out to help balance me. We had to move a few
things off the table and onto the ground and scrapped any idea of going
out on the balcony - the spray was pounding the windows of the sliding
door. From around midnight to just before sunrise, the ship shuddered,
pounded into the waves, took more than just spray way up on the decks,
even as high as we are on deck 6. There are glass dividers between the
decks on each cabin and it seemed as if they were just ready to break
loose and fly, it was almost impossible to open the doors and, well we
really were not keen to do that. As I lay in bed I could see the white
foam flushing up on our balcony and feel the deep shuddering on the
ship... it felt as if I were back on a little 60 foot sailboat pounding
through the waves. No one slept very well at all and this morning there
were many very bleary eyes around. When we went up on deck everything
was coated, literally, with a layer of salt - the decks were white with
it, the railings sticky and rough from it - everywhere.
Anyway - we were up at around 6.30am again, but it took us a tad longer
to get ready this morning. And then up on deck we went. The internet
had been down for just over a day already and apparently most of the tv
stations were too. The coast line of(pronounced wah-tul-co) Huatulco,
Mexico greeted us on the top deck - a hazy coastline that stretched for
miles. I really do enjoy coming into a port - its like unwrapping a
gift in many ways. So there we were, standing on the top deck with the
sun freshly risen and a whole new adventure ahead of us. There was no
one to greet us on the pier - but after a few minutes we could see a few
people running towards the ship, ready to catch the huge big blue ropes
to tie us up. And so our day got started. We grabbed a quick bite for
breakfast and headed out.
At first they could not clock me off the ship - my sea pass had smudged
it barcode, but she did it manually and let me off.... I had to get it
replaced after we got back on. We met up with the group going up to the
mountains with us and were soon happily chatting away with numerous
people. Its as if we share a little snippet of our lives, hear a rag of
theirs and a gentle tie is formed. Nothing permanent, but something
good nevertheless. We were shown to a minivan - eight of us in the
group with one tour guide who really was very good. We took a drive to
the top of a hill that gave us the most glorious view of the bay, the
marina, town and our ship.... A really stunning view. And then he told
us some history. A mere 20 years ago, the marina was a fresh water
lake, supplied by a river that ran off the mountains.... the locals
fished and hunted and it was a tough life, but the land was theirs. Then
one of the presidents decided to make this his project, a tourist
attraction like Cancun.... but it never really took off that much at
all. But in the process, all the people had to give up their land,
their space and their lifestyle. Many of them moved away and started
little villages a few miles away, but it was not the same. Our guide
was one of those that moved away and once he grew up, he saw the
opportunity in becoming a guide over trying to fish and farm through
life. There is a lot of studying to do on many fronts in order to
become a guide, but one that we have found the most important is
passion. A passion for their country and their job. Oscar had it!
After the view point, we headed to a little town...... ok, I could go
and look up the name of the town and tell you, but......... thats not
going to happen. Suffice to say that it is in Oaxaca, Huatulco, Mexico,
it had the word 'Cruz' in it somewhere. Maybe I will come across some
names while I type........ dont think so though. Anyway - we headed to
this little town and its market place..... of course I spied guavas and
as soon as we could get out of the van, we broke away from the group and
headed to buy some of them.......... ooooooooooh were they goooood!
Most people looked at us as if we were mad..... firstly they did not
know what guava's are (tropical fruit) and secondly, they were horrified
that we were eating fruit from Mexico! We would be Montazuma's Revenge,
they said.... (tummy issues, to say the least), but we had had no
problems in Baja or in South America before. Hopefully its the same this
time - but those quavas were worth even that :)
The fruit in the market was just beautiful - huge fruit, natural colors
and the taste was just perfect. They sold all sorts of stuff there
although it was not a huge market by any means. One of the ladies on
the tour with us wanted me to see the 'animals' and dragged me off to
take pictures of the butcher cleaning off a cow....There were little
bright eyed, barefoot kids running around with happy smiles on their
faces and Mama's and Papa's working hard at trying to make a few pennies.
And on we went to some or other official place where we saw beautiful
wall paintings and heard a bit of the history of the town. Mostly the
smaller towns are build around and sustained by, coffee. The coffee
grows on very steep mountainside and not neatly in rows on even ground
at all. The berries, when they are red and ripe, are hand picked and
then walked down the mountain to the collection points. It's really a
very hard life and we could tell it in the faces of the people in both
the little towns we visited. And then up a long steep narrow winding
road into the Cloud Forest of the Sierra Madre Mountains and anotehr
Oaxaca village called Pluma Hidalgo. The climb up the mountain we quite
interesting - in a few places there was nothing but a hole on the edge,
no barricades or anything at all - be everyone got around safely.
Hairpin bends, one after the other and the views were incredible. And
all of a sudden, there we were, in town. There was a huge tent,
festooned with hundreds of white balloons, pretty things and we started
hearing what we first thought were gunshots but turned out to be
fireworks being sent off in celebration of the wedding that was
happening. Big pinwheels had been made out of reeds, weeds and leaves
and the fire crackers attached to them and then fired off - they sure
made a noise as well as a lot of smoke. The roads in this town were
very very narrow and the town was FULL up with everyone attending the
wedding. The town square was at the top of the town. Literally. Every
road from that center statue, went down, very steeply down. There was
one road only that went up from there and I am not sure what vehicle
would be able to make it to the top. A very strange place. Of course
we could not go into the huge Catholic church with the wedding going on,
and apparently its very beautiful inside.
We did walk around a little, but just were not too keen to go down those
roads - it seemed almost as if everything could just fall off the
mountain at any time, as if its perched on the top of an incredible
mountain, which it is. Many people bought coffee and we wandered around
the different shops looking to see what they were offering. There are
no toy stores, no chocolate or candy stores, but every now and again
there is a dusty box with a toy tractor or baby doll in its pink finery,
just waiting to be dusted off and loved. Life up there is so absolutely
basic and yet we saw no unhappy children, no screaming, shouting,
disrespectful children...... They all had a twinkle in their eyes and a
ready wave with a glorious smile to match.
The hour drive down the mountain was interesting.... the guy drove
fairly fast and I just refused to look at the road at all. This time my
seat was on the outside of the road - lovely views, but oh so close to
the edge many many times. But I had a bag full of guavas and was happy :)
Because our visit to the Church on the mountain was cut short, our guide
took us to the Catholic Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadaloupe. There is
the most beautiful roof painting of the Virgin - it takes up almost the
whole length of the church roof. There were a good many other
paintings, but that one really kept the main attention. Yup, plenty
photos :) The Church benches were lovely solid, dark wood, standing
like every attentive soldiers in precisely spaced rows and they all
gleamed from the care they had been given. People dotted the benches,
gently singing or praying or just sitting there....it was really very
peaceful. Unfortunately by now we were running out of time and we moved
on all too soon. We went shopping before boarding again, then dropped
goodies and headed to the beach to get my feet in the water. lovely! We
found a seaside bar and ordered a margarita - good golly what an
absolutely un-utterably horrible drink that was! We drank it simply
because it was $6.50 each and the view was good.... The people
watching is fabulous :) We wandered around some more - down some
narrow streets and into some less tourist shops - its always nice to see
the less crowded places. And then it was time to head to the ship
again. Its kind of strange, there sits the Constellation, taking up the
horizon, filling the town with its presence and people and it seems so
casual to wander slowly back on board. There is always a band or
something playing as we walk the length of the ship and then we are
handed a juice to drink and a facecloth wet with ice water and little
blocks of ice. As our first foot hits the gangplank, we have some
disinfectant squirted into our hands and we quickly rub it in before
having to put everything we are carrying through the scanners again.
People wander up to the ship, barely making it before the 'all aboard'
time, which is usually about 30 minutes before we leave the dock. It
seems so casual and there really is no fuss or bother at all.
We headed out of Hautulco at sunset with the sky a lovely light pink -
just beautiful. We had to reverse off the jetty and all the way out to
sea, before the captain turned us around on a dime/tickie and off we
went again. There were many people yelling and waving and hundreds of
flashes going off as we left - its a really nice feeling to see so many
people saying goodbye . We decided to cancel out the bad margarita with
a good one out on deck under the night sky. We were both very tired and
I could not even finish writing this email. The internet finally
started working again as well, we heard - but I was just trying to
remember everything of the day.
It was another good one
Acapulco tomorrow. Double tours - its going to be a long day. :)
love and light
Annie
--
http://cruisebaggs.blogspot.com
PHOTOS:http://s992.photobucket.com/home/travelbaggs
No comments:
Post a Comment