Day Six: Huatulco

Before I plunge into recounting yesterday's adventures, let me just share how I blog. I get up early while Bennett sleeps, slide open the veranda door on the living room side, switch on the big plasma tv to the GPS map (with classical music) to follow our present course, and then sit at the internet desk next to the open door. I'm telling you this so you can know that as I write we are off of Guatamala, with El Salvador and Nicaragua to transverse before we dock in Costa Rica tomorrow. Ahhhhh.

But let me recap our third stop and last day in Mexico. Huatulco (WAH-tool-ko or Place Where the People Love Hard Wood). As Carlos from Acapulco explained (remember he knows four languages and an Indian dialect), they do not speak Spanish in Mexico; many names and words derive from the Indians. Before we docked, we early-morning stretched and I will soon be an inch taller, I'm sure.

We walked off the boat into Huatulco, a much smaller, much newer, much cleaner town than Acapulco. (If you know Hawaii, think of Acapulco as Oahu and Huatulco as Kuaui.) We loaded onto an open air, canopy-topped lorry with a small group and Alejandro and Chimingo. Off the truck lumbered to a beach. A beach. Sand. We put on our life vests, flippers, and masks and waded into the water to snorkel. It was a baby snorkel beach for rank beginners (there had been an advanced tour too) and that was good because it does take me a while to get over the panic of breathing in water. That is why even though I can swim fundamentally, I have never swum . . . my something goes into a reflex to panic with the breathing. Just as I got it down, they fished us out, told us the water had too many clouds (plankton) and they were moving us to another beach.

Back in the lorry, back through the hills, down the brand new main "highway," with stops high atop the hills to view the breathtaking bays and coves below. There are nine bays in Huatulco and we could see most of them. We were docked in one and swam in two others. At last, we arrived at another beach. And got re-geared and swam out. I was able to get comfortable. We swam much further out and saw coral and fishes. Chimingo found a piece of coral for us as well as a starfish to hold. We swam into a tiny cave. Bennett says there was a bat (the cave did have an opening to the sky) but I did not want to look at that.

Once back on the sandy beach, we sat in shade and ordered guacamole and salsa and crispy tortillas. Now that is guacamole. Yum. I found the salsa hot hot, Bennett said it "was getting there." A ride back to town. We stopped at an outlook where one of the five blowholes in the world is located. As Bennett and I had seen one of them in Hawaii, I thought uh-oh, now we will be committed to searching out the other three (one in Australia, etc.) but no worry, we were not able to see the Huatulco blowhole from our precarious perch, just hear it.

Back on board and lunch at the big windows overlooking all the activity in the bay and the small town. Oh yes, the economic development literature was proud to say they planned a huge development campaign and would spend $200 million over the next 30 years. THIRTY years! We can spend $200 million on one stadium in six months . . . .

Bennett went back off the ship to look at the little town for a while but I napped. Ah, lovely nap aboard ship. Then a gym class for me and we both met up for a little pampering. Here is another recipe for you.

Top to Toe Heaven
Step One: Body brush exfoliation
Step Two: Back, neck, shoulder massage
Step Three: Heat treatment on back
Step Four: Pressure point foot massage
Step Five: Mini facial
Step Six: Indian scalp massage
Mix with big ocean porthole, gently swaying ship, and Rachel from the Philippines for sixty minutes.

And then dinner in the dining room. I had the drunken shrimp linguine with ancho chile sauce and Bennett had the cod. Hector from the Philippines serves us every night. We got him to talk last night. He said he had been with Celebrity for five years and even met his wife on board. She is his cabin-mate. They even had a baby on board (born with a Celebrity X birthmark on his shoulder ;-). The child lives with her parents during the week and his parents on the weekend back in the Phillipines. He indicated that everyone who wants to support a pleasant lifestyle in the Phillipines works abroad like this.

The sun is rising . . . I must go enjoy another day at sea. Glynne, the Avocado is not supposed to be hot if you remove every single seed. That is what Carlos said.

Mallory, alas, you are meant to be a poet . . . . Nat, let me know how the deciding is going.