So Jenny and I are off to take our cruise. For various reasons (not least that internet time onboard is something like $5 a minute), I am posting these after the fact. Pictures of the cruise are available here. The full list of cruise posts is available here.

Cruise: Day 5 (Playa Del Carmen)

Most of Playa Del Carmen was spent at the Mayan city of Tulum, which turned out to be an excellent choice on our part. First off, the tour included lunch, and unlike other lunch-including tours in Mexico, this one was a) fully vegetarian and b) not half bad, though we did avoid both the fruit juice and the Bran Krakers. Whatever, beats the hell out of Enchiladas With Death Sauce.

Tulum itself was the very definition of idyllic--check the photo album for graphic proof. We met a very interesting Iguana, saw some interesting architecture, and admired paint that lasted over a thousand years without a refresher coat--impressive indeed. Like I said, check out the album.

Most of the rest of PDC is a tourist trap, similar to Costa Maya, but much larger. In fact, there are nearly 18 thousand (number is approximate based on a representative sample ;) identical silver stores, every one of which we investigated in hopes that we would be able to locate and purchase a particular necklace Jenny had envisioned. (This is how she does most of her shopping, actually.) We were not successful. However, PDC is also wealthy in gelato stores, which soothed the savage beast somewhat. Also, we bought a liter of good but inexpensive tequila and some kahlua. Then it was back to the ship for snoozing.