Sunday Morning 20 December 2015
Sailing to George Town, Grand Cayman Island

After a very nice dinner in the Grand Dining Room last night (both of us:  chicken consomme; baby lettuce salad with pancetta (for me) and/or almonds (for Will); lobster Thermidor for Will and Roast Rack of Veal Loin for me.  Will has a very complicated and delicious chocolate mousse cake with caramel ganache; I choose plain old raspberry ices. Fortunately, the large waves begin to recede and we have no problems over night.  By the time I am writing this on Sunday morning--after breakfast of Eggs Benedict in the Grand Dining Room--the sun is shining, the breeze is light, and the waves have substanially subsided.

Saturday 19 December 2015
Cozumel Island, Mexico

Today we return to Mexico for a visit to the resort of Cozumel and our final shore excursion.  The trip is planned for 3.5 hours, ideally short after our very long excursions at other ports.  But because of poor planning and logisics, the tour lasts almost 90m minutes longer than planned. And since the Riviera is sailing one hour earlier than in the original schedule, we have no time to explore or shop on our own.  The first parts of the tour are quite fun, but the final 45 minutes are spent at totally unnecessary places to spend money--a tequila "museum" and a chocolate factory demonstration.

The Riviera is docked on the west side of the island, location of the main town and most of the resort hotels. Usually this side of the island has the better weather, but today it is very windy with intermittant rain.  Our coach drives us three miles across the widest part of the island to the calmer beaches of the eastern shore. This part of the island is dotted with beaches made from the dying coral reef, with water sprays that imitate the shapes of the spiny coral.

Our next stop, the highlight of the excursion, is a visit to a cultural center where we are treated to the history of the Mayan people in dance and song.  The entertainers are young and enthusiastic, the costumes colorful and appropriate, the music loud and stirring.  In fact, much more entertaining and enjoyable than the really poor shows on the Riviera. However, the show runs longer than expected; the guide tells us that this is the reason for the excursion lasting so much longer than planned.

After the performance, the coach takes us to the tequila museum, where we  get to taste very tiny sips of several flavored-tequila drinks: coconut, almond, and pomegranate.  At the chocolate factory there is a short demostration of how chocolate is made from crushing and rolling cocoa beans and then adding honey, sugar, and flavorings.  The chocolate is very bitter in its original state as created by the Maya, but the Spaniards convinced them to add sugar in the 16th century (probably the only positive of the Spanish incursion), that makes chocolate much more palatable.

We return to the Riviera for lunch and sailaway just before 2pm.