Heading home 12.21.2018

Wednesday we were in Mazatlan, a port we have visited before.  We took a tour that seemed familiar.  We took it or one very similar on an earlier cruise. It went through the town and stopped a beautiful old Cathedral where we took pictures. Then we went out to the hotel district, called the Golden Zone.  There is a lot of construction going on and quite a few new hotels.  We did some shopping there and then went back onto the bus.  We headed back to the ship along the malecon, the main drag along the beaches.  Beaches in Mexico cannot be privately owned, they are all public.  There are many statues and monuments along the way.  We also made a stop at the ‘cliff divers’ spot.  It is not really a cliff but a diver does dive from it.  The platform was 30’ or 40’ high, and the divers dove  into five feet of water.  The timing must be exact, as soon as the next wave comes in.  Then the collection begins ‘for the diver’.  It’s a good show and we contribute!

Thursday we were in Cabo San Lucas, another familiar port.  It is the most developed port on the west coast.  It has a large marina with many fancy boats.  One had a helicopter on the rear platform.  There is a mall in downtown Cabo with the same shops we see in the fancier, bigger malls at home.

We are generally very good a saying no to the street vendors and store employees that are in the streets trying to entice tourists into the shops for some high pressure selling.  But one woman got to us, though we did not buy.  In all of the ports there were women giving out small samples of facial creams.  She came out of her shop and cooed about how much she liked Colleen’s eyeglasses retainer chain.  Her mom would love it.  Where did we buy it? Amazon.  She and Amazon are very close.  Blah, blah.  Anyway we went into the shop and she applies some stuff.  Colleen had told her before we went in that she was not a buyer today.  Somehow the saleslady seemed to forget that.  The price went down from $900 to $140, since Kim could use some of her credits she had earned earlier in the day from a BIG sale.  Still no sale.

Vendors always try to entice.  “Best prices”.  “I’ve been waiting for you”.  We heard two new ones in Cabo.  Bracelets are normally silver here and Co wears gold.  One enterprising fellow said “gold bracelets one dollar” after we told him we don’t buy silver.  Another said “buy now, pay later”.  This is a tent bazaar.

Now we have Friday and Saturday at sea before we arrive in San Francisco on Sunday.  There are many activities on the ship on sea days.  Friday morning we played trivia with four members of a family which we had played with before.  This time we won, our first on this cruise.