Cozamel on a carnival cruise

To beautiful Cozamel on a Carnival...after 3 days in New Orleans

Leaving New Orleans on the Mississippi

Big fun party cruise ship, my first time on carnival. With my sister and 3 cousins.

New Orleans skyline from the mississippi

French markets. Outlets shops. Touristy places dot this area. Tons of streets and activities going on.
loved the new orleans area.

                                     

Chankanaab a day excursion in cozamel. My sister and cousin snorkeled

while I watched the dolphins and the 7 shades of blue ocean and white sands beach.

Shopping areas...always a t shirt to be discovered. People not as pushy as south america!

Here they let the dolphins out for swimming with them right by the beach.

Our guide taking us on a replica of some maya ruins, weather was perfect.

tree roots on tour

seal show

little colored ocean fishies

some crocodiles to look at for fun.

Sister and I on top and back of ship to watch stunning view as the ship departed.

always a room animal from towels!

It's a beautiful sight to see all blues and feel the warmth of the sun with people enjoying themselves.
This ship called elation had the funnest people, alot from the south. The activities directors were the best, the games for this type of crowd were hilarious.We hadn't laughed that hard in the longest time. Great comedians. Trivia's. neat music. Food mediocre. but for 300.00 it was a deal. It was clean with hospitality. When you take off from Louisiana you'll find alot of people from the south and they are alot of fun. Lots of drinking going on all hours of the day, and that we found caused alot of entertainment for us! We had our favorites. We flew southwest which saved money, was fine and you could check on two bags.

Next stop after a day at sea...Progresso: you've probably never heard of it, nor had we.

 Mario...everyone is Mario or Maria. For 25.00 each he takes you on a few hour tour of Progresso in an old van. he told us much about this place.
It's an ugly flat place, full of poverty, not much rainfall, fishing is their income.

 Corona public beach is just as you come into town on a shuttle as the ship is 5 miles away. You come in on a man made road through the ocean. All you see is cement blocks stacked as walls to protect the road from the ocean. two ships come in a week...

 and so they must sell to you...yes, about every 30 seconds your approached by someone with about anything. Popular massages for 20.00 for an hour right there on the beach. we had no time for. Not a place you would eat or drink anything. They dont keep the beaches cleaned up.

2 ladies coming at us dressed in white with signs begging for orphanage money...I highly doubt it.

 Here is my sister wading in the ocean, you can see the colors. Not as pretty as cozamel.

 This little stand of Mexican treats awaits the children as they leave school...it is peddled into the area. the stuff wasnt at all familiar to us.

 Here are the school children. They have a very small playground of dirt, no equiptment to play on. They were happy. school is 3 hours, they get out at noon.

 Here we are in this flat area with divided ponds. This is salt water and we are standing on rock salt and the water is hot. We are chopping it up with a stick and putting in a bag to bring home. 2 of the people were little love birds from the workers on the ship, we learned a bunch about shiplife. He was from hungary. They preserve the fish with the salt and then use it for trade, just as the mayans. My cousins were off to the chitz a netza for the day.this is really brave for me to put my photo...I have some serious weight to lose now!

 Another big flat land was flamingo's...see the white and gray ones, that is how they are born. They come to this area to eat eggs of some fish and that turns them the color.

 as you can see...this is the lake ground...not alot of rain here. Not pretty. It didnt smell.

 Here are the gray and white flamingos.

 we spent some time in a real mayan ruins area and learned about that life.

 A comedian that night was trashing Progresso about its poverty etc. and stated even the dogs were
running in the streets to comitt suicide. Most had dogs at their homes.

 These ruins have stairs. inside these places it is hollow. the ground in Progresso is all LIMESTONE.
SO  there is no way to plant gardens. there may be a few inches of dirt or a drop of grass. No crops like
you see on all the other places.

 sampling of homes, all laundry hanging out. very poor. cement.

I was holding back tears over these living conditions...hard to bear.

Cemetaries...all above ground in cement, colorful, corroding.

 we asked about the mormon church, here it is in this same area...it was very nice, gated, fenced, painted nicely and built strong. only  nice place we saw. did not see any missionaries or activity around it.

ship docked ready to leave...i dont recommend going to this place. It probably isnt safe.

This week I will finish with our three days in NEW ORLEANS! fabulous, loved it!
I'll write down some must see places in case you want to go there.