Our 4th and final cruise port was in Costa Maya. The port was specifically built for cruise ships, due to the beautiful beaches and and nearby Mayan ruins.

We headed to the buffet for breakfast and were greeted by the singing crew members. They had cute songs to remind us to wash our hands.

Costa Maya has an insane dock, where the ships are really close. It also has a long pier from the ship to the port area.

We had not been back to Costa Maya since 2012 and the port area has changed quite abit in 13 years.

Our tour was to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoban. Carlos was our guide and Jean was our driver. They had cold water and soda available for us.

Chacchoban was built before Chichen Itza, which is famous for it’s astronomy features. It is considered one of the first sites to have astronomy be a central feature. It was an hour drive to the ruins, so Carlos, passed around pictures as he explained about Mayan civilization. The Mayans believed that elongated heads were a sign of beauty and honor. When a child was young, their head was bound to achieve a certain shape. When the Mayan ruins were excavated and the elongated skulls were found, it fueled the notion that the ruins were built by aliens. The Mayans also had a very strong belief in astronomy and how the days, months, and years were tied to their spiritual beliefs.

Unlike Eygptian temples that had chambers inside, the Mayan temples were built on top of the previous temple, so no inner chamber.

Carlos drew a picture to help explain the layout of Chacchoban. It consists of 4 temples. The bottom temple was for religious ceremonies. The 3 temples at the top are positioned for the Spring equinox, the Summer solstice, and the Fall Equinox. On each of those days, the designated top temple peak, would line up perfectly with the bottom temple peak and cast a small shadow

Chacchoban is a protected area and three of the four temples have been excavated. The far right or Fall temple has not yet been uncovered. The ruins were discovered in the 1940s but were not officially reported to the Mexican government until 1972. Excavation began in 1994 and is ongoing.

Stone foundations have been uncovered that were for homes. (Carlos had an example of what the house might look like) The bottom half was the stone wall, with the top half covered in palm fronds. If a frond is cut during a full moon, it will last 10 years, but if is cut any other time, it has to be replaced with a year. We heard this from several people at different ports.

We walked past the religious temple first. It is estimated that most of the structures were built between 200 BC and 700 AD.

When the religious temple was excavated, an entrance was dug to reach the inner chambers, only to find that there was no inner chamber.

Surrounding the religious temple are platforms. These are believed to be like stages for meetings. There are also unexcavated mounds that are perhaps small buildings or houses.

There are stairs that lead to a platform for the upper three temples. The stairs are steeper than they look.

The middle or Summer solstice temple represents the one who shed blood that mixed with corn to form man. That person is known as Quetzalcoatl.

To the far left was the Spring Equinox temple. It was amazing to us that the Mayans were able to figure out the exact location to place a temple based on a shadow that appears for a brief moment, one day a year.

Carlos asked me if I was a teacher, because I was taking notes. I told him that a book from our religion, was about the people of Mexico, so I wanted to get all the information that I could. He said I have heard of your book, I need to read it.

We very much enjoyed our tour with Carlos and just wished we had more time at the ruins. Back on the ship, we went to lunch and had Cream of Mushroom soup. 42 years ago, after our wedding reception, we were really hungry. At our hotel, they were serving Cream of Mushroom soup. We always try to have a bowl on our anniversary, but this year we were a day late as it wasn’t on yesterday’s menu.

Our dinner was at the Supper Club., which is much like a 1950s dinner show (think Desi in I Love Lucy). The waiters wore red suit jackets. We are not huge fans of carrot cake, but it was very delicious.

The entertainment was a tribute to Elton John, which we had already watched in the main theater earlier in the week, but still worth seeing again. The group went around singing to the audience.

We ended the evening in the main Theater, with the group One4One, as they preformed a tribute to the The Beatles. They are from the Philippines and they usually play in the lounges, but due to positive guest comments, they were given the chance to play in the theater. They deserved it as they were very good and the crowd loved their rendition of Hey Jude.

Our last day on the cruise would be a Sea Day and Halloween!!