dpeeps

I went on a 5 day cruise to Costa Maya (not the real name as every Mexican will tell you) and Cozumel (even though I spent the whole time mainland).

These photos are from day 1. We had a coast guard escort until we were out in the strait. I guess maybe someone might want to jump in the water and swim to the ship and then try to scale the side of it or maybe someone last minute might change their mind about going on a cruise. Who knows. I did see some dolphins during this time but the video i took wasn’t good enough to share/keep and I didn’t take pictures. Around the time I saw them the ship started to turn around which muddied up all the water. I got a cabin with a balcony so that was pretty nice and I did spend some time on it reading. Also there’s a lot of art onboard. They have a couple of art auctions, even. For an afternoon snack I had a chocolate nutella donut that weighed a pound. I had sushi for dinner.

Coast Guard 2

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Day 2 was just a day at sea. I didn’t do much, eat, read, check out the view. I did have a delicious dinner at the steakhouse onboard, though. Oh yeah, I went to the PG comedy show. It was pretty funny for the most part.

dog? baby rhino? not sure

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On Day 3 we stopped in Costa Maya (really Mahahual). I did an excursion and went to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. It was pretty interesting as there’s a lot unknown about these particular ruins. They were only discovered in the the 70s and the local people had been living around them in the jungle for many hundreds of years. There hasn’t ever been any drawings/writings found but the Mayans were a huge population spanning a long period of time. It was also hot and humid out in the jungle with little breeze. I also saw these trees growing around other palm type trees and even got to see some spider monkeys. Also, I guess when things are going bad always be glad you didn’t park your sailboat on shore. This night I opted for the Italian restaurant. It was good but it was definitely not the steakhouse.

sunrise

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Day 4 was a stop in Cozumel. I didn’t stay in Cozumel. I hopped on a ferry into Playa Del Carmen and then took a bus to the Ancient City of Tunlum (we’re going with the Mayan name). This was pretty cool. The ruins were more massive here and there was a bit more known about them. I walked around for a bit and got some photos but it was once again hot & humid. I wandered back to a little restaurant recommended by the guide where I ordered some al pastor tacos and cold cold beers. I killed off about 4 of those cold beers. They were even kind enough to bring me a shot of mezcal and of tequila. For dinner I ate in one of the main dining areas and it was a pretty good dinner.

where'd everyone go

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Day 5 was another day at sea. I didn’t really do much. I ate at the steakhouse. Also, I didn’t mention that I played in the casino every day. I played with $600 total and while I didn’t win overall, I did come up with half of it back in my pocket. Not too bad.

ummmm what?

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today, and over the last few years i’ve learned something interesting about the credit card industry. let’s pretend that during covid you sign up for a service to help keep you entertained (no, it’s not porn, ok). you sign up for a year subscription. before that year is up you go to the web site and you cancel your subscription and delete your account. then, around the time for the year to be up you see your credit card billed for the subscription rate. you call the credit card company and dispute the charge. they take away the charge and you think nothing of it. a year goes by. suddenly, you see that same charge pop up again. you try to login to the web page and you can’t, it says no account. you fill out their contact form. no response. you call the credit card company again. this time they dispute the charge but they also send you a new credit card. a year goes by. you don’t even notice it for over 2 months because you never use that card under normal circumstances but you happen to notice a charge. what could it be? you download statements. sure enough, 2 months prior there’s a charge from that same company. this is where you learn something interesting. what the company is doing isn’t even fraud. they’re gaming the credit card system. see, when you get a new card from the bank, that card is still associated to the same account as the old card. any company that you’ve done business for something like a subscription with can then just use services from mastercard/visa to grab whatever new card is associated with that account and it’s fine. the only way i will be able to deal with this is go down to the credit union and have them fully close the credit account and then create me an entirely new account.

i woke up sometime early. 2am? i’m pretty tired. it’s a thing lately. i went and volunteered at the shelter. i did a couple of hours helping to clean out the kennels in one of the buildings. after that i walked a few dogs. the first dog i walked was stallone. he was medium size and seemed pretty cool. i had him sitting pretty quick. he just needs some time on leash. next i walked sunshine. she likes to jump and is not treat motivated it seems. it’s also important that you are nimble when walking sunshine because she will end up at a dead stop in front of you without warning. the third dog i walked was tanner. tanner is going through some things. tanner was living with his brother up until a couple of weeks ago. they got in a pretty big fight and tanner took the worst of it. now they’re living apart. tanner jumps a bit and can be a little nippy if he’s bored. he just needs proper attention most likely. tanner also gave me my first big scare. while trying to get him out of his kennel he jumped and flipped the latch and started to bolt out before i caught him by the collar. lesson learned, put the clip in the latch. sorry can’t get the pics better aligned.