Cozumel

We spent all day Friday at sea and arrived at Cozumel on Saturday morning. Normally Cozumel offers full cruise docking services allowing people to just walk off the boat, but Hurricane Wilma hovered over the island for a while and tore it up pretty well. Therefore we had to take tender boats, which frankly I think was a more interesting experience. It let us see the dent in the starboard side of the cruise ship--something out of sight when they were in port--, which later I found out was due to a dock crash in Costa Rica which holed the ship enough to require evacuating the entire boat, flying everyone home, and giving them credit for a future cruise. It was above the waterline, but was getting plenty of splash and apparently the compartment was a crew member's quarters. Anyhow, the tender ride was quick and gave us a great view of the amazing waters and shoreline.

After saying no to about a dozen offers to rent "Heeps" and scooters, we spent some time wandering the very touristy shopping district but moved quickly down several blocks to try to distance ourselves from the power-drinkers at Charlie's. You have to worry about a bar that is within a dozen feet of the tender pier, probably to allow the drunk-ass tourists a chance to stumble home before they are stranded. The Mexican food we had was fresh and tasty, although obviously still very much targeted at the tourists with claims of using only 'healthy oil' substitutes and specially purified water. The theme of American pop tunes being played on inappropriate instruments was continued on shore just as it had been on the boat.

jeliza took tons of photos of course, focusing on the reconstruction and remaining hurricane damage. They've cleaned it up pretty well already, but the place took a pounding. We didn't really have enough time to get one of the tour packages, but the 3 hours spent wandering the district was plenty for me. Apparently if you are into SCUBA and/or snorkeling in deep water, Cozumel has some of the most amazing diving in the world. Wilma reportedly helped out the corals, probably by sweeping away a lot of excess sediment. Otherwise, it's a great place to get loose stones duty-free, lots of Mayan-inspired^* tchotchkes, cheap silvery jewelry, and Tequila.

My overall impression was that I felt like one of those Hawaiian shirt wearing tourists wandering around in Tropico while the rest of the citizens went about their lives. My favorite purchase was a fine Mexican-bottled Coke with real sugar. My only real touristy purchase was an antique-style map of the area with all the Mayan location name, but it includes the locations of modern gas stations.

* = Cozumel was a Mayan sacred site to the Moon Goddess Ix-chel. European explorers visited them but didn't try to conquer the place. They did linger long enough to give them all smallpox and wipe out the population. It was resettled in 1800s by Mexicans of Mayan decent.

"Please enjoy the public spaces..."

The days start really early on a cruise ship. Most activities start at 8am, likely because seniors rarely sleep late. We had to be out of our state rooms at 8am this morning, and ideally ready to debark by 7:30am. When ship's time is Eastern and you live in Pacific, it really sucks.

In any case, we made it off the boat, through a perfunctory customs check point--they know where you've been the whole time--, and on to a Microsoft bus to the airport. It does mean "enjoying" the fine Tampa airport for a few hours, but it also means not missing our flight home. At least TPA offers free wireless. Internet access on the cruise ship was crazy-ass expensive, and slow enough that it felt more like I was paying by the byte instead of by the minute.

Having an academic conference on a cruise discussing gaming technology in education was a strange experience. There was a reporter from Forbes at the event covering the thing just because she writes for the 'nerd beat' and the idea was too rife with potential press juiciness to miss. Here's hoping the article is at least somewhat positive. Despite the organizational snafus, the attendees I spoke with seemed happy with the content of the conference overall. I ran into my advisor from UT Austin, Dr. Fussell, and did a bit of catching up. I couldn't have done too badly on my two presentations because several people came up afterwards trying to get me to do talks at their institutions.

Without the conference giving me something to do at least half a day each day and the opportunity to spend some quality time with jeliza, I doubt that I'd have found the cruise experience all that worthwhile. As it was, it was a relaxing few days and an interesting event a little outside my normal industry-centric circles. If you were looking to get a solid few days of sunbathing, reading, and lounging in whirlpools, you might want to check them out.

Signs

Signage in the airports have proven a solid source of amusement to the weary traveler.

My favorite phrase: "Many bags look alike". It seems like something you would find in a fortune cookie, tempting you with hidden knowledge only decipherable by those who have achieved a Zen-like state.

jeliza's favorite: "This concept is now closed."

Update: A close contender for my favorite sign was "This area is NOT for storage of 'Cabin Supplies'". The fact that 'cabin supplies' was in quotes intrigued me. Was it a euphemism for something else? A steward standing nearby explained that it was there because the in-flight caterers would often leave cups, plates, and so on there and they could get crushed when the jet way was moved. I thought perhaps it meant something like beer and condoms, but only proffered the former idea to the steward who found it amusing.

World of Warcraft observation

One of the industry folks at the conference made an observation I found amusing: "World of Warcraft is the new golf. If you want to meet game industry executives, play WoW." Of course distinguishing the difference between one and a Chinese 'gold farmer' is a social skill one must develop to successfully use this technique.

Home

Returned home safely to a pushy cat. Back to work tomorrow for what is shaping up to be an interesting, if likely stressful, week.