Sailing into Mexico
Tuesday morning saw us sailing into Cozumel, Mexico for our only stop of this cruise. We took advantage of our infinite verandah to watch as we pulled into port. We had breakfast in the buffet again and then went down to the theater to wait for our excursion. The new dance crew was warming up and the tech crew was working on the stage for the next night's show.
Playa Mia
Our excursion was a small group discovery that included a cooking class, a tequila tasting and a tour of the ruins on Cozumel. We were taken to a trolley by Fanny, our tour guide, for our first stop at Playa Mia.
Prepping
We were taken upstairs for a cooking class which was fun and informative. The chef took our drink orders and had us donn chef's hats and aprons.
Making Dessert
We started off carmelizing plantains in butter for our dessert course. Then it was time to melt some chocolate with cinnamon, cream and tequila to make a topping. The chef then began a complicated demonstration of how to decorate the plate that left all of us wondering how we would duplicate it, but we did our best. After skinning our plantains, we placed them on our decorated plates, covered them in chocolate and put them in the refrigerator to chill.
Main Course
Next up was cooking our fish for the main course. We added oil to our skillet (in our case, a little too much as we started a small fire) and then began searing our fish fillets. Once we they were seared on both sides, we took them out of the skillet and sauteed our vegetables: onion, bell pepper, zucchini and carrots. We added about a cup of tamarind syrup to the vegetables along with some chili powder. Once that was done, we put our fish onto foil and piled the vegetables on top, then added a slice of tomato. Then we folded up the foil and sent our fish off to the oven to finish cooking.
Shrimp Sope
Our next dish was a shrimp sope. We started off with a ball of corn masa which we placed on a tortilla press to flatten. Then it went on the griddle to cook in a teaspoon of oil. After that we put some oil in a skillet and cooked the shrimp until it was pink. We poured in some tomato puree and chipotle syrup. The chef explained the complicated procedure he used to make the tomato puree -- open a can of puree and pour it in the pan. The chef came by and flipped our sope and then told us when it was done. He then instructed us on how to pinch the edges of the sope to 'make a wall' and flatten out the bottom to make a bowl. We added our shrimp to the bowl and poured our sauce over the top. We added a little lettuc and cream and some Mexican cheese.
Lunch Time
We carried our sope upstairs to begin our lunch. We sat at long tables with the other guests from our ship. The waiters provided cervezas and margaritas as we started lunch. They brought up our finished fish and dessert and we sat and talked about the great meal we had made.
Tequila Tour
After Playa Mia, we climbed back in the trolley for a tour around Cozumel along the coast before stopping at our next destination, the Mi México Lindo Tequila Tour. We started off with a tequila lemonade drink while our guide gave a brief overview of tequila production. (No tequila is made on Cozumel). We were hoping for more information on how tequila was made, but we were ushered into a tasting room where we had small sips of about seven tequilas. Janie picked up a couple of bottles to take home.
San Gervasio
Our next stop was the San Gervasio ruins on Cozumel. This was the most disappointing part of the excursion. It was a very hot day and Fanny spent a lot of time talking about Mayan culture, but she kept repeating herself and all of us just wanted to get into some shade. We spent nearly 15 minutes at the first part of the site and a lot of us were wandering off to the next location trying to get her to move along. We ended up over 30 minutes past our scheduled ship return time and we were all hot and exhausted.
Back on the Apex
Once back on the ship, we took showers and changed for dinner before heading down to the martini bar to hang out with Bruce and Andrea for awhile. We went together to Robbie Printz' comedy show in the theatre. He was very funny and Andrea and J. R. got Janie into the act when Robbie asked about women changing their hair color (and also about no one ever buying a cat).
After the show, we had dinner plans in Tuscan for the night. J. R. had the escargot and braised short rib pappardelle pasta while Janie had tilapia. Both were really good.
We arrived late for the second showing of 'Caravan' in The Club so ended up with obstructed seats, but it was still a great show. The performers on board Celebrity ships are all very talented.
