Burrito challenge, Chileno Bay snorkelling & more tequila!

It had only been one spectacularly busy week but I was loving life on the Sapphire despite the terrible sales and lack of sleep, but like the cliche says you work hard, you play hard and most of the crew just found another gear on the Sapphire with its busy 7 day run.

I was doing tours in every port some cruises as I wanted to see as much of Mexico as I could before the upcoming purgatory of Alaska for 4 months. In Puerto Vallarta it was the same tour almost every week a trip to a tequila factory and a folkloric dance show, this was fine but you quickly learnt with a younger spring break crowd you had to do a lot more drinking and socialising with them if you wanted to sell DVD's. Once on the tequila tasting section of the tour most of the PAX refused to drink their shots unless I matched them shot for shot, always great to have around 10 shots of Tequila before midday every tuesday!

After the ridiculous alcohol intake it would be time for lunch and I'd always heard about how hot and spicy Mexican food was, except that was not what was served to the guests bceause spring break cruises not withstanding a Princess cruise passenger was generally on the older side. I'd learn whatever country I was in that most of the time the local food we'd eat on the ships excursions would be heavily westernised versions and not much more authentic than what the buffet served onboard.

Lunch times on shore excursions could be like every cafeteria scene you see in the movies, you get told to sit at any free space at a table and the herding of cats continues! Most times though where I'd been chatting away to the PAX I'd usually get invitied to sit with the whoever I'd been talking too during the excursion and I'd tell them the same stories over and over each week about how I'm enjoying the job, what a great company Princess is and subliminally selling myself and the DVD in a more relaxed setting.

So after a few cruises doing the same tour each week I got to know some of the tour guides and at lunch they'd always sit by themselves and they always had their own food which looked much more authentic than what the PAX were served. This week I sat for lunch with them and asked 'what are you guys eating' 'oh its too spicy for you' they joked and they said they couldn't serve what they ate to the guests as it was too hot. It might have been the ten shots of tequila talking but that sounded like a challenge to me!

The guides said 'okay man, if you can eat one of our tacos, we'll give you that massive margerita for free' They had a massive margerita that came in a massive collectors glass that you got to keep, I figured that would help put out the fire from the taco that was most definitely going to stitch me up. It was pretty fucking hot and I did start sweating immediately even in the hot Mexican sun, but then I downed a pint of margerita straight afterwards. By now this had become a spectator sport and most of the PAX were watching me 'is the cameraman allowed to drink?' they joked, I hoped!

One of my favourite ports was Cabo as almost every excursion involved getting on a catamaran, going snorkeling and drinking a ton of rum and tequila on the way back, this was a work day for me and now in my land locked life I really miss these boat trips.

By this point I had shot so many of these tours that I could do them in my sleep, on the way to the snorkel site I'd put the focus on the technical shots and the scenery. A little bit of underwater footage (which was generally terrible back then due to my inexperience and lack of color correction) and then I'd film everyone drinking there faces off on the way back.

The biggest difference cruising this time of year was the younger PAX who were largely American college kids on Sprinh Break which meant you didn't have to recite the same story that you'd trot out to the older PAX about where you are from, how the job is etc. They didn't care they were there to party and drink!

On the next cruise diaries - More Mexican spring break adventures on the Sapphire and the Ca-caw incident