If you've been reading this blog for almost any part of the last four and a half years, then chances are you will know how we feel about Mexico.
We love it.
That goes for places all over the country…Huatulco in the south, Mexicali in the north, Merida and Cozumel in the east, Irapuato and Leon in the middle, Mexico City in the 
heart and any number of places in the west — Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Loreto. You get the idea?
Ironically, the one Mexican resort haven we were cool about was Acapulco, arguably its most famous. In another era, we'd probably have liked it more.
All of this is a round-about way of saying count us among the cruise passengers who celebrate what appears to be a gradual return to the Mexican Riviera, as it's called. In 2008, there began an exodus of cruise ships from the "other" Riviera, leaving behind storm clouds and empty beaches. Puerto Vallarta dropped from 180 ship stops to 82 last year….Cabo San Lucas from 400 to 112…Mazatlan dropped to zero port calls.
It may be a coincidence, but that shocking downturn was aligned with the recessionary times felt not just in Mexico but around the world, and parlayed with a series of criminal acts in the ports.
Times are changing. Tomorrow, we'll tell you how.
Today at Phil Reimer's portsandbows.com: The people of the Viking Kvasir
Carnival Freedom
8 nights
July 5, 2014
Fort Lauderdale (return): St. Maarten, St. Kitts, San Juan, Grand Turk
Inside: $459
Cost per day: $57
www.carnival.com