The Cruise: Cozumel

The final port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. Our excursion to the Mayan ruins of Tulum almost didn’t happen. We learned the frustrating way that it is better just to avoid third party bookings and just book excursions through the cruise line. There had been a mix up about the time zones and we were met by our guide who had waited around just to tell us that there wasn’t enough time to do the tour. Fortunately, her manager worked things out and we were able to proceed as planned. Cozumel is an island off the Yucatan peninsula. So we took a very bumpy water taxi ride across to the mainland and then traveled by bus taxi out to the site.

We spent some time before and after the tour shopping the local market stalls.

Taken from the welcome sign:

The city was also known as Zama (dawn) because of being in one of the places where dawn first breaks in our country. The community was a commercial port with a privileged location; it was an active redistribution center for local and foreign products, some of which came from places as far away as Central America, the Pacific and Gulf coasts, and Central Mexico, by sea, rriver, and land routes.

Everyday life was intertwined with politics, magical religious rituals, the arts, and astronomical observations, especially pertaining to the planet Venus — the morning and evening star — , the representative of Kukulkán — Quetzalcóatl — .

Its rampart allowed it to control internal activities and, what’s more, to protect its residents; it marked the difference between the elite class and the common people, who lived outside the great wall.

Tulum was contemporary to Chichén Itzá and Mayapán, and when the latter two states fell, it consolidated its position, paving the way for its greatest period of expansion.

Its decline began ate time Hispanic navigators arrived on its shores and islands; from then on, a certain cultural cohesion was attained that has prevailed until the present time.

Our guide, Raquel, has Mayan ancestry, is well educated, and gave an excellent tour. There is some effort being made to preserve and restore the site. It was remarkable to imagine the ancient American city in its prime.

Though not an example of classical Mayan arts at their height, Tulum has a lot of architecture and murals to experience.

This is the back of the main temple. Not part of the tour. But we went and saw it anyway. Note the tiny window.

We had some time to spare after the tour of the grounds and went down the planked stairway to the beach. Most of us got our feet wet. Our resident mermaid Brittany went for the gusto!

On the way to our water taxi, we heard some lovely music and had to look WAY up to find the band! The tour company booked us on the Margaritaville cruise back to Cozumel. It was a much smoother ride and included live music. We seized the last few minutes of our time ashore to do a bit more shopping and then it was time to set sail for home.