Here comes the sun...or not

Hola from Cozumel, Mexico. Today may have been our busiest day yet. When we woke up this morning at 7:30am, we were not quite in Cozumel. We were very close because we could see land on the horizon. The day was starting out to be a little cloudy, but we did see the sun peek through.

Unfortunately, we also saw rain in the distance. As we were eating breakfast by the window in the Unicorn Cafe, this is what we saw.

It was so beautiful, and I knew it had to be a sign of good things to come. We made our way down to the Follies Lounge (the theater) to meet up with the other 2,000 people going on excursions today. I'm not exactly sure why they corral us in there before we leave the ship. In Cozumel, the Carnival ships dock at Puerta Maya, which is a private area that Carnival has built. There is currently one pier, but they are in the process of building a second pier. When that goes in, there will be room for 5 carnival ships to port on the same day. Today, the Carnival Holiday was already at port when we arrived.

This is us pulling along side the pier.

Because we were at a pier, we could walk right off the ship. No tender was necessary. It was a great time savings, but the walk from the ship off the pier was a good 1/4 mile or so. Puerta Maya is like a smaller version of downtown Cozumel. With a few exceptions, the same shops were located at both.

When we arrived at the end of the pier, we saw signs for today's excursion, Cozumel highlights and shopping. As we got in line, guess what happened? Yep, it started raining. We got on a motorcoach with 37 new friends, our tour guide Barbara, and our driver Jorge, and started our tour. Our first stop was Discover Mexico Park. It's a small cultural museum that not only highlights the different cultures of Mexico, but also showcases the beautiful craftsmanship of their people. All of the art on display was made completely by hand. The tools, dyes, paints, etc. used to make these goods are also handmade. There were some pretty amazing pieces in there. Here are a few that caught my eye.

Tree of Life

This is colored sand.

This rooster is made from chili peppers.

Outside of this museum, they had a pathway that led to replicas of famous landmarks in each of Mexico's 31 states. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard and the pathway was muddy, so we didn't walk through the display. I did take a few pictures on my way back to the bus. I just can't tell you what these buildings are. Again, all hand-made.

Luckily, the rain let up. Our next stop was a Mayan village. There are currently 45 families living in this village. The houses are little shacks. Barbara told us that this village is responsible for making a lot of the jewelry (mainly black coral and silver) that is sold at other shops on in Cozumel. They had shops set up, and most of the prices were reasonable; but as you might expect, they could be a little pushy. The main attraction at this village is a 1,000 year old Mayan church and a 500 year old Catholic church. When Catholicism was introduced to the area, they had to build the church so that families could worship together. We weren't able to get into the Mayan church, but the Catholic church was quite picturesque.



Back on the bus, everyone. On the way to the next destination, we stopped at a beach-side souvenir stand. (Barbara knows all the hot spots.) We weren't really interested in the items for sale, but the view was beautiful. There were huge rocks of coral along the shore, and the waves were really rough. (I felt sorry for all the people who thought they were going to snorkel today.)

We get back on the bus and drove about a mile down the road when Jorge pulled over. There was a man along side of the road that was helping newly-hatched turtles make there way into the sea. If any of you are fans of turtles, you probably know that usually hatchlings leave the safety of their eggs at night when it's safe. A good majority of young turtles won't make it to the water because they'll be eaten by birds. A group in Cozumel has decided to help the cause, and they put a stake in the sand by the turtle's nest with the date they are likely to hatch. (Notice the red stake in the photo below.) When the date draws near, they come to the nest to watch the turtles hatch and then help them make it into the water. It just so happens that because the weather was so rough today, some of the turtles were brave enough to head to the water during the day. This little green turtle is now making his was to the Gulf of Mexico where he'll someday weigh about 500 lbs.



Next we learned about agave. Barbara told us there are 132 types of agave. Examples of agave include sisal, aloe vera, and pineapple. This is the blue agave plant. It looks like a gigantic pineapple plant growing in the ground. The blue stalks (if that's what you call them) will get to about 7 feet tall when the blue agave is ripe. This will take 10 years. What is made with blue agave? Why, tequila is made with the blue agave. Our next stop was to the Cava Antiqua Tequila "factory". Barbara tells us that if tequila is made with 100% agave, you will not be hung over in the morning. I will take her word for it. They did offer us a tasting of 9 different tequilas. They make a lot of flavors such as cream, coffee, cherry, and orange. Tequila is actually made with the big round part of the agave. (the large egg shape in the photos below) The nectar from the blue stalks are actually used to make a natural sweetener. Since it is sugar-free, it is popular with diabetics. It looks like maple syrup. I bought a bottle to try in my hot tea this winter.

At this point, we've been on this 4 hour tour for 4.5 hours, and we haven't been to downtown Cozumel. A couple of people asked if we could skip the shopping in downtown and just head straight for the Puerta Maya. Since many of the shops are located at both places, we voted to just drive through downtown and then head for the pier. By this time, I'm starving, and it's late enough (about 4pm) that the only thing available on the ship will be hot dogs, hamburgers, or pizza. We decide to try one of the recommended restaurants, Pancho's Backyard. I had a sampler platter (notice my chicken sombrero) and Becky had a burrito.

We did a little bit of shopping and headed back to ship. The Carnival Imagination had arrived while we were gone and is now parked beside us.

Becky has had a rough 24 hours. She had some sinus pressure under her right eye and has been sneezing and blowing her nose all day. She bought some medication at port and has been sleeping since shortly after we got back. I went to the fitness center then came back thinking we'd be getting ready for dinner, but Becky's still sleeping. I'm really not hungry since we ate such a late lunch, but I'll miss Vernon and Gusti. They work hard to make our dinner special. If she wakes up at some point this evening, we'll probably order room service and just relax tonight. Our cabin steward came by at 8:30 for our turn down service, but since Becky's in her bed, no turn down and therefore, no towel animal tonight. Sorry, folks!

We left Cozumel at 7pm. Next stop...Belize.