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Cozumel

Cozumel was another 8:00am port day, but our excursion wasn't until 9:00 so we had a little extra time for breakfast in the morning . The made-to-order omelet was so good last time I had to get that again - delicious. It was the same omelet guy from last time, a true egg flipping professional; able to take the egg and flip it one handed while in the middle of sprinkling cheese on another omelet. Just watching him work was a treat in itself. He was making 3 omelets at a time and flipping like he was born for this.

Cozumel today with the Ancient Culture/Mayan Ruins & Island Sightseeing tour. Fun facts: Cozumel is 14 miles away from mainland Mexico. "Nacho" (Ignacio) was our tour guide today. He has been doing this for 33 years (52 years old now). Being a tour guide requires 4.5 years studying in college. Additionally, there is an additional credit/study requirement of 100 hours per year. Cozumel is the biggest island in Mexico. You can see playa del Carmen in distance. Quinten Roa Mexican state. It would take 29 hours driving to get to Mexico City (population 30 million people). 1 week driving to the US border. Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexican Independence Day, it's a holiday surviving the French conquest in 1862 . Mexico's Independence Day from Spain is celebrated on September 16. 30 million Americans in Mexico so they celebrate American Independence Day as well. 80,000 people in Cozumel. The bus was taking us to a city in Cozumel called San Miguel. Cozumel is a coral limestone island, so not volcanic (like Hawaii). It is only 18 feet above sea level. 58% women population in Mexico. Mayan people originate from Mongolia/Asia with the cross eyes. Also, true Mayan's have no hair on chest or legs or face. They came over from Siberia to Alaska and down. "Mongolia spot from Asia" is a black/blue spot right above the butt (coccyx). Mayan people are super small, often under 5 ft. They often have pointy heads because of their using their head to carry things. The head shape was used as a class identifier (for example, the wealthy would have a less pointy head as they're presumably carrying less on their heads).

Sunny and mid 80's today - definitely the warmest and most humid day of trip (it was super humid in Mexico the last time we were here) . Because of climate change, the rainy season used to be in May, now it's in September/October. And because of rising sea levels, one day Cozumel will probably be below sea level. The thatched roofs here support category 1-3 hurricanes. The buildings on the island are guaranteed up to category 5.

Hernandez Cortez discovered Cozumel / Mexico. We don't know a ton about the Mayan culture because he burned all the Mayan books. Predominantly (upper 80%) Christian because of the Spanish.

We are visiting an old Mayan city, San Gervasio (Tantun Cuzamil),from 650 BC - older than Chichenitza. About 1000 people used to live here. There are no pyramids here because pyramids meant sacrifices (human). This is the Mayan island of fertility and the Moon God, so human sacrifice is kind of counter intuitive. Instead of pyramids, there are temples here. Side fact: the poison of the frog was used as an anesthetic similar to LSD for the people being sacrificed . The person who volunteered to be sacrificed would lick the frog several times.

41 cruise ships a week to Cozumel bring 3.5 million people a year. Cozumel is 20% built and 80% jungle - disproportionate ratio. Apparently Trump wanted to turn the coastline and jungle into a tourist area with his hotels in a 2006 plan. The government said no because they wanted to preserve the land and not destroy it.

We saw a cave that used to be part of the underground highways / subways between cities for the Mayans. We saw the "Tree of life" aka Sabal palm tree. This tree is only found otherwise in Florida (think: Pangea). The top of the tree is to the heavens and roots are to the underworld. Cozumel has no monkeys nor poisonous snakes (note: non-poisonous, not non-deadly. The boa constrictor snake is found here.).

At the Mayan archeological site of San Gervasio, we saw a burial chamber that used to be house around 60 people . Leading up to the chamber or temples always had exactly 7 steps because they were very superstitious and beloved in reincarnation (but not much known about that because of Cortez). When they left or abandoned their cities, they covered everything they wrote in covered with their version of concrete and paint (more on this later). All the Mayan buildings roll with the earthquake as Mayan's were incredible scientists. They even knew constellations long before Galileo came around with his telescopes. Protruding from the back of the burial chamber was a 1500-year-old tree (a similar species as one found in Africa). The amber used from the tree acts as a glue (chicklet). The Mayans were really smart; they drilled with volcanic rocks, hid their food in little holes in the ground as a natural refrigerator, and currently the entire world is using a deriviative of the Mayan calendar. Also, thanks to monkeys the Mayan's were second people to discover the powers of the cocoa bean (chocolate; the first were African’s). They used the cocoa bean as currency . They also drank it at ceremonies.

Fertility arch. Used to be a tunnel and had holes to let in oxygen and light. Went 7 miles to beach. Burial temple had 7 steps. Columns had 7 steps. Arch had 7 steps. 7 colors in rainbow. 7 days to create earth. 7 players in Mayan ball sacrifice ritual. When clapping in Mayan ball ritual field, you will hear 7 echoes. 2014 = 2+0+1+4 = 7 = year of Mayan. Etc. The Mormon book has a Mayan presence.

One of the "New7Wonders of the World"; Chichen Itza. 2/7 of these are in South America (Machu Picchu and Christ the Redeemer). When clapping or screaming on top of pyramid, it makes sound of of an important bird to the Mayans: the quetzal. The equinox lines on pyramid have 7 lines. George Bush did one of his diplomatic meetings with Mexico at Chichen Itza.

Mayan temples were also discovered in Atlanta, Georgia, Orlando, Florida, and Colorado state. They built up and subsequently left because they didn't like war . Before they left, they covered their temples with paintings and put concrete over their wording on temples.

Our tour guide was explaining that the cruise ships have their own desalinization plants, just as Cozumel does. On the far end of the island where we were now traveling, there was no electricity; just solar or generator power. No one owns the restaurant or land on this side of the island as it’s a natural conservatory. It is all rented from the federal government.

In general, when hills and rivers are present, the visibility is going to be poor in the ocean for snorkeling or diving. There are no rivers in Cozumel so the water is 100% clear. The best places to snorkel or to dive is to find rocky land. Rocky = coral = fish habitat. Sand = no marine life. Sadly, there are no coconut trees on the island because deadly disease in the 1980's. They had to burn all the trees. This is why we can't bring fruits into Mexico and they’re so picky about it.

We went to a little restaurant called Cala Mirador on the southern tip of Cozumel. We ordered chips and guacamole and two Tecate Lights ($3 beers!). After a quick bite to eat, we walked on the beach towards the large chunks of coral creating mini mountains overlooking the sea. It was really neat to see the water flow through the holes in the coral.

We continued through the island tour through mostly lush vegetation . Our tour guide dropped us off back at Carnival's port. Not as thrilling as our other days, but we still had a good time learning a ton about the Mayan culture and the island of Cozumel. Nacho mentioned we have free margaritas waiting for us back at "Three Amigo's" if we turn in our name tags. Of course we took advantage of that!

Upon returning, we wandered through the port and the shops. There was a makeshift beach with sand, palm trees, and lounge chairs. We relaxed in the shade for a bit and in the sun for a bit. We admired our ship from afar as well as Royal Caribbean's massive ship (almost double ours’; that thing has massive dragon water slides and even a helipad!). We were also memorized from the clearness of the beautifully blue water. This was one of my favorite (non-excursion) spots that we found, probably second to the nature trail and beach in Roatan. Alicia also found a friend – a little crab!

We eventually found a coffee shop and ordered a mango smoothie, it was pretty cheap too (in pesos) . The coffee shop had free wifi (with purchase of course) as well, score! After deleting copious amounts of email, we went in the garden and studied the iguanas in their natural habitat. We even saw one poop.

All of the shops on port are owned by Carnival we found out (but that makes sense). After wandering for a little bit longer, we boarded the docked ship. Upon returning, I had another roasted peppers and mozzarella ciabatta bread sandwich (delicious). Alicia had roasted turkey.

After our late lunch, we walked the jogging track for a while and spied into the several other ships that were currently docked at Cozumel. We watched the entire sunset – pretty amazing. We watched our ship depart Cozumel (1.5hour late, Mexico time ya know).

Tonight was our last formal night, so it took us a little longer to get ready for dinner (which was in an hour at this point). We still had lots of wine left, so we each had a glass while we got ready. Before dinner, we ran into our dinner friends again and we decided that we should get some couple photos before dinner. We found a great place on the stairway of the 3^rd deck lounge, and even found a nice lady to take a picture of the four of us.

Dinner:

Appetizer: stuffed mushrooms, crab cake. Alicia had clam chowder .

Entree: filet mignon and short ribs (yes so good!). This was the first time I would have ever had filet mignon. I also ordered the grilled 'jumbo' shrimp – it’s a good thing I ordered both, there were only a few shrimps for me and they weren’t very jumbo. Alicia had the teriyaki salmon.

Dessert: carnival chocolate melting cake (had to, apparently they are famous for it). It was just like a gooey, chocolatey brownie served in a cup. Alicia had a key lime mousse which she also very much enjoyed. As our last formal night celebration, the wait staff did another special song and dance for us – it was really something to witness. Viktor was hysterically always a few moves behind.

Tonight, we gave in to Viktor’s insistence and ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir with our dinner. The four of us split the bottle which made it more cost-effective.

After dinner, we found our frames photos we took the other day . They were just as adorable as I expected. For entertainment tonight, we visited the comedy club. We caught the last bit of Happy Cole and the whole show of Jeff Jena.

After the comedy shows, it was getting pretty late and we were all pretty exhausted. Sleep time. 4 back to back to back to back port days is truly exhausting. Even though we didn't have a strenuous excursion today we still had managed 16.5k steps with 46 flights of stairs climbed.

Upon returning to the room, we were surprised by another interesting / awesome towel animal: a bat that was suspending in air! He wearing my sunglasses too J.

Excursion link: https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/cozumel/ancient-culture-mayan-ruins-and-island-sightseeing-304163