Flavours of the Caribbean Day 2 - Tuesday 12th April, Cozumel, Mexico.

Cozumel is an island to the east of Mexico proper sort of on the way to Cuba. We woke this morning to glorious turquoise blue waters and hot sunshine. The water is so clear we could see the fish below from the top deck. Beautiful.

Today's tour was simple enough. A bus ride to the Mayan San Gervasio ruins

This building was a palace I believe

Our tour guide was Alex. He, like many of the people in the area, was a Mayan descendant and was very knowledgeable, and also very enthusiastic regarding the Mayans.

And this one was used as the administrative HQ - for the politics of the day.  (But I might have got the buildings mixed up)

I learnt that they were descendents from people that had originally travelled from Mongolia via North America, all about Mayan calendars, and birthmarks funny enough. Alex was so enthusiastic, I had to remind him to stop, otherwise we'd have never got back in time for lunch.

This arch was the entrance to the city.  The Mayans walked, not using wheeled transport or animals to help them.  The road was painted white, and the Mayans only travelled by night.  It would have looked amazing in the moonlight I reckon.

There were iguana's all over the place too

This is the temple of the "red hands", because of the red hand print decorations on the wall.  

The Mayans worshipped the Moon Goddess, Ichyena, (I know I've spelt that wrong, I'll correct it later).  She was depicted as a kindly old woman, very wise (she has a serpent around her head to prove it), and was also the goddess of fertility.  

From the ruins, we were then taken on a beach break.  It was a wonderful stretch of coastline (but maybe not quite as fantastic as the place we found in Costa Maya).

We did find some hammocks, which of course we had to test.

And of course, there were iguana's.  This one was quite a handsome beast I think. 

Then it was back on the bus back to the ship.  We were late back, but at least we managed to get lunch.  (Imagine all them grumpy passengers if we'd have missed it).

It was too late to go back ashore after lunch, so we napped until the fire drill, and then attended the lecturers meet and greet.  We have a new entertainment manager for this cruise, Emma.  Emma has a degree in Art, which made her so much easier to talk to later regarding the equipment for Peter's classes

The last event for our day was the Welcome Show in the evening, where Peter had to stand up and do his intro.  He did threaten to lock the passengers into his class?  But I think they knew he was joking. 

Tomorrow is a sea day but not a sea day.  We reach Havanna about 5pm, so it's not a proper sea day and Peter doesn't have any classes.  It doesn't really matter as to the reasons why, what it actually means is he has a day off.  Yippee!  

Sunday 10th April - Costa Maya, Mexico.

Last night we went to bed thinking we didn't have a tour. And guess what? We weren't asked to do one this morning either. We were actually happy about that.

Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice to go see some more Mayan Ruins - but we were just as happy to be given the day off and do as we please. Downtown was the place where all the beaches were apparently, so we pleased to head that way.

The locals didn't seem keen on us walking there, and we were directed the long way round. Costa Maya is an odd place. We walked along roads that seemed to have been built with a bustling tourist town in mind. Thing is, there was nothing on the road sides - just overgrown plots for sale. It's a pleasant enough walk (the long way round), but with the bright hot sun overhead, and no shade as we approached Downtown, we were well ready for a sit down in the shade with a cool drink.

Just about the first bar we approached was the Cabanas Blue Kay beach club. The bar was on one side of the road, with a beach area on the other. For the princely sum of $5 each, we could enjoy the beach facilities all day and have a drink included in the price. Looking around, we decided this was a little bit of paradise, and we took our fill.

This place has swings for bar stools.  It's absolutely brilliant.

The place was truly idyllic. We swam and I snorkelled. Because we had burnt so badly the last time we had a beach day, we made sure we'd sun screened up before we went out into the water. It was so beautifully clear and warm. Pelicans flew regally in formation overhead. They seemed so stately and unhurried.

We sat under the thatched shelters, enjoying the breeze and the view before relaxing with our books. At lunchtime we tucked into a feast of hamburgers and chips, (with ketchup even), and then went for another swim. (Sun-screened up again of course.) I snorkelled, the underwater world fascinating me - puffer fish, little purple and yellow fish, great silver coloured fish with massive eyes, huge spiny urchins hiding under rocks, parrot fish, striped fish, dotted fish..... the list goes on. Maybe I'll have to get an underwater camera.

It was an awesome day. Not a passenger or another person from the ship in sight. They had all gone on tours, or been talked into getting a tourist type carriage rides down to (probably more expensive) hotels and bars further along the beach.

Eventually we dried off to go back after what was just totally the perfect day We worked out a shorter route back (equally empty roads), got back to the ship about 5 and went to get a shower. Would you believe it? I got burnt again! And we'd been so careful. Now I'll have to wait before I can expose my skin again. Such a nuisance AND we've used up all the sun screen now.

Today is the last day of the Contrasts of Latin America tour. Many of the passengers and lecturers are off home tomorrow, to be replaced by a load more. This includes Neil and Louise Bonner who have been good company throughout the two weeks. Tomorrow the ships docks into Cozumel, where we basically becomes spare parts as the crew go into overdrive offloading all the existing passengers and setting up for all the new ones. It will be the first day of the "Flavours of Cuba and the Caribbean" cruise, and a whole new adventure.