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| Strange edifice coming into port |
Our last port of call L.
Today we had a leisurely start meeting at 9am before
adjourning to Windjammers for breakfast.
I should note that there is no typical “cruiser”. There are all types of groupings with full-on
families, siblings and couples. So many
nationalities, although we seem to be the farthest travelled as the Brits can
travel straight to the Eastern Coast. Attire
and grooming ranges from distinctly scruffy to the sublime and as a consequence
there doesn’t seem to be a socio-economic bias.
The fitness range is extreme with super-fit toned creatures through to HUGE
lard-ass Americans (mainly) and those in wheelchairs and on oxygen.
And, it still amazes us that there are so many repeat
cruisers.
We thought we’d sneak in for a few trivia questions at the
Schooner bar before heading off on tour.
We were doing reasonably well when we had to leave for the tour (our
story and we’re sticking to it!).
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| Giant Chupa Chups at the pier |
This pier was a shared one – which is just as well with four
cruise ships there! Somehow, we seem to
be chasing a few ships on the cruise.
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| Ccraft shop on the pier |
By the way, there are a lot of tours that advertise riding
in a Jeep Wrangler! We saw a lot of them
in Cozumel.
We hopped onto the coach for a very boring drive along
straight roads with just vegetation and
no real views. Cozumel is unusual in
that it is a totally flat island.
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| Me and Rosita |
We went through a stone arch that led to the ranch and were
told “Welcome to Jurassic Park”.
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| Rebecca meeting Charra |
At the ranch we were all given a lesson in horse-riding –
quite daunting for a novice.
My horse was called Rosita, and Rebecca’s was Charra. We got quite attached to them by the end of
the day.
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| Mayan Jaguar God |
The horses were very well trained and for the most part
placid and slow. Mine didn’t like the
lead horse however and when the guide came past me there was a little kerfuffle. However most of the time we followed each
other nicely along the forest path and the Mayan ruins.
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| In the caves |
There were less ruins than we expected and less information
about the Mayans than expected as well.
But overall a very pleasant experience that took us out of our comfort
zone – again.
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| Mayan bones |
We did enter a Mayan cave complete with carvings and human
bones. Mayans were obviously a lot
shorter than us.
There were lots of large lizards along the trail, which the
guide called “Mexican squirrels”.
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| On the trail |
On the trail, I met an American medical physicist who was
travelling with a group from the Sceptics’ Association on another cruise ship
and we had some interesting conversations.
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| Outside Margaritaville |
Back at the pier it was mid-afternoon so we decided to taxi
to town to the Margaritaville restaurant for lunch.
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| Balloon hats in the restaurant |
This was great!
Lots of loud music which seemed somehow appropriate. Really loud decorations – Mexican style. One of the songs played was “Wasting away in
Margaritaville”.
As soon as we arrived we were offered a shot each which for
$3 came with a neck/shoulder massage while the masseuse blew on a whistle. Bizarre, but somehow picked us up after our
hot horse-ride.
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| Sour margarita! |
To say we’d done it, we ordered a margarita each – long &
cool on the rocks to toast being in Mexico.
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| First course... |
Lunch was basic but delicious! I had shrimp fajitas and
Rebecca had Calypso Mahi Mahi. Large American sized servings of both main and dessert.
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| Ailen "native" rock carving |
More souvenirs and then back to the pier for the last lot of
souvenir shopping in the Caribbean L.
Bizarrely there are a lot of Predator & Alien souvenirs?
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| Predator "native" rock carving |
Showers then bought some $10 watches, played 500 and had
another music quiz (on a team with a couple), but unfortunately we still
sucked!
Dinner at Galileo’s where collected our ticket for the
gallery tour for tomorrow. Sometime
later we watched a game show “Finish That Lyric”, before going back to my cabin
to listen to music.
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