Thursday, January 30, 2025

Day 6 - Cozumel, Mexico

Friday - Today’s adventure started early. We met Gail, one other member from the park, for breakfast at Park Place. The toasted onion bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, onion, and capers was delicious. We had an excursion scheduled which started with a bus ride to some Mayan ruins followed by a couple more stops. After signing waivers we headed out. Travel on the road system here seemed much more controlled than Roatan. Traffic signals!

The Mayan ruins at San Gervasio were less impressive than expected. Then again, Cozumel is a small island. No pyramids. Several foundations for a temple, palace, and other limestone structures. The commoners lived in wooden structures. Many of the buildings had their stones taken by conquering Spaniards for their own buildings and churches. 


It was interesting and the guide did a fantastic job. One thing that surprised me was the lack of any writing but that could have been due to the site being picked over in the past. While we were there, I did pick up some more extra-strength Ibuprofen for less than we paid yesterday. $35 for 100 tablets versus $20 for 50. Still more than Los Algodones. But I now have enough to last for a while. 


We then stopped at a honey bee place to give us an opportunity to buy more stuff. I think it was associated with the tour company. The claimed reason was to allow a shaman to “bless” the obsidian pendants that people purchased at the previous stop. The next stop was scheduled and listed on the itinerary. A chocolate demonstration at the Mayan Cacao Company. They gave us the history including how it was used by the Mayans. They did a demonstration of grinding the cacao nibs and adding honey, allspice, cinnamon, and a few other things to make Mayan chocolate. Their traditional drink is mixed with water. Using milk was a European thing after the cacao was brought back to Europe by the Spaniards. 





We arrived back at the ship around 2:45 and we hit up the hot dog place again for a quick snack as we missed lunch. This excursion was fairly long time-wise and we ended up traversing the entire road system of the island. 







Tomorrow is a sea day as we head back to Galveston. 

1 comment:

  1. Looks like I didn't miss much when on a company outing (before being retired) in Cozumel in terms of Mayan ruins. Shame about their condition.

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