We woke up this morning and noticed that we could see lights on the horizon which meant our first land sighting since we left Tampa on Sunday. We were due in port today in Cozumel, Mexico at 8am so we knew we must be close. The plan for today was to see the Mayan ruins of Coba. We got ready and met up with everyone for breakfast at 7:30 while we arrived in the Port of San Miguel.
Once we were docked we made our way down to the gangway and waited for them to let us off the ship. After a few minutes of waiting we were off and walking down the pier to meet the boat that would take us to the mainland since Cozumel is an island. The water taxi took us to Playa del Carman where we would get the bus to the ruins. First thing that we noticed was how amazing the water looked. I just wanted to jump in and spend the day there. We will have to come back.
A short walk through the town and we were at the bus. “Someone” had to go to the bathroom so everyone else in the group got on the bus first and when we finally got on there were not two seats together, so Kelly was in the back, and I was up front. The guide Carlos started going through his spiel and told us about the Mayans. The ride to the site was almost two hours and it was broken up by a quick stop to get our lunch, a sandwich and such that I didn’t eat, and a bathroom stop at a gift shop. Kelly bought a “souvenir” but there wasn’t much of anything there that looked interesting.
Once we finally got to the site it became apparent that this was going to be rushed. We had to leave the site at 2pm (ship time) in order to get back in time for the 5pm departure and it was already 1pm, so we would only have two hours there. I wasn’t too worried about this but then the other guide Tony started talking and kept going and going and going. We started to walk around some while he was still talking just so we could actually see the ruins. After about a half an hour he was finally done and we started to move, slowly. The ruins were really interesting to see and hear about but I had my sites set on getting to the top of the Nohock Mul, the largest temple there.
About 1:30 we finally made it to the Nohock Mul and I handed my bag to Kelly to start my climb, her and Patrick chickened out. There are 120 steps to the top and it is quite steep and very uneven so I decided just to go fast and not stop. I basically crawled up to the top, but I made it.
It was the highest point that I could see all around. It looked to be the only thing taller than the trees as far as you could see. After taking a few pictures I turned around to see that Dad had made it up to the top too.
We took a couple more pictures then had to kind of rushed back down to we could get back to the bus. We celebrated making it back down as it was much harder than going up, the rope there to help was useless.
We then started the 1.5km walk back to the bus. I was hot before the climb but after I was absolutely drenched in sweat, it wasn’t a pleasant walk back. The bus ride back was uneventful, but I was nice and cool and that’s all that mattered.
We got back to Playa del Carmen at 3:45 and were quickly lead to the water taxi that was waiting to take us back to the dock in Cozumel. The water was quite rough and we bobbed all over the place the whole way, enough for someone to lose their lunch. I thought the guy next to me was going to fall over on me as apparently he couldn’t stay awake at all and was bobbing along with the boat. We made it back just in time and were back in the ship by 4:30, just!
Once back on board we made a beeline to find food and find it fast. Burgers were in order so we scarfed them down on the back deck as we pulled away from the dock. Next thing on order were some drinks which we enjoyed as we started on our way to Belize. Once we finished them we headed back to our cabin for a nap, but I was just so disgusting from the day that I had to shower first. Best shower ever! Then I napped.
Got up and met up for dinner and we are now just relaxing in the cabin. The water is quite rough tonight so we are rocking quite a bit. Hopefully it wont bother Kelly. Tomorrow we’ll be in Belize where we are going to take a catamaran to a barrier reef to go snorkeling in the morning. We then have the afternoon to do whatever we want. Probably explore the port area some. Hopefully a much more relaxing day, today wore us all out!
