Cozumel / Playa Del Carmen

The second stop was in between Cozumel and Playa as the boat had to stay out in the sea and we had to take tender boats in to port. The tenders were terrible b/c they were so big, something like 300 people go on one, which means it takes forever to load and unload.


Anyhow, we headed to Playa Del Carmen to catch a bus to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. Playa's coast line was awesome, shops, hotels, bars, restaurants and beaches. (Same for Cozumel also). The trip was a very long one to Tulum, and our tour guide was quite interesting. We stopped about half way and I bought a Mayan calendar carving... very cool.


We arrived at Tulum and it was everything I could have hoped for and more. It was gorgeous. Set on top of a hill with the blue ocean right below. Some interesting facts:

• They cut the hillside so that if a hurricane came through it would not hit the kings house it would blow down through the other side of the village
• It was one of the first "cities" to have a wall built around it
• the movie Blue Lagoon was taped on its beach
• One building had a window that the sun shined through perfectly on Dec. 22nd, that is how they new which day it was and that it was the end of their calendar year

We spent two hours walking around the ruins and it was just fantastic. It was very very hot that day and it was a long long trip to and from, but well worth it.



As we exited Tulum we had some time before the bus left and we hit up this little restaurant and had some margaritas, and some AWESOME guac and nachos. I would love to have some of that guac now.. SS and I killed the 2 plates worth in about 5 min.

Since we arrived late to port, we got some extra time to go from Playa over to Cozumel. SS and I headed over, most of the stores were closed (including the diamond international store.. SCORE!!) but we did get to visit heaven. That being a store with 300 kinds of tequila and a bunch of Cuban cigars. I bought some of both, then we headed out trying to find a stone Amulite or something like that for SS. We had no luck so stopped at Fat Tuesdays and got some frozen drinks in a Yard glass (very yummy). We got on the boat and SS got a guy to sell her a necklace for 8 bucks which everyone has complimented her on.

Had a great time and I really appreciated SS going to the ruins with me since I am so intrigued by the whole Mayan culture and historical stuff like that.