insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Saturday, March 18, 2006 Audrey Can Stop Drooling Now Finally, pictures from Mexico! First, the captions, starting from the bottom up: the lagoon at Xel-Ha--the not really an aquarium but that's what they call it place, the port at Cozumel/Riveria De Playa in the am, the port in the afternoon, the view of Cozumel harbor as we pulled away, purple flowering tree at Tulum, orange tree at Tulum, red blossoms at Tulum, and a palm tree at Tulum. Alright, so maybe Aud will keep drooling, as I haven't posted the pictures that she's dying to see--the ones of the ruins at Tulum. (I'm eeeeeeeeeevil.) I don't really have a lot of pictures from Mexico, at least not general pictures of Mexico. I have a ton of pictures from the ruins, but I'm going to post those at a later date (as it's going to take a lot of time to post them all). We arrived in port in Cozumel at 7 am, and about 15 minutes after our arrival, Ian and I were on the floating vomitorium heading to shore. I say floating vomitorium because that's what our ferry really was. Let me backtrack a little bit--there is a warning for all of the Cozumel excursions that you can book through Royal Caribbean that the ferry ride from the boat to land may cause seasickness--that's a big clue right there. Getting from our ship to the ferry was an adventure. There were several huge Mexicans holding onto the ferry even though it was tied up to the cruise ship. There were additional huge Mexicans holding onto the little metal bridge that allowed people to walk rather than long jump from ship to ferry. And when you crossed, they grabbed you, just in case the ferry moved, so they could prevent you from falling into the ocean. Ian and I made it onto the ferry with no problems, and we grabbed two seats near the middle of the ferry. The ferry was divided into front and back by a set of restrooms and we sat sort of close to those restrooms--I hadn't been feeling that great in the morning and Ian was starting to look a little green. There were more restrooms in the back, and there were lots of announcements stating that if you were prone to seasickness, sit in the back and near the restrooms. While the ferry loaded, there were workers handing out silver plastic barf bags. Once the ferry was loaded, there was another announcement about seasickness, where to sit, and if you were sick to please use the baggies--after that, we were on our way. The boat ride was rough--I swear the ferry driver had seen The Fast and The Furious too many times, and had taken it literally as a how-to-drive manual. Everyone was seasick--the people in front, in back, across from us. There were ferry workers circulating throughout the boatride with big garbage bags to collect used barf bags and pass out clean ones. I wasn't seasick, but with all of the people vomiting, I thought I was going to lose it. We arrived on shore in about 30 minutes, and I have never been so glad to see land. Land meant no more vomiting. We met with our tour group for the excursion to Tulum and Xel-ha, took a short walk through the streets of Riveria De Playa, and got on the bus to go to Tulum. We stopped briefly at a Mexican flea market for a bathroom break and tourist shopping. Every vendor had the same stuff for sale--blankets, mass produced pottery, overpriced jewelry, sombreros; however, none of the vendors were overly pushy or yelling at you to check out their wares (unlike the vendors everywhere else we were at in Mexico). We arrived at Tulum, spent 1/2 hour on the guided tour, ran around and explored for an hour on our own, got back on the bus, and headed to Xel-Ha. Xel-Ha is billed as the Mexican aquarium; however, it's not an aquarium in the typical American sense. There are no buildings full of fish and aquatic critters swimming behind glass. There are no tanks that you can stick your hands in to touch the animals. To see Xel-Ha, you must get in the water. You have to swim or snorkel through the lagoon/estuary to see the aquatic life. To get to the lagoon, you walk through a tropical park. It's almost like walking through an American park--there are paths and trails winding through the trees and land animals, there was a concession stand and restrooms, shops for tourists. Instead of the American landscape though, we were surrounded by palm trees, lush green vegetation, and bright tropical flowers. There were lizards and iguanas and macaws everywhere. There was an area to swim with dolphins, and an area with hammocks for napping or watching the dolphins. Ian and I spent some time testing the hammocks after we went for a swim in the lagoon. Ian went out in the deeper water, while I hovered closer to shore. I got to see a turtle, several bright yellow fish, some blue fish, silver fish, and some reddish color fish. (Don't ask for the names of what I saw, because I don't know. I was identifying by color.) They swim right up to you, too. These animals are not afraid of people in the water. It was incredible. Ian and I didn't take many pictures, because the best stuff to see was underwater, and while we were there, we rented a locker to put our clothes and cameras in so we were free to explore the water. We did see some Mexican nuns there on a tour--all in white habits and gowns. We spent several hours exploring Xel-Ha, then it was back on the bus and back on the floating vomitorium and back to the boat. We found out later that the waters got more rough during the day--so rough that they cancelled all of the underwater excursions (snorkeling, scuba, snuba) in Cozumel. But we had a great time seeing all of the stuff that we saw. And I promise...next post will be Tulum. posted by jaime | 12:39 PM 0 comments |
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