Friday we arrived in Cozumel. This was by far the nicest, prettiest, and most modern place we had been. Unfortunately, we did not get to see very much of it. We had scheduled an excursion to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. It was quite a trip to get there. First we were to be tendered twelve miles to the Mexican mainland, then ride a chartered bus for about an hour to Tulum. While waiting for our excursion to begin, we met another couple, David and Louise Hunter from Jacksonville, Arkansas, who were celebrating their 38th anniversary that day. They were on their 14th cruise! Talking with them would make our boat ride much easier to take. When we were ready to get on our small boat, we were told the waves were too rough for that pier, and it would be dangerous, so they walked us several blocks to the next pier. That is when we got to see a little of Cozumel.
Once we were finally on our boat, we began what could best be described as a 45-minute roller coaster ride at Six Flags! The little boat was tossed about and waves went all the way over the top. John was back on the ship watching and telling Mary Ann that Doug sure was going to get sick, as his stomach had been upset the night before. Doug did not get sick, but many people started looking pretty green, and so the crew handed out the barf bags. I took one since I was feeling a bit queasy, but I never needed it. There was a bar in the boat. Of course, the bottles and glasses were fastened down, but everything else ended up in the floor. It was quite a ride, and all of us were relieved when we arrived at the dock in Playa del Carman. Unfortunately, we got separated from David and Louise and ended up on different buses and tours. From the dock, we walked several more blocks to get on our bus. Again, this area was quite nice. It looked just like any American city, except the signs were in Spanish.
Carlos was our guide, and he was obviously proud of his Mayan ancestors. He told us a great deal about Mayan history on our way to Tulum. Once we arrived, he led us the half-mile into the park. One nice thing about being on an organized excursion is that we didn’t have to wait in a very long line to get tickets like the many other tourists that were there.
Tulum is fascinating and beautiful. Here is where you see the ancient temples with the long stairs leading up the front to the altar where human sacrifices were once made. There were many other buildings as well. The temple itself is on a cliff overlooking the sea. Below is a beautiful beach. We were fortunate. This day had the best weather of our entire trip, except the day we got back, which, naturally, was beautiful. We enjoyed walking around Tulum and taking lots of pictures. We even paid five bucks for me to have my picture taken holding a real live iguana!
When we returned to Playa del Carman, we met up with David and Louise again. We all hoped the sea would not be so rough on our return ride to the ship. Unfortunately, it was worse. Besides that, our boat was late and caused the ship to be late launching, something that rarely happens in our experience. I guess because we were late, the tender boat returned directly to the dock where the ship was anchored, the one that had been “too dangerous” that morning. That’s when the real adventure began. To get off the boat, we had to go up steps and then back down to the gangplank. The boat was rocking wildly, so we had to go up the steps single-file, holding onto the railing for dear life. The wind was blowing at gale force by now.
The gangplank was laid across from the boat to the dock, but because the boat was rocking so, the gangplank kept moving. Four men stood on the dock pulling on it to steady it as best they could. It took forever to get everyone off, one person at a time. We had to jump from the bottom step to the gangplank because if we stepped down level with it, it could slide back over our feet. One lady foolishly did just that, and had a bleeding foot. One by one, we quickly ran across the gangplank and were thankful to be on dry dock.
We returned to the ship, showered, and met John and Mary Ann for dinner. Of course, we told them all about our day. They had stayed in Cozumel and walked around, which is what we will do if we ever go there again. We saw the show afterwards. By that time, even our huge ship was rocking enough that people could not walk straight down the halls. All I wanted to do was go to bed, so we did. I lay there for a long time, rising and falling and rocking to and fro, hearing trays and objects crashing in the hallways, and creaks and moans from the ship itself. Finally I turned on the ship TV to find out what was going on. The waves were from 12 – 18 feet, and the wind was gale force 8.
I finally went to sleep, and everything was much calmer when we awoke the next morning in the gulf. This day would be spent at sea as we returned to New Orleans. We spent a quiet day, eating, buying pictures, playing Scrabble, and finishing our books. Mary Ann had gotten motion sickness the night before and spent Friday in bed, eating only soup. When we met up with David and Louise the next day, they told us that in all their cruises, they had never experienced such rough seas!
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