Randomness with Rachel: My Cozumel Trip!

If you missed the post yesterday regarding my Royal Caribbean cruise, check it out here.

Like I mentioned in that post, we made three stops on our cruise. The first one was in Cozumel. I definitely want to go back when I can spend more than about five hours. My sister was supposed to go with me on the excursion to the Mayan ruins and the beach, but unfortunately she woke up sick that morning. :( So, I headed out to explore Cozumel by myself (well, I was with a group of other passengers from my cruise) but I felt like I was out exploring another country alone. :)

Everyone got a name tag with their tour guide's name on it (so we would remember who was all in our group). My tour guide was named Denisse (so yes, everyone in my pictures has the name Denisse on their shirt). She was running a little late so I had time to explore the port area before we left to go to the Mayan Archaeological Site. There were some natives dressed up in costumes, ready to pose for pictures with tourists (wait, is natives a PC term? I don't know what I can and can't say anymore). There were also some natives in costumes performing a dance, they did a great job! I tried to upload the video but it wouldn't work- boo. Oh well. Oh, I passed on stopping in at Margaritaville but I did take a picture in the over-sized chair out front.

We took about a 20 minute bus ride to the San Gervasio Mayan Archaeological site. I'm a history ~~nerd~~ buff, so I found it very interesting. If you ever go, I recommend taking a guided tour. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but if you go on a tour, you can learn so much more about the history than if you just walked through by yourself. The guided tour gave us plenty of time to take pictures and to venture off by ourselves to get a better look at the ruins.

Our wonderful tour guide Denisse. Here is she talking about the Mayan calendar

Touching some of the Mayan ruins (hey, I didn't see a sign that told me NOT to)

Yes, I'm a nerd who takes a picture walking along the Mayan path, judge me if you must

I wasn't sure if this statue was a Mayan god or just a random statue. I refused to touch it though (hey- I saw that episode of The Brady Bunch when they were on vacation and touched a statue of some random god and all this bad luck starting happening. I was taking NO chances). Lol

This sign in the gift shop made me laugh. I did buy some cute homemade magnets while I was there

I noticed there were a lot of iguanas around the site. They must be used to humans because they didn't scare off easily. In fact, it seemed as if they were posing for pictures. I tried to get a picture with one- if you look closely, you can see him (or her) in the background. They seemed to have the motto "if you don't bother me, I won't bother you.". I like that motto. :)

After our tour of the Mayan ruins, we got back on the bus and headed to one of the beautiful beaches of Cozumel. It was right by a restaurant called El Pescador (I got a beverage there- it was fantastic). There were beach chairs just outside the patio area (some were covered, some were not) and they were perfect for lying out and soaking up some sun. Thanks to my Mary Kay sunscreen, I didn't get burnt (I'm the only person who can go on a Caribbean vacation and come back as pale as when she left. Lol. There were two guys walking up and down the beach, one had a macaw and one had an iguana on their shoulder. You could pay to have a picture with one of them. If I had taken cash, I would have posed with the iguana, but alas, I was cash-less. I'll do that next time. Words can't describe how beautiful it was- so I'll let pictures do the talking. :)

I was possibly casting a shadow on my legs to make them look tan. Lol

I was seriously in love with the color of the water. And my swimsuit matched it. :)

I love Texas beaches and all, but I can never see my feet when I'm walking in the water in Galveston. Lol.

Pale girl problems: Trying to take a picture on the beach and your legs match the color of the white sand

Stop judging my selfies. I was testing out my new waterproof digital camera. It is capable of taking underwater pictures, but I didn't test it this trip. I wanted to make sure it took good pictures above water first.

It was maybe about 85 degrees or so, but the sand never felt hot. It was very soft sand

Before my tour left, I met some new friends while waiting in the port area. They let me tag along with them during the excursion so I wouldn't be totally by myself. They are awesome! :) Yeah for meeting new friends!