Here (Aqui) and Now (Ahora) in Cozumel

Cozumel, Mexico on Saturday, December 27.  This is our last shore excursion and we spend the next two days cruising at sea (about 600 nautical miles) from here to Ft. Lauderdale where we disembark.  And, today, we were treated to the best weather of the whole trip - sunny, blue skies, low 80 degree temperatures on this beautiful island off the coast of Mexico.

There were a ton of optional shore visits, mostly centered on eating and drinking local drinks (e.g., tequila).  We passed on them, anticipating (correctly so) that the ship would be putting out a Mexican spread this evening.  Instead, we chose the "included" (no extra cost) visit to the Mayan Ruins of San Gervasio, mostly because it cited a length of only 2.5 hours (and not 4, 5, or more hours like the others).

San Gervasio is an archaeologic site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.  Its pre-Hispanic name was Tantun Cuzamil, Mayan for "Flat Rock in the Place of the Swallows", and once a hub of worship of the goddess Ix Chel, a deity of childbirth, fertility, medicine, and weaving.  Mayan women traveled here at least once in their life to make offerings, much like pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, and other holy sites. And, what was particularly interesting is that archaeologists know that there are literally hundreds of Mayan sites within the immediate vicinity in the jungle, as there was an estimated 40,000 persons in their population.

For the only time on all our shore excursions, the guide simply talked too much.  We were about two buildings into the dialogue when I felt faint.  Cheryl looked at me and asked if I was o.k. to which I replied a firm "no".  We couldn't get the guide's attention (as he was too busy talking, including about his wife and her culinary skills), and there was nowhere readily apparent to sit down. I started on my own back toward the bus and met a lovely lady from Florida at the ticket office who, like me, had bailed not feeling well.  After sitting and chatting with her for about an hour, I started feeling better. 

Cheryl bailed, too, and brought me a nice bottle of ice cold water.  Perhaps I was simply dehydrated - it's easy to do here.  My health history speaks for itself so who knows the real cause but I do know I thought for about 5 minutes I was going down.  That would've been embarrasing.  And the guide?  When he returned with the rest of the group I don't think he even knew I walked away as he said nothing.  Not one of the better guides on the whole cruise, that's for sure.

We returned by bus to downtown Cozumel and had already decided to eat lunch there.  We found a nice bar/restaurant (Aqui and Ahora - Here and Now) where we shared a monster plate of nachos and some Coke Zeros.  Some light shopping (meaning I kept Cheryl under $1,000!) followed and we made our way back to the ship, a short 10 minute walk.  I was still feeling better at this point but darned tired, so a nap seemed (and was) in order.

After walking back to the ship about 2:30 p.m. from lunch, we closed our curtains and hit the bed for a nap of about 1.5 hours.  Tonight was Mexican Night at the World Cafe and, while it was good, it wasn't quite like our favorite spot in Columbus - El Vacquero.  No refried beans for heaven's sake!

After dinner, we retired to our stateroom and picked a movie from their On Demand section.  Each time we take one of these trips, we ask in our followup questionnaire for inclusion of an American network (preferably ABC, but CBS or NBC would work too) and they haven't heard us yet.  In our early days of cruising, they had only Fox News but no MSNBC.  That, too, made my request list and, now, MSNBC is on the channel lineup.

The next two days are, again sailing toward Ft. Lauderdale so I'll update you if anything more exciting than us taking a dip in the ship's pool occurs.