Cozumel

Our last site seeing day was spent on the little island of Cozumel, which is about a 45 min ferry ride away from Cancun. We had booked an all day excursion where we drove around the entire island in jeeps, making stops along the way and then ending with lunch on the beach and snorkeling.

We met up with a group of about 15 and were divided up into the jeeps, Lex and I were paired up with a fun couple from Arizona, they did the driving, while we enjoyed the views of the island from the back seats.

The first stop on our jeep exhibition was at the Mayan ruins, San Gervasio. San Gervasio is the largest Mayan Ruins site on Cozumel, and also the most significant.  It was a holy site, dedicated to Ixchel, the goddess of fertility, Mayan women would pilgrimage here from all over the country to pray at the temples of San Gervasio.  The settlement dates back as far as 100 B.C., and was continually settled starting in 200 A.D.

This arch is one of the most well known parts of San Gervasio, it would have been the main entrance in and out of the city and it straddles the main religious road.

After our tour of San Gervasio, and being eaten alive by mosquitos... (this was the only location on our entire trip that we encountered any type of mosquito or bug) we loaded back up into our jeeps and drove to our next stop, a tequila distillery, to learn all about Mexico's most popular drink.

The owner of the distillery was such a jolly fellow and gave us an entertaining tour and taught us all about how tequila is made. We learned about the different types of tequila and those who were interested, had the opportunity to taste test some.

After our tequila time, we had a little bit of a longer drive to our next stop. We had beautiful views of the ocean on one side, and lush, green jungle on the other.

We made a stop at La Punta Sur's Ecological park. Punta Sur is a natural state reserve with over 1,000 hectares filled with a wide variety of flora, fauna and lagoon systems. Its the ideal place for nature lovers, with its white sandy beaches, turquoise waters and numerous sea fan gardens that extend through out the reef.

Our main stop in this park was at the Celarain lighthouse, where we had the opportunity to climb to the top to get magnificent views of the state reserve and the Caribbean Ocean.

After our climb in the lighthouse, we had a few minutes to enjoy the beautiful white sand beach and watch the waves crash against the shore.

The last stop of our tour around Cozumel was at Chankanaab Beach Adventure Park. Here we had lunch right on the beach and took a quick tour of the natural lagoon this park is famous for. The name Chankanaab is Mayan for "little Sea" which refers to the lagoon.

I pulled out my new waterproof go-pro-esque camera at this spot, since I had put my phone in our locker when we changed to go snorkeling, so all the photos from this adventure are from that camera and I am really pleased with how the pictures turned out! 

The natural lagoon

We were so anxious to get in that clear, turquoise water. This was a SUPER hot day and the jeeps didn't have air conditioning, so we had been living for the moment we could get in the water to snorkel.

To be honest, we didn't see too many fish. But it was still fun to swim in the ocean and enjoy the refreshing water.

Adios Mexico! Thanks for treating us so well!