Cozumel is an island that sits off the Mexican Yucatan peninsula, having a normal population of around 100,000 according to our tour guide. Today in addition to our cruise ship there were SIX other ships in town (two Carnival ships, two Royal Caribbean, a Disney ship and a Celebrity [5 star plus]). By my back of fag packet calculation this would have added another 12-15000 to the population, it was very busy.
We were booked today on one of the ships tour, Cozumel by land and sea, and had to pick up the tour guide at the end of the pier. There was a great atmosphere with people in traditional Mayan costumes posing for photos…..
…..and everywhere you went was the sound of mariachi bands playing those familiar Mexican tunes.
The first part of our trip was to be a visit to the reef on a semi-submersible boat to view the sea life. The coral reef in this area is the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef, and is a protected area. (How the authorities square that with allowing 7+ cruise ships to visit every day is beyond me.) The reef was a favourite of underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau who spend much of his time on the island.
We boarded the boat and descended the stairs, where we each sat in front of a large picture window with a great view of the water. After a brief safety lecture we made our way slowly from the dockside. Almost immediately we were surrounded by schools of fish of many assorted shapes, sizes and colours. The photos don’t really do justice to the sights we saw but perhaps give an indication of the abundance of sea life there was on the reef.
In addition to the multitude of fish varieties we also caught glimpse of a sea turtle, apparently a rare sighting at this time of year, but we were not quick enough to capture him on camera.
Next stop on the tour was a visit to the Mayan Cacao Company where we were able to see the traditional method of making Mayan Chocolate. Apparently the local monkey population were the first to discover the delights of the cacao nut, after eating, the nut passed through their system. Some brave fellow picked up some of these digested nuts and discovered they tasted pretty good. This is NOT the way it is made today!
The cacao nuts are crushed with a mixture of spices, partly for flavour and partly for preservation, and then mixed with water. This was demonstrated to us by a very informative guide.
In the gardens we were treated to a chorus from a pair of parrots.
The last port of call was for a tequila sampling. I don’t think that I have ever sampled tequila previously not really being a fan of spirits but it seemed wrong not to give it a go on this occasion. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant and can only be made in this part of Mexico, although it is not actually produced on Cozumel! We tried three different types, firstly a straight white spirit tequila that was very strong and fiery. This was followed by a milky coloured version that tasted very much like a Baileys cream liquor. Lastly a coffee liquor version that I loved.
Also on offer were a pistachio version and a very sweet syrupy hibiscus flavour one, the latter tasting a little like cough mixture. Not my favourite.
We then made the short journey back to the quayside and there were no pink elephants in sight. Although we did notice a funny looking zebra.
Tomorrow we call at Routan in Honduras, it should be a little quieter as I believe we are the only ship in.