Port 40 Cozumel, Mexico

by Ed · March 29, 2022

We arrived at Cozumel around 6:30 AM on Mar 21st, 2022. The sun was trying to wake up. It started as a drizzly morning.

We are tickled and pleased to be docking in the middle of downtown! We are here…

…and all of the other cruise ships are way over there! We’ve been there before, many times! So we know the pains of getting into town.

Welcome to the island of Cozumel!

I have a tour today, and Joy does not. She plans to go shopping!

My group is whisked to the ferry terminal in three taxi vans. On arrival we are greeted with this lovely sight! Three split-tail swallows pinwheeling, while a lonely pigeon looks on from the rooftop. But what is even more interesting in this image is the sign at the lower right that declares mask wear is mandatory on Cozumel, and failure to comply can result in jail time for up to 36 hours!

The ferry we’re hopping on is a Winjet. This ferry goes back and forth to Playa del Carmen in about 40 minnutes, and makes the trip once an hour.

On our way out of Cozumel’s ferry dock I get my chance for the requisite Insignia shot with the other three cruise ships faaaaarrrrr in the distance!

At Playa del Carmen it is amazing how many people are coming and going on the ferries!

After a 45-minute bus ride we arrive at…

This entrance is almost a shopping mall of its own! Stores, restaurants, sculptures abound! This farmer working an agave plant…

…while skeletons typically seen around the Day of the Dead are here showing who they may have been, such as…

…Marilyn Monroe…

…and Elvis Presley!

Pancho Villa with his own skeleton partner weilding a… golf club?

A skeleton horse pulling a cart of… tequila?

And extra tall female skeletons hanging out by the benches.

The Mayan dancers are present with their pet python!

Once everyone is ready we begin our walk into the archeological park.

I think there might be something important to know on these signs, but just can’t figure it out beyond the wifi notice (but no wifi signal was found).

We get in line. Ugh.

But Carlos, our tour guide, confirmed we already have tickets at the window and they allowed us to skip the line and walk in. He stops us at a ceiba (pronounced say-buh) tree. Knock on the tree and you can hear it is hollow. This tree is sacred to the Mayans. It runs roots 45 feet into the ground to the xibalba (she-ball-buh) – the Mayan underworld. And it reaches high to upper world where the heavens reside. Oh, and if you can see Carlos’ pants, we just had a little rain squall sweep through!

Now the trudge with a thousand of our favorite strangers.

Here is the posted map of Tulum. We don’t enter at the “You are here” arrow. We go up to the upper entrance by the Casa del Cenote.

Here is another map that Carlos shows us. I’ll use the nomenclature in this map to refer to the structures. Having said this I’ll amend my previous photo’s statement to say we enter by the House of the Cenote.

As we approach the entrance to the site we find we are overlooking the sea. Even though we can see this should be here on the maps, the terrain masked this and it is still a beautiful surprise!

Then the path turns to the hole in the wall.

The entrance is low and narrow. Just right for the Mayans, but trouble for us!

Immediatley on the right as we enter is the House of the Cenote. We aren’t given a chance to explore it. A cenote is an underground water source, a cistern, and in this part of the world is typically a cave in the limestone that holds a reservoir of water.

We have a nice view of the valley. We were told this is a small site, but what I see disagrees with that statement.

We can see this side of the House of the Cenote as we pass.

The first structure past the House of the Cenote is the Temple of the Wind, also referred to as the Temple to the Wind God. This has a lovely overlook to the east.

Down the hill is the House of the Northwest. This building is at the first entrance to the park that was on the map and marked “You are here.” It doesn’t look very stable, but has survived for well over a millenium!

This is the House of the Halach Uinic, the Palace, the house of the king. This was the residence of the king’s family.

Looking past the House of the Halach Uinic we get our first glimpse of the Castle, El Castillo, the main temple for Tulum and a waypoint or lighthouse for the dugout canoes to find their way home from the sea.

Carlos shared with us a piece of obsidian that he was given by an old Mayan friend and Carlos now wears every day. Obsidian is the primary material used for the tools the Mayans had to create these structures and for everyday living – there was no metal for them to use. Carlos also showed us obsidian allowed the Mayan astronomers to directly view the sun to observe solar phenomena. This helped them with their solar calendars. I tried it and it was amazing! I now own a smaller version of this obsidian disk.

From across the valley we have a great view of the Castle, El Castillo, visible over the top of the House of the Columns.

Here’s proof I was here!

This is the House of the Columns. It appears to be an extension to the Palace and was where the king conducted business, and probably housed important people and guests.

Next to the House of the Columns is the Temple of the Frescoes. It is the best preserved of the buildings, and supposedly contains several intact frescoes. Alas, we were not allowed inside to see!

We wind up the path past the Temple of the Frescoes to get closer to El Castillo. Due to vandalism and excessive wear from tourist traffic,we are no longer allowed to climb the steps. We cannot even walk to get in front of the building, so we need to be satisfied seeing it from a distance and from the side and back. <heavy sigh>…

It is still a lovely sight from the side. Of great interest to me is the small arched opening in the wall.

But before I leave this magnificent structure I want to share a view I had from the other side of the valley with my 300mm lens. With this and the previous view I feel these steps are even steeper than the steps we say yesterday at the Temple of the Masks in Kohunlich.

After our free time around El Castillo ended it was time to gather and head out of the Tulum walls. This tunnel was far more forgiving than the previous tunnel! This is on the opposite side of the site from where we entered.

Back at the main tourist site we see thie wonderful diorama of the site that helps put everything in perspective! We see the temple of the Wind in the upper left, the House of the Halah Uinic on the lower left and adjoined by a courtyard the House of the Columns. The Temple of the Frescoes in the center, and the El Castillo and its numerous substructures in the upper center. What we never saw was the House of Chultun in the lower center, and anything to the right third of this image that were primarily residences.

Tulum tour complete, we boarded the bus to head out to lunch.

About 15 minutes later the bus pulled in to Xel-Ha (pronounced shell-hah). We were about to learn what Xel-Ha is all about!

It is an all-inclusive water feature amusement park! Dolphin swims, ziplines, snuba diving (yes, snuba, not scuba), stingray swims, manatee encounters, adrenaline high-speed boat rides, cave dives (cenote), spa. Wow! But we’re here for lunch! All-you-can-eat mexican buffet, drinks included! Margaritas, pina coladas, tequila shots, cerveza! No extra charge! It seemed to be a waste to pay full entry just to have lunch, but that is the plan. Two hours, lots of food, and several beers and tequilas later we were back on the bus! I’m only spending this much time on this one photo so you will be informed – I highly recommend if you make it to the Playa del Carmen area to consider spending a day here! I asked the cruise line to make this a standalone shore excursion. It’s lovely!

We climbed on the 4 PM ferry back to Cozumel. All aboard time at the ship is 5:30. The ferry takes 40 minutes. No time to dally because the 5 PM ferry will not get back in time!