Our forth and final port was spent in Cozumel, Mexico. It was also by far our favorite day. When we got off the ship, we took a taxi to the place called Chankanaab Park. I'm not sure how to describe it. The park is actually a national park, and therefore a reserve for the native wildlife of the area. At the site, they have also built up a resort of sorts. They have a sea lion show, a dolphin encounter, restaurant (or two), a beautiful beach, and also an amazing reef that you can snorkel and dive in. I think the admission is normally $20 per person (or so), which, after being there, I think it's worth the price, but we were able to get free admission into the park because we had bought packages for the dolphin encounter. My mother-in-law had told Josh & I that we should really try to do that at one of our stops; she said that it had been one of her favorite excursions she had ever done. Tyler found an awesome deal online (buy one get one free!) and we jumped on it.
Josh & I at the park
One of the beautiful walkways through the park
We found a big iguana
Josh checking out the lizard
A beautiful lagoon inside the park
Back to his normal picture antics...
This was not a fire pit, it was a blow hole from the ocean that they had covered for safety reasons. I'm not sure why Josh got in there...
Walking to the beach. How beautiful is that?
Tyler, Josh, Armyn
The beautiful beach we got to hang out on
Josh & I chilling in a hammock we found on the beach
This is where the dolphin encounter was
A group ahead of us interacting with the dolphins
The encounter itself was really cool, though. There's a platform under the water that you stand on most of the time (it was a good idea to hold on to the dock, because the water moved you quite a bit). The trainer had the dolphin swim in front of all of us and we got to touch it. Then she showed us a bunch of different hand signals and we all got to interact with the dolphin one-on-one. We did things like put our hand out straight in front of us and the dolphin would come up and touch your palm (you can kind of see that in the above picture, especially if you zoom in), kiss the dolphin's nose, and "shake hands". Then we got to actually swim with the dolphins. One of these times, we were able to hold on to the fin of two dolphins (one on each side), and then they pulled us back to the dock. The other one, which was really cool, was kind of like flying through the water. You laid on your stomach and flexed your feet and locked your knees so you wouldn't bend. Then the dolphins would come behind you, put their nose on your foot (one on each foot I think) and then push you through the water. Some of the people got a lot higher out of the water than others, but everyone had a really good time. After we finished with the dolphins, we also got to pet the two manatees they had there. Very cool! If you ever have the chance to swim with the dolphins, take it! And also plan to spend quite a bit on pictures because you will want them!
After swimming with the dolphins, we went to the beach with the plan of going snorkeling. There were about four dive shops on the beach where you could rent diving or snorkeling equipment. Josh really wanted to go scuba diving but didn't want to go by himself. He found a guy that was willing to give him a GREAT deal to take him scuba diving. Josh has been certified, but hasn't gone scuba diving in years. Tyler had never been diving, but the guy said he could just give them both a quick course before taking them down. We finally convinced Tyler to "splurge" and go (it didn't matter how many times we told him that it was a really good deal, he still felt like he was spending too much. This was a constant theme throughout the cruise ;) ). Armyn & I rented the equipment we needed to go snorkeling (for also a great deal) and went snorkeling. Tyler wanted to take the camera scuba diving, but he wasn't sure how deep the camera could go under water, and didn't want to risk ruining it, so Armyn & I took it with us.
There were several sunken statues under the water. The water wasn't too deep (probably 20-30 feet at the most) and it was really clear, so we could see a lot even though we were snorkeling. This was also the best snorkeling we had done on the trip.
I'm not sure what this statue was of, but I'm guessing the Virgin Mary
A large school of fish by this very large coral formation
Another view of the school of fish
I'm pretty sure this statue was an interpretation of Christ on the cross
Right above it
Selfie
While we were snorkeling, we saw Josh & Tyler as they headed out
They saw us, too. Josh
Tyler
Cool fish we saw
These fish are much prettier in person
Armyn
More pretty fish
More self portraits
While we were snorkeling, his photographer came up to us to take a picture of us. He had some tortilla in his pocket that he threw towards us to get the fish to swim in front of us. I think it's a pretty awesome picture. I'm sorry it's not the best quality, but I had to take a picture of it with my phone to get it on my computer.
When we were getting out, I just about had a heart attack. There were stairs going in and out of the water, because there isn't a beach, just coral. As I was getting out, I still had my fins on and slipped on the stairs trying to get out. I was more careful after that and took my fins off before trying to climb any more stairs. As I got out, I looked down at my hand and realized that I did not have the camera any more. It had been around my wrist not long before, but it wasn't there anymore. I left my fins on the stairs and got back in the water to look for it. Fortunately, the camera was just at the bottom of the stairs. It must have fallen off my wrist when I was getting out. I had to take off my life jacket to get it, but I got it and it was fine. Thank goodness! I would have felt soooo awful if I had lost it! After I got out the second time, I also realized that I had scraped my foot on the stairs while getting out. I still have a little scar there.
While Tyler and Josh were diving, another photographer came and followed them around and took pictures. I guess there's one that takes pictures of snorkelers, and one that takes pictures of the divers. When the guys got out of the water, they were able to get a good deal on the CD of the pictures, and the guy threw in the picture of Armyn and I as well. I'm glad we got those because they turned out pretty good.
Josh just starting the dive
Tyler
Josh & Tyler in front of the Virgin Mary (I think) statue
Josh & Tyler
Josh petting some sort of ray (I think)
What Josh was petting in the above picture
Josh following around the same school of fish we saw that was swimming around the coral formation
You can't really see it, but Josh is holding some sort of spider-looking thing in his hand
Tyler also holding something you can't really see. I'm not sure if it was the same thing that Josh was holding or not
In front of the Christ statue
Tyler doing flips
I think this is the point where the photographer had come back with a better camera, because all of the pictures after this are more clear
Swimming in to an underwater cave
The greenish glow/haze you see around the opening of the cave is caused by meeting of salt water with fresh from a river that enters the cave from above
This guy's camera does the scenery & fish much better justice than the camera I had did!
The dive instructor hanging upside down
Tyler following suit
Tyler & Josh posing for a picture
Some of the fish near the stairs where you get out (these are the same stairs that I slipped on)
Josh & Tyler with the dive instructor (I don't remember his name). Tyler was both thrilled that he had gone scuba diving, but also a little jaded. He said that he was a little bummed that he had gone because snorkeling would never quite be as good anymore.
Panoramic picture of Armyn & I
Beautiful palm trees
"Cozumel 2012"
Some of the ships that were in port that day (neither of these are our ship; they were further down the shore)
Tyler, Armyn, me, Josh
Armyn & I lounging on the beach. One of the best things about this park was that because you paid to get in, the chairs were free and there was no one on the beach trying to bother you or sell you stuff.
Such a nice day!
View from our cab as we drove back to the port. Christmas decorations in some sort of square
When we got back to the port, we headed to the shops to do a little last-minute shopping. Some Mayan dancers we saw.
A Christmas Nativity scene set up at the mall
When we got back to the shops, I wanted to find a necklace by a certain jeweler that I had fallen in love with throughout the cruise. We hadn't really taken the time to shop for it until now, and even then we didn't have much time. We had also wanted to check out a few other shops, but in the end didn't have time. We bought our last purchases and then went to the jewelry store. It was probably one of the quickest sales they have ever had. I knew that I wanted something from the Marah Lago line. I really liked the stone they used. It's called larimar & it is the only gemstone that is actually mined in the Caribbean (in the Dominican Republic, I believe). I thought it was so pretty and reminded me of the crystal clear water of the Caribbean. I hadn't been planning on buying anything fancy on our trip, and certainly not jewelry, but both Josh and I ended up getting something nice for ourselves on that trip. Josh got a watch and I got a necklace. We didn't spend a ton on other souvenirs, and we didn't get each other anything big for Christmas, so we thought we would splurge a little on our trip. We were pretty nervous as we stood in that shop waiting for our purchase to be rung up though, because it was getting really close to 4:30 and that was when we were supposed to be on the ship. Fortunately, we ended up being fine and not even the last ones on the ship.
This is the necklace I ended up getting. I had my eye on something a little different, but the necklaces were a bit more than I had expected them to be, and I didn't want to overspend. I love it, though, and I'm glad I got it :)
This was the scene when we got back to the ship. Fun music was playing, and a lot of people were still getting on the ship.
Throughout the week we had talked about doing another couple's trip in a few years (when Tyler is done with school and we have enough time to save some money), and maybe going on a cruise again. After our day in Cozumel, we all decided that it would be really fun to come down to Cozumel and just stay for a week there, so we may end up doing that in a few years.
That night we had a nice dinner and then went to the big show. The show that night was performed by a guy named Greg London. He is an impressionist that has performed in Las Vegas for a long time. He's actually really good and the show was very entertaining.
Greg London. His appearance kind of threw me for a loop. You can tell (even from the stage) that he has plastic surgery done, and that a fair amount of his appearance is fake, but you still can't really tell how old he is. I guess it was weird to me because I'm used to seeing women like this, that look "young" but you can tell it's only because of plastic surgery, but I'm not used to men looking that way.
I tried to post some videos of him performing, but for some reason it's not working. He did impressions of Johnny Cash, Ozzy Osborne, Macy Grey, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong and a bunch of others. He was really quite good and I was impressed by how well he imitated those singers.
After the show, we went up to the buffet for the Chocolate Lovers buffet. There was tons of stuff, but most of it was pretty disappointing. It all looked fancy but the taste was pretty mediocre. Josh with all the chocolate we had gotten and brought to the Spinnaker Lounge.
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