After eating, we rented a bike and headed down the road, about 3.7km to the Grand Cenote. It's basically a hole in a water cave system. It is very neat. There were areas that were basically caverns where you could swim in a little ways. The formations coming down into the water looked awesome and the water was so clear and blue. There were fresh water turtles, some bats in the largest cavern, and a lot of swallows flying around. We got there not long after they opened so there was only one other person there. By the time we left it was pretty crowded, and it really wasn't that large of a place.
The rest of the day was spent lazing around. Joe got burned a bit again so he gets pretty warn out when that happens. Tomorrow we hop back on the bus and continue exploring!
-Miranda
A partial view of some of the water from above.
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The water with the stalactites reflecting. (Click for larger picture)
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A very neat bird that landed on a nearby branch right after we arrived. (Click for larger picture)
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The twilight and night dives went really well. It was just us and a father and son. The dive master we had was the same one we dived with the first time we went. It was fun to have someone we already knew. We didn't see anything too different or amazing. Lots of lobster and the bioluminescence was very cool.
This morning we headed off of Cozumel and took a bus to Tulum, which is about an hour south of Playa Del Carmen (the town you take the ferry from to get to Cozumel). After finding a hotel, we walked around a bit and are more excited about the food here than in either Cancun or Cozumel. There seem to finally be more options for us.
We made our way to the Tulum Ruins, which are Mayan ruins right on the coast. They were pretty neat. You can swim right off the beach within the area that contains the ruins and not far away there's an area to snorkel also. We just walked around quite a bit and caught a taxi back to the center of town for dinner.
-Miranda
Brown Pelicans hang out on and near the dock where we often docked during our surface time between dives. They definitely were not weary of humans.
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Part of the ruins (click for larger picture)
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The corner of a building that has a face carved into it. (click for larger picture)
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Lots of iguanas hanging around. This one found a nice spot in a hole in the wall of one part of the ruins. (click for larger picture)
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Yesterday morning we had a scheduled dive at 9am. It was two dives with an hour between. The first spot was called Palancar Caves. The formations there were pretty neat. We went through some archways and through a cave where we saw a couple King Crabs. The second dive was more for seeing marine life as opposed to as much coral and other formations. We did see a couple Nurse Sharks. One had to be around 2 meters long. Another dive master just happened to be coming with a group. He had a camera and took some photos. I gave him my email. Hopefully he'll send me a few, but who knows.
The rest of the day was mostly spent relaxing. Joe keeps getting burnt no matter how careful he is, so he's pretty warn out by the afternoon. He's doing a bit better getting down for diving, but it still takes him awhile and he has some blood in his mask everytime after the dive. The dive masters have said that's normal, or not bad anyway.
This morning, we woke up at our 'normal' 7am. We decided another dive today would be fun, so he popped over to the dive shop to see if there was still room on a boat this morning. There was, so we went for another 2 dives this morning. They were relatively uneventful. It was gorgeous, but not as much for neat formations. We did see a number of Hawksbill Turtles and even a small octopus.
We were hoping to go on another dive tomorrow morning, but they're pretty full already. Two of the guys we dove with went on the Twilight and Night dive the previous night and said it was amazing. So, since the morning dive was full we decided we would give a night dive a try again.
-Miranda
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We've been going to bed early (especially for us) and getting up early. Today it was 7am. The cruise ships dock at around 9am so we wanted to get on the road before that. Our plan for the day was to rent a scooter and do the loop around the isle. We did so and it was pretty uneventful, but relaxing and fun. We saw a dead tarantula on the road and an iguana eating near the side of it before that.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We did find a yummy restaurant along the main strip but just south of downtown. They have quite a few veggie options for us and they have a "Thai" branch just a bit farther south. So, we'll probably check that out later. We spent the later afternoon walking around town and ended up having dinner at a cute Italian place where the woman working spoke no english at all. Joe knew enough spanish to get by though for the most part. Trying to get bread to go with his veggie lasagna was a bit tough though. Haha.
We have another dive trip scheduled for tomorrow morning. We're going with the same couple we went with yesterday and probably another person or two (I'm not sure how big the group is). Hopefully all goes well with Joe's ears.
-Miranda
Our scooter parked by the road when we went to check out the water.
The iguana.
The view from our hotel room.
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Bus to Playa del carmen, Quick and nice. Found a nice lunch place next to a forested area, the cafe had nicely built around some large tree trunks, so that they could continue growing above the roof. Miranda spotted an unknown large rodent of some kind.. grackles wandering around.
Ferry to Cozumel was fast and easy, $13 each. Cozumel has been a little less "Annoying" than Cancun. We struggle every meal to find something More to eat than greasy Cheesy stuff, but will survive
There are several Giant 12 story cruise ships that stop by and dock here each day.. . . that's a bit much. ..
We stayed our fist night $35 at hostelito, it was adaquate, but wifi was weak, no filtered water, and no breakfast. So, we've now moved to a economic hotel Hotel Plaza Cozumel ~$50/night where we get solid wifi/water refills/ and a good solid healthy breakfast buffet.
We went scuba diving today, 2 dives. I paid for a dedicated Dive master so I could take my time with my ears. I managed to get down but it took longer than I hoped. Both times surfacing I also had bloody noses.. and I'm still recovering from head-pressure pains several hours later, so we'll take tomorrow off diving. Hopefully It gets better again.
-Joe
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