Alrighty let’s chat about Cozumel, Mexico! 🇲🇽

Cozumel was our 2nd stop while on our Royal Caribbean cruise. The last time I was in Mexico, Cozumel was not a big tourist attraction (that was a long time ago 😅) but now it’s blown up! So many things to do on this beautiful island in the Yucatán.

We scheduled an excursion thru Royal Caribbean to see some ancient Mayan Ruins and head to a private beach 🏝

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Cozumel is a small island with a small city center. Our tour guide gave us a lil rundown on our way to the Mayan Ruins. 1 Sams Club, 1 Walmart, and coming soon a Costco! He was very proud of this! 😂 Only 5 traffic lights 🚦 and a few hospitals. He also interestingly said they got a new mayor who is a woman! And that she’s been making a few changes for good. 👏🏼

Cozumel pretty much runs on tourism. So when Covid broke out they were majorly effected. 😞 our guide David was very happy that things are finally returning to normal.

So onto our excursion!

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We visited the San Gervasio Mayan Archaeological Site. It took us around 30 minutes from the port to get to the site.

San Gervasio dates back all the way to 100 BC!! 🤯 and they continued living there until about the 16th century.

One of the main purposes of this ancient site was in dedication to Ixchel (kinda like Michelle…minus the M) she was the goddess of fertility and midwifery. So many other Mayans made the trek to Cozumel to make offerings to her.

Don’t think that these ruins are large and fully in tact like other Mayan ruins across the Yucatán. There’s no big pyramid which I thought we were seeing 😅 These ruins are quite small and can be seen in probably less than an hour.

Side note….there’s no video allowed and you gotta pay $3 if you wanna video anywhere on the site. I foolishly paid. But they weren’t even looking to see if people were videoing or just taking pics 🙈🙄

Mayan history is absolutely fascinating and I’m still researching and learning a lot about it. Our guide mentioned that Harvard and University of Arizona were both at the sites doing research back in the 1970’s. Since then the government hasn’t allowed any other institutions to come and research! 😣

Admission is $11. And they’re open Monday-Sunday 8am-3:30pm, so says their sign at the entrance 👍🏼

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After about an hour at the site we were headed for a quick stop at a bee sanctuary lol. 🐝

Here we saw a man doing an ancient Mayan ritual/offering. And he was speaking in Yucatec Maya! 😮

There was obviously honey as well that they were selling. And some Mayan replicas of their calendars and jewelry.

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We only spent 30 minutes here then it was off to the beach! 🏝

A short 15 minute ride and we were on what seemed like the deserted part of the island. There was very little on the way to our little beach spot.

We stopped at a beachside restaurant called El Pescador Restaurant and Bar. Lots of open seating in the sand with a view of the ocean. 🌊 The food was so good but again like Costa Maya, it was expensive. They obviously cater more towards tourists so they up the price💰

Attached to the restaurant is Cozumel Surfing School with Nacho 😆 there was one person in school while Nacho taught him the ropes. The waves at the beach aren’t very large. And to be honest there wasn’t many people in the water at all. There is a surplus of seaweed blocking the beach so it’s hard for people to get in.

Also I realized I never actually took a picture of the beach 🤦🏻‍♀️ sorry bout that!

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After an hour and half we were back on the bus headed back to the pier where we did some last minute shopping and took some pictures with the big ‘Cozumel’ sign by the water.

So that was our time in lovely Cozumel! As my sister says “fun was had by all!” 🤗 Our guide said there’s some really great snorkeling here as well if this wasn’t up your alley! 🐠 🤿

Thanks for reading!!! Adios wǒ de péngyǒu! 👋🏼