Cozumel (I Can't Stop Groovin')

Saturday morning, when we woke up, we were docked in Cozumel - an island just off the Yucatan Peninsula.  We really aren't that far from Honduras, but what we saw when we stepped off the boat was light years from Honduras!  Of course we had heard the sales pitches from the Ship Shopping Guide about how they have ship-approved shops where your purchases are guaranteed- the cynic in me says that they're also going to be more expensive, but...

We had a variety of choices for excursions on our day in Cozumel.  We could have swum with the dolphins, dived among the coral, or a whole slew of other things that just would not have been me.  We chose to go see the ancient Mayan ruins.
It was a 3-4 hour tour, by air-conditioned bus.  Our tour guide was a man named Miguel.  He told us he had been doing the tour guide thing for 28 years and it showed.  He was very knowledgeable, entertaining, and he shared all about the history of the Mayan's in general and the ruin site in specific.

It took about an hour to tour the ruins, and then just outside of the site, there were some shops that were not in cahoots with Big Souvenir, and according to Miguel, were more likely authentic made in Mexico stuff.  I purchased a fire opal pendant, which according to the salesman, are found only in Mexico and not exported.  They keep them for sale only in Mexico.  Whether or not that is true, I don't care, it is very pretty!

After they tour of the ruins, we hopped back into our mercifully cool bus (God bless Joseph Carrier!) and the bus drove us around the island to sight see.  At one point they stopped by the beach so that those who were interested could put their toes in the ocean, or gulf, or whatever.  I did not do so because I knew that once I had my tennis shoes off, they weren't going to go back on easily.  But I took some beautiful pictures and just stood in awe at the beauty.

Eventually our tour ended up back where it began, at the port where the cahooting shops were.  We had been told of this cool shop, Del Sol, that sells things that change color in the sunlight and I wanted to go there to get me and Mom t-shirts.  I also ended up getting some sunglasses that change color - super cool!  At this point, my feet and my Capital One card were tired, so we got back on the boat, took a shower (me, not the Capital One card) and got some food, drink and found ourselves a chair back on our deck to watch the water while the rest of the people slowly found their ways back to the ship.

After dinner, we attended the "Hasbro Game Show" in one of lounges.  It was fun, although it would have driven me mad to have been chosen to go up on the stage.  There were a couple of more game-type shows after it, but I was just so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open, 

The cat people didn't have any official events scheduled for Saturday.  Some of them did go into town, instead of on an excursion, and visit the local humane society to give the cash and other items donated/collected by the group.  I'm not sure we knew this was going to happen before we scheduled our excursion, but I'm a sender, not a goer, so I think I'd have still chosen the ruins.  Plus I'm pretty sure I would have had to make small talk with these people, and Rose doesn't do that very well. 


The towel animal for Saturday, we think, was a monkey.  We could be wrong about that, though.  Either way, I was asleep earlier Saturday evening than any of the previous nights.  Rose was pooped.