First stop, Cozumel

 We were eager to get off the ship at our first port, Cozumel, because we docked at 11 a.m. and were supposed to meet our tour group at 11:30 local time.  As you can see, the passengers were lined up to get off.  After we disembarked, we were checked by sniffer dogs and I got busted.  Always prepared, I had two bananas in my purse and we found out we weren't supposed to take any food off the ship into Mexico.  I gave up my banana and two clementines.  Luckily for Abigail, who was starving half way through our jeep tour, I still had one banana left.

 We had to find a taxi to take us to a local hotel to meet our group.  We had a jeep all to ourselves and Steve was our driver.  We were thankful for that.

 Our first stop was a State Park called Punta Sur.  We were all given wrist bands to identify our group and allow us to see the venues.

 This Mayan ruin near the coast was very interesting because it was like a weather station.  It was designed so that when the wind blew hard, it would circulate in the little building and create a loud whistling siren sound which would warn the people to move inland.  It was a little hurricane warning station.

 Note the iguana on the top of the building.

 This was a lagoon with a tower above it so that people could climb it to see the wildlife.  We saw some birds, including a flamingo, but did not see the salt water crocodiles we were hoping for.  We did see one crocodile later from our jeep as we passed by a marshy area.  These workers were replacing the boards on the boardwalk.  Steve wasn't impressed with their carpentry skills.

 The brown areas were caused by the roots of plants.  I can't remember the name.

 Further down the road, we stopped at a lighthouse.  We climbed all 138 steps and the view out over the beach and ocean was spectacular.  This was the nicest beach we saw but we didn't have time to walk down to it as we had to stay with our group.

 We enjoyed the lighthouse and the little maritime museum next to it.

 Our next stop was the beach where we got to snorkel.   We were so busy with our snorkeling experience that we didn't have an opportunity to take any pictures in our gear.

 To get to the reef from the shore, we had to swim at least 150 yards.  The water seemed really cold to me at first but we adjusted.  We were all struggling a bit with our gear and choking on salt water as we learned how to wear the masks.  Abigail was unhappy about the salt water, but the guide finally settled her down and she was able to do it quite well.  Good thing she is such an excellent swimmer.  Steve's mask was leaking but one of the guides traded him and that made all the difference to him.  I thought I was going to die because I was exhausted after about 50 yards.  I had choked on some salt water and struggled with my gear.  Then I discovered if I just floated with my face down and kicked, it was much easier so I continued that even when there weren't any fish below us.  When we reached the reef, we saw a lot of fish.  One of the guides found a spider-like creature and a large starfish that we each got to handle.  It turned out to be an awesome experience and we all made it on our own without having to hold on to the guide's emergency floats.  Tiffany was the hero of the day and was kept busy keeping track of all of us.

 After our snorkeling adventure, we drove back up on the other side of the island, stopping at a local restaurant for authentic, rice, beans and tortillas.  We were starving, so we had no complaints about the food served under an open air thatched roof structure.  It was different from our Americanized Mexican food--no cheese or tomatoes.  It wasn't spicy either.

 These other pictures were mostly photos I took from the jeep trying to catch a glimpse of the local environment.  There were lots of people riding bicycles and scooters.  The houses and buildings were small and humble, many painted bright colors.

 Here is a picture of our room that night.  You can see Abigail sitting on her bed behind me as I am drying my hair after a shower.  Tiffany, Kristen and Steve slept on that bed from left to right.

Here is a picture of our jeep caravan taken from the light house.  We were in the second to last jeep.