Nerve Endings Firing Away

This is the concluding part of the narrative of our honeymoon cruise. I had written earlier on the dining options and the activities & entertainment aboard Carnival Conquest and later shared our experiences at the ports-of-call, Montego Bay (Jamaica) and Cayman Islands. Our final port of call was at Cozumel which is a small island just off the coast of mainland Mexico. Although Cozumel is considered one of the best destination for snorkeling (by the guy on whom the movie, The Life Aquatic is based), we chose to tour the Tulum ruins on the mainland. We had our share of snorkeling and water activities at Cayman and I’m not really a strong swimmer to really enjoy snorkeling or scuba diving. I’ve a strange swimming habit. I can’t float and when I enter deep water, I have to swim to somewhere. Anyway, forget my swimming abilities or lack thereof.

We reached the port of Cozumel early in the morning, like we had at other ports. We woke up to see that our ship was nearly cheek-to-cheek with another cruise ship from the Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) and we could literally see into their cabins. After a hearty breakfast, we stepped off the ship onto the pier and were greeted by a ferry guide who would transport us to the mainland. So effectively, we never even stepped ashore the island of Cozumel. The ferry ride although the interiors of the ferry seemed more like an airline with heavily cushioned seats, retractable overhead luggage compartments, and televisions on the dashboard. But the ride to the mainland was very rough and reminded us of our horrific experience on a much smaller ferry to Moneghan Island in Maine. The ride was totally worth it as soon as we stepped off the boat at Playa Del Carmen to bright sunshine, clear blue seas, and white sandy beaches abutting resorts. We met our guide, Caesar Augustus (yeah, I know) on the pier who escorted us to our bus that would take us to the Tulum ruins.

Cozumel coast as seen from the ship

Our Norwegian neighbors at the Cozumel Pier

This excursion was one of our best ones due to the fantastic sights we would see and the informative talk by our guide. He started talking to us first in Spanish and feigned surprise that most of us didn’t understand him and for ‘our sake’ he would speak in English which he did quite well. Ah! the dig of learning Spanish when in Mexico to Americans was priceless. He spoke in a non-tour-guide-like manner with no rattling off of inane facts but instead weaving a narrative in a story-book fashion and peppering his talk with personal anecdotes that included his ancestral heritage, family background, and economic impacts on a largely cultural nation. He emphasized the fact that the highway we were traveling on divided this region into illusion and reality i.e. with the five-star resorts on our left as the illusion and the villages still inhabited by Mayan communities on our right as the reality.

He wasn’t a communist and credited the resorts for providing employment to his people and bringing much needed development to the region but at the same time also chided them for their insularity and covert discrimination. He had an interesting background. He was a child from a Mayan father and Mexican mom and had married a Korean woman. He spoke both Mayan and Spanish in addition to English. He had never been to North America and emphasized that he doesn’t need to unless he wants to visit to see the sights. I think he was trying to make the argument that not all Mexicans want to cross the border and were quite content in their home country. He was definitely an individual proud of his culture and heritage but not critical of other cultures like some nationalistic people we know are. Why am I harping so much about our guide than our actual tour? Because he made it more interesting and his narratives literally brought the now-desolate place alive.

Mayan artifacts for sale

We stopped at a local handicrafts store on the highway to let people shop for artifacts. Since it was a Mayan cooperative shack, the artifacts were pretty expensive and we didn’t end up buying anything although there were quite a few items I would’ve liked to get home. We reached the Tulum ruins site at around noon and were given little more than 2 hours before getting back to the bus. Tulum is one of the rare coastal settlements of the ancient Mayan civilization. As our guide told us, this was primarily due to the belief of that particular community whose religion had promised that gods would arrive by sea and they wanted to be the first ones to receive them. The fact that it was the Spanish conquistadors who arrived by sea and proceeded to slaughter everyone only served to crush the faith of the survivors who lost any will to put up a resistance. Our guide emphasized this fact often and seemed to make a case against blind faith in religion. I couldn’t help but chuckle and mutter (under my breath) that how long before other religions woke up to this stark reality. At least the Mayans had a near-falsifiable hypothesis but other religions are too smart to let that pass. Now, Tulum is in ruins and only the temple of sacrifice and some other related structures stand testimony to the greatness of a once-rich civilization.

The Sacrifice Temple

Talking about a seaside location

Makes you seek a higher purpose

Most structures and high walls were demolished by the Spanish invaders to build churches elsewhere. The guide painted a vivid picture of the ceremonies of the Mayan people that existed hundreds of years ago including gruesome human sacrifices of children and adults born during the equinox. He also described the shrewdness of the kings and priests and the sheer gullibility of the village people that let this barbaric acts continue for hundreds of years just in hopes to lure the Gods from the sea. And all they got were even more butchering thanks to the Spanish. Such is religion.

I don’t say cheese, says Mr. Iguana

Overlooking the Caribbean Sea waiting for the Gods

However, if nothing the Mayans at Tulum definitely believed in the real estate adage, location, location, and location. The city is located on the shores of a beautiful coast with blue seas and white sandy beaches (see photos below). We wish we had more time to spend on the beach. The wilderness around the ruins had iguanas aplenty who would happily pose absolutely still for pictures while nodding their heads as if acknowledging us (in fact, a warning sign to not get any closer). These Iguanas (and crocodiles) perhaps are the closest things alive that resemble dinosaurs with their scary looks and scaly skins.

Enjoying the Blue

Competing with the Wave

We spent the rest of the hour taking loads of pictures and roaming around the site until Ash got hungry and walked off in a huff toward the restaurant where we were promised a free beverage. Instead, we had a full lunch of quesadillas and picked up our perfunctory fridge magnet to remember our visit to Tulum. Thankfully we were greeted back to the bus with a bag of chips, cookies, and best of all, a cool moist towel to help cool off from walking in that insanely hot Mexican sun. We were driven back in time to catch our ferry back to Cozumel and this was one time we didn’t mind parting with a hefty tip to our guide. Ash even recommended that he visit India due to his obvious love for culture and history.

We had a minor hiccup before sailing as we were held up indeterminately as some people arrived late and then we had a minor health emergency onboard. The rest of us at least the ones in the balcony didn’t mind it one bit as we heckled the latecomers and enjoyed the blue sea (after the NCL ship sailed away) and the sunset across the Cozumel coast.

Looking straight down from our cabin with a 200mm lens. Notice the rising turtle?

These stragglers were heckled by 300-odd passengers from their balconies.