Dia Cinco

Throughout most of these posts, Nathan and I have skipped the boring, "We got up.  We ate breakfast" parts of the trip for the sanity of both the writer and reader.  I would like to begin this blog post by noting that by Wednesday of our Honeymoon, I had eaten Crepes de Nutella three breakfasts in a row. Oh, happy un-Mexican delight.

We started our adventure about where the "San Miguel de
Cozumel" marker is.  We headed south to El Cedral, had lunch
at Punta Sur (southern point, not marked on map), drove
across the eastern coast, then took the middle road to
San Gervasio. 

Today was the day we decided to rent a car and explore all of the island.  We were growing weary of paying a taxi to get everywhere, and there were a lot of everywheres we wanted to get to.  So for $50 for 24 hours, we rented a car and drove around the island.

After three days of planned activity and confinement to the resort, being able to go anywhere we wanted (within 15 miles, that is--Cozumel isn't that big) was both refreshing and intimidating.  Something we definitely wanted to do was see the Mayan ruins on the island since they were fairly far inland and were more expensive to get to via taxi. On our map of Cozumel we noticed that there were two locations for ruins--the larger San Gervasio, and the smaller, yet free, El Cedral.  We decided to go to the smaller ruins first, as they were closer (see map).

Cozumel isn't that difficult to drive around, considering there is one main road that goes around the island, and one main road that goes across the island.  The rest [the middle and right coast; pretty much everything except the left coast], much to our surprise, is mostly undeveloped jungle.

We found the El Cedral area fairly easily.  There were a few typical touristy shops scattered about--one man selling coconuts, another selling seashells.  Everything was there...except the ruins.  We must have looked fairly confused as we stepped out of the car and gazed around, because a man shouted at us, "Hey guys, El Cedral is over there," pointing at a pile of rocks on a three foot hill.

In a word: LAMEZOR. 

We left the El Cedral area about three minutes after arriving and decided to drive along the eastern coast of the island.  After about ten minutes of driving, we reached "Punta Sur," or the southern-most point of the island.  There was a restaurant called Bob Marley's on the coast and we decided to halt our travels for a bite to eat.  The restaurant's ceiling had every square inch covered with t-shirts from around the states...some of them had been there for a while and were (literally) hanging on by a thread.  It was a groovy, Rastafarian atmosphere.  We had Mexican cokes and shrimp quesadillas. 

After lunch Nathan was feeling adventurous and wanted to walk along the eastern coast to look in the tide pools.  This would normally be a fun activity, had it not been raining, and had the eastern coast not been grosser than gross.  Apparently there is a reason that all of the touristy things to do on Cozumel are on the western coast... they don't want anybody traipsing around through old tires and bottles.  Ick.  After satisfying Nathan's inner Diego we continued our treck around the island in search of cooler things to do.

After driving along a six mile gravel road to get to the entrance of San Gervasio, we were delighted to find much more impressive ruins.  We walked along the grounds and gave ourselves a leisurely tour.  I counted the iguanas (13) and ended up with the most bomb-diggity King Iguana shot ever.

We left San Gervasio quite satisfied and headed westward along the island's middle road, back towards tourism.  Before we crossed the Spanglish boarder, though, we stopped at a local grocery store in a developed neighborhood area.  It was a strange area to come across--houses, grocery stores, and school buses.  One forgets that even on Cozumel people are living normal lives.  At the grocery store we purchased a couple gallons of water (much cheaper than buying individual bottles!) a bottle of wine (much cheaper than room service!) and a variety pack of Mexican cookies. I utilized my Spanish all over the place and felt thoroughly satisfied with my cross-cultural grocery experience.

[The most entertaining and delicious of the Mexican cookies were the Mini Mamuts. We were hesitant to eat the Arcoiris.  We saved them until last and finally ate them in the airport in Cancun. Imagine putting a Peep on a shortbread cookie and covering it in coconut. Ick.]