Cozumel, Mexico

Our next stop was Cozumel, Mexico. It's a little island off the east coast of Mexico. Once again, we rented a Jeep and took off for some exploring. We first went to one of the ruin sites that ended up being really lame. It only had one building and wasn't very tall or impressive looking. So we continued on the 1 road that goes around the island and drove past miles and miles of untouched beaches with incredible waves. Once in a while there would be a market along the beach, but really nothing else on that side of the island. We found a blow hole where water would spout through the rocks when big waves would hit. We randomly saw two racoons run across the road, and later saw a wild crocodile soaking up the sun on a rock. It was only about 3 feet long, but exciting nonetheless. We then went to another ruin site that was far better than the first. There were probably 20 different buildings or sites where buildings had once been. They weren't the tall pyramid buildings I was expecting, they were 10 to 15 feet tall and arranged in a way that suggests a whole village lived there. It was really neat. After that we explored the city a little bit and dropped off Isabell and Danny. Our Jeep rental place had warned us not to go down this one road on the island because, according to him, Donald Trump had just bought the property and it was therefore private property. Joel asked another guy and he said that that wasn't true, but that the road was really rough and shouldn't be driven down. So he asked ANOTHER guy about the road who told us that as long as the Jeep was 4x4 we would be fine. Apparently there was another ruin site at the end of the road. So Joel and I let our curiosity get the best of us and took off down the road, past the "restricted access" signs, and they sure were right about it being rough! It went through some gorgeous terrain, but after nearly 2 hours and miles of maneuvering over rocks and through deep sand, we still hadn't seen any ruins and the time for our ship to depart was getting closer and closer. So eventually we turned around and headed back. When we were within sight of the main road, two Mexican policemen appeared walking down the road. They were strapped with M-16's across their chests and didn't look very pleased to see us. We pulled up and said Hi, and they just looked around the Jeep, said a few words, and walked on. Phew!!!! So, here are a few photos of our sights around the island of Cozumel.