Monday, December 16, 2013

Day 3 of Liberty Cruise~Cozumel

We were up bright and early again for our first port day.  This is a port that we were docked right at the port, so you just get off the boat and walk to your destination.
We visited Cozumel on our last cruise and enjoyed touring the island with a guide.  This time we thought we would go explore on our own.  We walked to the place where you can get a taxi ride to anywhere on the island and headed over to Chankanaab National Park.  The ride over was maybe ten to fifteen minutes or so, and it was a pleasant drive.  We were one of the first people to arrive at Chankanaab so we felt like we had the place to ourselves.
It was somewhat cold and windy so we were not sure it was quite beach weather.  Luckily there was lots of other things to pick from along with the beach.  We headed to the ruins first.
After the ruins, we walked over to see the beach area.  It was still pretty cloudy and windy, but we figured we could sit and read books and still enjoy the view.  We stopped for a few minutes to see the trainers working with the dolphins.  We settled onto the beach and ordered chips and salsa to munch on.
After hanging out here for some time and being asked multiple times if we wanted a massage, we finally said yes and I'm so glad we did.  It was a wonderful massage and it was a great price.  We decided to wander around the park after the massage and see what else there was.  There was a lagoon, alligators, a Tequila tour, gift shop and everywhere we went, it was beautiful.
We heard a Sea Lion show in progress, so we joined that even though we missed much of it.  Afterwards, they let you come up and get a picture taken with the sea lion kissing you.
We headed back over to the dolphin swim area after the show and sat for about an hour watching people swim with the dolphins and the trainers do tricks with them.  It seemed well organized and it also looked like it was done with smaller groups of people which is probably nice.  We just enjoyed watching the dolphins, especially the ones that weren't "working".
I could have sat there all day long, just watching them swim and jump but we were getting hungry and the weather still was not fabulous so we decided to head back.  It was late afternoon by then, so we knew we had just enough time to board the ship and get ready to be first in line for dinner.  We took another taxi back to the ship and spent a few minutes looking around at the market near the dock.
It looked like a lot of other people decided it was time to head back when we did.  As you can see, it is still very overcast and windy but the temperatures were very nice so we still enjoyed our day here.
Back on the ship we rested for a few minutes and then started getting ready for dinner.  We still had a full night of activities ahead of us so the day was nowhere near done yet.  I only grabbed a few pictures while we were at dinner and they were dancing and singing for us.
We had a great day and were exhausted when we fell into bed.  This was only the first port day, with three more to come.  Tomorrow is Belize!


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