Friday-Day 13: Cozumel and Akumal!

(Note:  picture intensive post)

We left the Dos Ojos Cenotes (outside of Tulum) and headed back, but made a stop 20 minutes away at Akumal Bay.  We had a briefing on preserving the marine life and snorkel safety.  

There were many snorkel groups on the beach heading into the water.  We made sure we followed our guide Jorge wherever he went.  

We swam with turtles and rays.   I'm calling my new turtle friend...Little Tortuga:

Then I saw two of them:

This ray did not want his picture taken: 

I popped my head out of water long enough to capture this:   (uh oh...where did everyone go???)

Back in the water I went looking for more marine life:  

We were in the water for a long time and snorkeled quite a bit of distance.  If you look closely you can see the snorkeling area where we started (other side of the buoys):

It was a gorgeous day at the beach: 

We left Akumal and headed back to Playa de Carmen for some lunch.  We walked around town for a bit.  I just had to take this picture:

Along the way we saw a wedding in the chapel.  What a gorgeous view:

Check out this lovely courtyard at a local hotel:

We had a group photo op:

Beach time at Playa de Carmen:

We waited at the Playa de Carmen pier for a water ferry to arrive.  It took awhile and we knew we would be late getting back to our ship.  The line started to grow and when I looked behind me there was over a hundred fellow Princess passengers also waiting to get back.  

It was another 50 minute ride back to Cozumel.  This time the boat was really rocking and rolling.  Hubby said the water was getting rougher.  We arrived back at the Puerta Maya pier an hour late around 4:30pm.  We were suppose to be back on the ship by 3:30pm.  

A long line of people behind us arriving late to the ship:

Check out the wave action:  

As we approached our ship we looked up to see people waving and cheering and whistling from their balconies and from the top deck.  Wow!  What a welcome home.  I naturally waved back to them.