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.  

Friday-Day 13: Cozumel and Cenotes!

Our play time in Cozumel started early in the morning...as in 7:15am.  Ouch!  We, along with several hundred passengers, wanted to leave the Regal as soon as it docked.  We stood in a long line on deck 5 and was able to exit the ship by 7:30am.  We raced across the long pier to meet up with our group.  We exchanged our tickets for stickers that we proudly displayed on our shirts.

We were told to board the water ferry which would take us over to the mainland.  

The Regal Princess docked at the new pier:

Two water ferries.  We boarded the one in the right:

The ferry ride took us over 45 minutes to reach Playa de Carmen.  The seas were a bit rough and the crew had handed out bags incase any of us felt a bit blue.  Once we arrived at our destination, we found someone fishing right off the beach;

We got into groups of 10 and Jorge was our designated tour guide:

We walked a bit through town before we were shown to a mini van.  Miguel was our driver for the day.

We arrived at Dos Ojos cenotes 40 minutes later.  Jorge gave his mandatory snorkeling safety guidelines.  We walked through the park to reach "uno Ojos" or the first eye cenotes:

We approached the caves with much anticipation.  This was a first for many of us.  We put on our snorkel and mask, but no fins.  We entered the cold and clear fresh water:

We basically floated around this cenotes pool to get used to the cold water and also make sure the snorkel and mask worked.  Hubby and I did not have to worry as we always bring our own gear.  

We got out of this natural pool and walked over to another called "dos Ojos" or second eye:

We walked down into this second pool which happened to have a slight current to help move you along:

Notice the formations?  

I called this the "bat cave" and tiny bats flew above our heads:

The root system of a plant:

Jorge took a small group to look at another cave: 

Here's a shot of where we would exit/walk out of the cenotes:

We all had a great time at the cenotes.  This was one of several on the mainland.