Exploring San Gervasio Ruins

So after cruising up the gorgeous southeast side of the island, we had to cut back through the island to get back to the west side. Near the center of the island are the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio.

The had a nice paved walkway to tour the ruins, but I really just wasn't feeling this place (except the bug bites) after a few drinks in paradise sitting on the beach.

I wondered how many people had walked on this old cobblestone road before me that leads to the "gate" of the settlement (in the background).

I was pretty amazed that this old entry into the settlement was still standing after several hundred years in such a tropical climate.

I was even more amazed by these trees that grew among the ruins and the government built the palapas around the trees.

It had such a unique and strange root system that was very cool.

The roots were also home to several iguanas.

Doesn't it look like something out of a sci-fi movie that could reach up on a dark night and grab you?

My husband was much more interested than I was...

Um, nice giant palapa?

I was hot and thirsty and ready to go back to some nice bar on the beach ;)

So, unless you are really into these sorts of things, I'd skip this attraction and save yourself $7.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I'm off to the zoo to do a little early morning photography.

The Windward Side of Cozumel

Saturday after our first dive, we rented a car and headed south to tour the island and check out the east coast.

Let me just say the drive was spectacular and I highly recommend that everybody check it out. There were lots of people driving ATV's and mopeds and Jeeps and every other mode of transportation.

At Punta Sur, there's a funky little rasta bar where we started on our first round of drinks and some awesome guacamole.

We decided to make it a mini-pub crawl and hit up a few of the bars on this side of the island and enjoy the view at each one.

This side of the island sports many more rocks, waves and gorgeous blue water, as well as lots of greenery.

I think I literally took about 200 photos of the crashing blue waves. I just couldn't get enough of the beauty of this place.

Seriously- P A R A D I S E! With the wind whipping through my hair, the fragrant smell of the tropics, the sound of the waves crashing, the fine sand between my toes and the warm sunshine on my face. I could easily have spent my whole vacation right there.

There is a single, narrow road that loops around the south and east sides of the island. It's a great scenic and relaxing drive to make.

Even being there, the color of the water was just surreal to me.

One of the other awesome things about this side of the island is it's remoteness and serenity. You could drive for miles and not see other people (except at the bars!). You could plop yourself down on the beach and have tons of privacy (except those driving by on the road).

I was also fascinated by all the rock (coral?) formations that sat just off the shore and withstood the constant abuse of the crashing waves.

I really wished we'd just pulled over, like so many others, and just laid on the beach or walked along the water's edge. Unfortunately, H wasn't wearing his suit- but we know for next time.

I was SOOO glad I didn't miss this part of the island!

This was our view from our second pub, where we sat at a beach palapa and sunk our feet into the sand.

I think the must have just finished filming a Corona commercial here or something. :)

Further up the coast, there was even a little lagoon area where many of the locals were hanging out and swimming in the shallow water with kids.

This drive was probably the highlight of the whole trip for me & would convince me to go back to Cozumel again.

Couldn't you just stare at this all day?

And when I can convince H to get all sorts of fun drinks, like the Coco Loco, why not?

I felt so much stress leave my body as I just sat there- sipping on drinks and enjoying nature.

There were quite a few bars, but we only stopped at two. We did see a real neat boutique hotel & lots of artisan-type shops with locals selling crafts.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: I can't believe I'll be at Disney World in 2 weeks! It snuck up on me without any fanfare & now I'm super-excited!!

Diving in Cozumel

So...the major goal of our trip, besides relaxation, was for me to give SCUBA diving a whirl. I was certified last summer, and had been wanting to since then and before we headed to South Africa in a few months. Part of the reason we picked Cozumel was for the excellent diving. On the recomendation of my diving-junkie friend, we used Dive with Martin for our dives (instead of the hotel dive shop). They picked us up a bit before 8AM out on the pier at our hotel- very convenient!

I was a bit nervous before my first dive, but very excited. The best thing about our hotel is that it is the one closest to the dive sites & we were there in about 5-10 minutes each morning. The first dive master gave us about zero instructions- just told us to gear up and fall backwards off the boat. My first dive was to Palancar Caves (more like coral canyons), and it was nerve-wracking. Down to about 90' or 100' at time, it was a difficult dive as we swam around various coral and through narrow areas. We saw a very large turtle to start with, and many other neat things.

I think H was more nervous on our first dive than I was, and I'd threatened him that he better look out for me and be by my side all the time. We were constantly looking for each other & checking all of our gauges. The divemaster really didn't give us much instruction on where we were going or when to start surfacing. It was ok & I survived, but I think a little more info and instructions would have calmed my nerves a bit.

Obviously I don't have an underwater (to more than 10') camera or any of the other fancy gear that the divers had on the boat, so I not many actual pics. We were super rushed once we arrived a dive site to get geared up and in the water. I managed to recover enough after our 2nd dive on the first day (at El Cedral) to snap a photos of H, half-wearing the size medium shorty that I'd reserved for him. Guess he's a large!

The water was just breath taking and so amazing. I'd seen the blue sea like that before, but being there is so different and spectacular. We had fabulous diving both days & luckily I was able to dive Palancar Caves on our first day the second day. I was much more relaxed and enjoyed it a great deal. We saw another turtle and a very large crab. I'm super-glad I brought my own full wetsuit, as I got pretty chilly near the end of my 2nd dive on both days. It was partly cloudy and pretty windy, so I wasn't able to warm up too much between dives.

In between our first and second dive, we'd stop off at the shore for a brief break. The first day I was so over-whelmed/relieved/tired that I just sat on the end of the pier for most of the break tying to warm up and enjoy the beautiful waters. The second day, I ventured on to land to walk down the beach and relax a bit more. On our second day of diving, there was a slight problem as we all did not go down together. After flipping backwards off the side of the boat, the divemaster told us to go down, even though we had not "buddied" up. I was looking all around for H, since he fell off the opposite side as I did. I was pretty annoyed that he went down without me, but even more annoyed that we were missing a diver when we got under. The group had to (attempt to) hang out on the bottom, against the current, as the divemaster went back up to look for the missing diver. We eventually found him, but I was slightly miffed that we were cutting safety corners.

These are the boats we dove from, and there were 4 other divers on each day that went down with us and the dive master. I liked being in a smaller group, since we stayed together through the caves and we needed to drift to the very strong current together. The second day, diving at Delilah, we saw another turtle and an octopus, along with tons of very colorful and large fish.


All in all, diving was fun, but not something I see myself pursuing very seriously. I'll dive if we travel somewhere that had extraordinary diving, but probably won't be planning more trips around SCUBA diving itself. It's a lot of work and is very stressful for a beginner (and her husband!). It was neat & I'm glad we did it. Although H grew up diving tons every summer, it's not exactly something he has many fond memories of doing. It's all pretty, but I think there's only so many beautiful fish and colorful coral that I care to see. There are so many other places & things I'd rather see on my vacation time and with all the money.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Today is sleep in (past 4AM) day.

Landing in Cozumel

Most of the flight was over the Gulf, but approaching the Yucatan there was some very interesting coastline. I'm not sure what type of farm or area this is, but I love the blue waters, white beach, green plants, orange fields and then the brown bay on the opposite side.

Approaching the airport in Cozumel, we could see 4 giant cruise ships at port. There were several more located at another port a bit further down the coast. I'm sure glad we were staying at a resort way outside of town and far from the crazy crowds of the cruise ships.

We could also see the ferry from Cancun and all the hustle and bustle along the piers.

We made it safely to our hotel and had drinks in had before 1PM. Any place with a bar in the reception area is not too shabby.

And just because I have about 15,395 photos of the gorgeous blue waters, I thought I'd post one here to tease you with all the great shots coming up. I love waves and especially waves crashing against the rocks like they did on the east side of the island.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Back to my running & gym routine this morning.

Movie Maddness

I'd been promising my husband we'd use some movie giftcards we received for Christmas, so a few week ago we headed to the movies. We decided to see the critically acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire and were thrilled with the movie. Although it's a Bollywood production and filmed on location in India, it told an amazing story of two brothers growing up out of the slums and how their lives turned out dramatically different. Both very educational and entertaining, I thought this movie totally deserved all the hoop-la & would recommend it to others.


On a movie kick, we also went to see Gran Torino on a whim. I'd heard many graet things about it and wanted to see it while it was still in the theatres. I had no clue what the movie was about, but my expectations were all wrong. For all the rave reviews, I thought the movie was a bit slow. I was expecting an action movie, not a drama. The storyline was good, and I learned quite a bit of cultural history about the Hmong immigrants and Detroit, but overall, I thought the movie was quite predictable.


For some strange reason, H rented The Duchess on a Saturday night to give our new U-Verse download on demand a try. It was a great story, although quite tragic that the times dictated marriage for off-spring and cared little for love. I enjoyed the movie, and it was a great reminder how far things have come for women in the last 200 years.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Work up this morning and went to yoga class with H!

Fruit Sticks

These are a few weeks old, but still worth sharing. I was in Sams in January and saw this adorable box of sticks fruit trees. If it could surive in a box at Sams for a few months, I thought I might have a chance To grow it not kill it. Raspberries and strawberries and blueberries and grapes sound much more fun than cucumber and jalepenos.

We had a few good days of very cold (for Texas) weather and I think the freeze killed the last remaining jalepeno plants. It was a good time to pull them out and I saw no reason (besides the rest of January and February) that I couldn't go ahead and plant my berry trees.

These guys went into the ground on January 25th and I (guess) they are still alive. It was difficult to really tell, and I was confused about taking the outer wrapping paper off of the roots. I reasoned that it would disentigrate soon enough, and I hoped some new mulch/soil would help these guys out. If I kill them, I'm only out $20.

We also put our lemon and lime trees in the ground in mid-January. You can see them through the windows in H's office & the guest bedroom, so I'm excited that they are beautifying the yard just a bit.

The lime tree came with quite a few buds that were already starting to grow. They are growing slowly right now, in the dead of winter, but I hope we get some limes to make mojitos this summer!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We've had an awesome vacay & the waters around Cozumel are amaizng.