We found a great off season cruise deal and jumped on it. Last week we went aboard the Carnival Triumph for a 5 day cruise to Progresso and Cozumel that departed out of Galveston. The original decision was just make the 4.5 hour drive on the departure date but changed our minds and spent the night in Galveston the night before which I’m glad we did because that reduced a lot of possible stress caused by the chance of being late.
Progresso/Chichen Itza
The first of two ports we visited was Progresso, Mexico. On this stop we woke up at 5am because we signed up for the excursion to see Chichen Itza which is an ancient Mayan City that is currently one of the new seven wonders of the world. This is something we have wanted to do for a long time now and we are glad we did! The excursion consisted of a 2.5 hour bus ride into the Yucatan peninsula. To take up the lengthy road trip our tour guide who was 100% Mayan decent gave us a history of the Mayans, the Yucatan pennisula and Chichen Itza itself. He also noted that we will be fine after 2012.
Once we arrived at the ruins it was hard to believe we were standing next to these ancient structures. You can look at so many pictures of this place, but actually standing on the grounds was unbelievable.
There were vendors everywhere trying to get you to buy their stuff which were the same things at every table but everyone had a “great price”. Some were pushy but most were not and let you pass easily if you weren’t interested. Because of the long bus ride back and forth we only had about 2 hours to spend at the ruins before we had to leave and head back to the boat due to the long travel time. We normally do not like to participate in guided tours and like to explore on our own but we were glad to have had the chance to visit even it were for only a couple of hours. If we go back to this place we would stay in ne of the few hotels nearby to get to spend more time here since the tour guide recommended a full weekend to see everything.
Cozumel
The second and last port of the trip was Cozumel. We decided to take it easy this day since we had to head out so early the previous morning. There were several excursions you can sign up with through the cruise line but we decided to do our own thing so we rented a Jeep. We found the car rental place, completed all of the paperwork and the agent pointed out on a map some good beaches to go to that are more secluded than the popular tourist spots. Once we walked over to our Jeep Wrangler, took the top down and we were on our way to crusing around Cozumel. Mexico is the 2nd foreign country I have driven in (the 1st being Ireland) and it wasn’t bad at all. However you don’t need to be a Sunday driver, you need to be a little aggressive! We drove for around 30-45 minutes to find a place called Punta Sur Park The entry fee was $12 per person which isn’t bad at all. The park was a long strip of road and we could park wherever we wanted since we had a Jeep. We found a perfect place to enjoy the beach parked and plopped down on the sand! We were the only ones out on this beach so it felt like was our own private beach.
Come to find out this place is also a reserve for sea turtles and we were able to locate the remains of their nests. We had just about all we could take and decided to head back to town. We filled up the Jeep with gas at a full service station which was nice and turned it back in to the rental company. We decided to walk around the shops around town and then found a taco stand a little bit away from the tourist crowd where we saw some locals eating (usually a good sign). We had what the cook called carne asada tacos but there were chicken and bacon in there too, no complaints because they were tasty! He had a little table setup next to the stand with some home made red and green salsas which were both very tasty. Add a Mexican Coca-Cola to that and it was a perfect lunch! After we ate we did a little shopping which is a lot of price negotiation (never take the first price) and wound up with a few neat things. After plenty of shopping and sun it was time to walk back up the boat.
Days at Sea
The other days of the cruise were spent at sea which in which there is a full schedule of what activities are going on that day. This is great for some people but our sea days consisted of breakfast via room service, drinking coffee on our balcony, watching sunsets, stargazing and just a lot of much deserved relaxation.
