Wild Adventures...or Not!

One of the many cheesy photos taken as you get off the ship at each port

For our time in Cozumel I booked us a tour with Wild Adventures. It was called the ATV Jungle tour with Mayan ruins and snorkel at a Marine Reserve. I read several reviews and looked at photos and decided it sounded good. I was actually on the elliptical machine on the 10th floor of the ship as we arrived in Cozumel. I was struck by how evenly all the trees and shrubs were in height and that there were absolutely no rises in topography there. A few years ago a hurricane came through Cozumel and stayed for 3 days. The locals say that most of the sand from the beaches was lost and all of the trees were leveled. That is why everything looks so flat there, its only had a few years to grow back! So our "jungle" was really grove of trees and the muddy ride promised turned out to be completely manufactured!! It was a cement pool filled with dirt and watered regularly with a sprinkler system!!

Just getting going on the tour. Nice goggles eh?!

The Mayan Ruins were a bit of a stretch too. The first place we visited was a sink hole. They explained how they were used by the Mayans but this one is too new to have been around then. The stories of how they were used were pretty fascinating though.

The other thing we saw was a cave that could possibly have been around and used by the Mayans for shelter during severe weather. Here is what the back side of it looked like. You never would have seen in from the outside though.

While we were back there we came across this iguana that the guides have named Samantha.

Here we are looking up through a hole in the roof of the cave. Our guide climbed outside and was looking down into the hole.

The paths we rode on were pretty bumpy from rocks and roots of all the trees. We were filthy dirty by the time we finished. The riding itself was pretty fun but it almost seemed like the whole thing was just a little too contrived.

We learned that the entire island is now a wildlife reserve since the hurricane came through. So our snorkel at the Marine reserve meant that we were snorkeling on the beach, any beach in Cozumel! It started pouring rain while we were getting into the water but the ocean was so warm it felt better to be in than out of it. I actually held a little sea horse we found out there! They have been my favorite sea creatures since I learned this summer that the males carry the babies! Besides it is so cool to watch them swim, curling and uncurling their tails.

This is about how "wild" our tours were in Cozumel. A little misguided but still a very fun day!