Our last port on our Royal Caribbean Cruise was to Cozumel, Mexico. Having traveled to Mexico in the past (see my posts on Cancun and Puerto Vallarta), Brent and I planned on just walking around the main strip of San Miguel where there was plenty of shopping and food.
We ended up tagging along with some of our family, so we ended up visiting one of the ruins that my father in law wanted to visit. Though if you really want to see some impressive ruins, I highly recommend taking a fairy to visit Tulum (which we visited on our honeymoon in Cancun) or Chichen Itza.
After visiting the ruins we headed to San Miguel. It reminded me a lot like Santa Barbara where you can walk the ocean strip on one end and shop across the street. For the minmal fee of transportation to get there, this boardwalk offers a lot to see and do for a small price.
We headed across the street to check out the shops and find a place for lunch.
We ended up at one of the first places we saw for lunch, Woody's, and it did not disappoint. I insisted Brent and I got the nachos and the tacos. Both were AMAZING. Though I imagine there are plenty of other great places to eat. I lacked research on where to eat this time around so we lucked out.
One of my only requests while shopping in Cozumel was to hunt down some Mexican banners, papel picado. Unfortunately, I did not know their official name until later and had to rely on my spanglish to try to describe them to locals who only spoke Spanish! We walked about five blocks from the main strip to find a place that sold them. By simply walking past the touristy streets, we got a taste of the local atmosphere that was a bit slower paced. No yelling at you to buy something. Just friendly people going about their day. We lucked out and found a place that sold them for a really great price!
We also browsed the local markets.
As well as all the motorcycles lined up, a popular choice of transportation.
On our way back to the main boardwalk, I started craving some ice cream. To our luck, this adorable man on an ice cream bike rode up to us.
To our surprise the ice cream was coconut flavored. It was delicious! And how fun are these double wide cones (apparently called twin scoops)? We figured they were a smart choice because it is so hot in Mexico your ice cream would surely melt quickly on a single wide.
By now Brent and I were on our own and so instead of taking a taxi back to the boat we decided to walk back to save money. We heard that the boat was about six miles from where we got dropped off in San Miguel and we had already walked pretty far the direction back to the boat. We figured that the most would be maybe three miles back and so we decided to walk.
Who knows how many miles we actually walked but it took forever (including getting slightly lost). We are always open to new adventures so it was not terrible but I would not advise it to all! Let's just say I eventually walked barefoot because my very minimal platform sandals could no longer make it on my feet! We were hot and exhausted. But my husband is a good sport (thank goodness!) and looking back, we got to see a lot of the city that I am thankful for now.
We enjoyed a final view from the boat of the lovely city of Cozumel. And as soon as we got back to our room I had to hang up my papel picado!
Catch up on all my posts from the cruise here: the boat, Haiti, and Jamaica.
