Whatever You Do, Don't Drink the Water

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Geo: 20.4286, -86.8792

Our first revised port of call was the island of Cozumel, in Mexico. As I had not expected to be here, I'd done zero research on the city and what there was to do. We attended the shore excursion lecture on the ship, but the only thing which remotely interested us was an excursion to visit Mayan ruins on the mainland. We were all set to sign up, but then the prospect of the seven-hour tour, the hot temperatures, and our collective desire to relax, we decided at the 11th hour to pass it up. Instead, we elected for some shopping, and then enjoying the ship's pools and waterslides in relative quiet, as most people were off the ship.

We were only one of five large cruise ships at Cozumel this day, including the world's largest liner Oasis of the Seas. We shared our pier with only one other Carnival ship, so the area of town we visited was relatively quiet. I can only imagine the scene further uptown, with the other three ships. The shopping was, well, "typical" Mexican. We loaded up on tourist trinkets, gave Anna some lessons in bartering, and still ended up -- I'm sure -- overpaying. Aside from some very nice earrings Anna picked out for Katherine here, my best purchase were some industrial-strength Ibuprofen to ease the pain in my legs. Let's just that I was not exactly sprinting through Cozumel.

We were back on for lunch, which we had at their English Pub. Anna then proceeded to kick my butt in a few rounds of Wii Tennis, on the two-story atrium screen, before she hit the kids club. I had another workout, and then we had a relatively quiet dinner and ice cream session up top.

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