The first thing you notice about Cozumel was how pretty the water is. Other then the beauty of the water though there doesn’t seem to be much else here. The island is fairly flat and the cruise port is set a ways a way from the city.
The Carnival ships dock in an area called Puerta Maya. This is pretty much like your standard cruise port which has many shops and restaurants to keep you entertained for the day or do some shopping at. As you walked down the long pier to the shopping area you first must pass thru a large gift shop. This place was way busy. I guess it was because it was the first place you walk thru when leaving the ship and the last before returning. But the prices were much more expensive here then in all the other shops in the area. I guess some people are really ether impatient or are procrastinators and that’s why the shop was so busy.
Right when you get off the ship there are two bars/restaurants that look pretty fun if you’re a drinker lol. They are Fat Tuesdays and the Three Amigos. Both of which had some fun props out in front that you could model with for pictures.
Along the coastline of the Puerta Maya area was a small man made beach. However its not like your normal beach and never flows in to the water. You have to go to one of the islands real beaches to see that. The side of the island we were ported on was very rocky so the beach is set up about 4 feet above the coastline. Although it was very pretty we found it not to ever be crowded at all. But then again it was probably too well shaded and most tourests would want to go to a real beach.
After walking around the beach we decided to do what we set out for. That is shopping. We looked at store after store for any type of gift that we could bring home to our families. After almost completely circling the complex we found a shop that was perfect for our needs. What originally drew us in were cheap tee shirts that actually looked decent. What we found inside was everything we planned to buy. From the shirts to jewelry to Mexican Vanilla we really did all of our family shopping in this one shop. To make it better we spent enough money to get a free tote bag as well. Something Kiera has since used as her Primary class bag.
With our shopping done for the most part we really didn’t have a whole lot more to do. Yet we still had a few hours that we could spend in port until the ship left. We looked around a couple more shops where I eventually found myself a couple pairs of fake Oakley sunglasses. That turned in to quite the ordeal though as the shop owner wasn’t too good at haggling and tried getting me to pay more then what we agreed upon. I eventually got it back to my liking and were happy to be done with them.
With a lot of time still to spare we decided to walk to the Downtown area of Cozumel as I thought I heard it was only a 15 minute walk away. As we left the cruise port area there were many taxi’s and people offering rides but we still elected on walking. As we walked down the main road we passed another cruise port that was closed due to no other ships being in port. We also started walking past many of the different resorts that also lined the coastline. At times we were able to peak over the walls and see how pretty the resort grounds and beaches were.
We walked for nearly 20 minutes and still didn’t come across the downtown area. So we decided to give up and head back to the Puerta Maya. Of course once again we had many people asking if we needed a ride or if we wanted a tour or buy drinks and junk. But we eventually found ourselves right back where we started from. I guess the walk may have been a waist of time but we were glad we got to see a little more of the island then just the cruise port area.
Back at the cruise port we walked back over to the beach area to relax for a little while. It was nice to just sit and relax. It was so quite with the faint noise of a local band playing and the sound of the waves crashing on the rocks below. It was wonderful. However it was not enough to continue keeping us occupied before heading back to the ship.
So to kill some more time we decided to kill some time by partaking in some local Mexican cuisine. We walked over to a little local joint called Pancho’s and although we weren’t planning on ordering anything big we did order ourselves some authentic Tortilla Chips, Salsa, and Gucamole in addition to some water bottles. This small appitizer was amazing. I couldn’t believe how good it was. Including the Gucamole which I do not like back home whatsoever. This was the perfect way to top off our time in Cozumel with some authentic goodness.
After we finished with our snack our time in Cozumel was pretty much over. We looked at a couple final shops, took some pictures with the Three Amigos photo ops and then walked down the long pier back to the ship where we bid farewell to Cozumel.
We really enjoyed our time in Cozumel dispite not doing a whole lot. We were really glad that we decided to make Cozumel our shopping stop on the trip. Not only did it have the best prices out of all our ports but it also was out of all the Caribbean ports we’ve been to. As I said above the water is absolutely beautiful. The island seemed pretty as well. If we ever come back to Cozumel we will diffenitly make sure to do more then just shop and snack as the island seemed to have much to offer.
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