« Mahahual | Home | Valladolid »
Driving Miss Rosie
By mcdog | May 4, 2007
You can’t get close to the ferry pier in Playa del Carmen without being hassled by ticket sellers. The first to approach us used the ‘conversational’ method, big mistake, we were looking to buy tickets for a ferry, not a tour. We moved on before he finished, the ferry was leaving soon and so we gave our money to another seller. The tickets are a fixed price and the same for both companies, the timetables are the same also. Long live the competitive spirit.
The trip to Cozumel was all a ferry trip should be, uninteresting and uneventful. So both boats arrived at the same time and we all poured off and along the jetty and into the town. Herself and I walked one block inland and turned left. stopped at the ATM to fill our pockets and walked a few more yards to Rentadora Isis and hired a convertible VW Bug for the day, or was it a semi-convertible, there was a cover over the two front seats.
Finding our way out of town was easy using the map and instructions provided by the hire shop. Turn left at the second junction and left again at the next. Soon we were threading our way through the pedestrians from the ferries and cruise ships that visit the island. In no time we were out off town and driving in very light traffic on the west coast road. We passed two cruise ships moored at the south end of the town but there was not much else to see until we stopped at the Money Bar at Dzul-Ha.
The Money Bar is just a few tables and chairs under parasols at the side of the road just above the beach. Herself waited for the breakfasts to arrive while I donned mask, fins and snorkel, not forgetting shorts, and flapped off to look for a fish and a reef. I never found the reef but did see lots of fish of many colours. The ground was rock with boulders strewn across it and the fish, as fish do, congregated at the rocks. At one point I thought I was looking at a brain coral but realised it was a dense shoal of mustard-coloured fish. There was a party of about ten novice snorkellers in the water at the same time and I followed them, presuming that their guide knew the location of the good spots. I got back to the beach just after breakfast arrived on the table. A very satisfying few minutes in the water. Another party of novices were entering the water just as we drove off on our journey south.
The old road runs alongside the new road on this section of the coast and somehow we found ourselves on the old road. Most other vehicles were on the old road too, I don’t know why as there were many potholes.
At the southern tip of the island we came to a collection of buildings painted in Rasta colours were we had a drink, though we didn’t see any Rastas. After paying our US$10 entrance fee we drove into the National Park at Punta Sur. We parked beside an old building that we were told was a Mayan lighthouse. I presume that the dune blocking the view of the sea formed after the Mayans abandoned the lighthouse. Nearby was an observation tower occupied by half-a-dozen vultures who flew away as we climbed the steps. There were a few crocodiles lazing in the water below it, probably waiting to be fed by the wardens. A ‘crocodile’ of green ATVs stopped by the lighthouse and we stayed to listen to their guides explanation of the structure.
We moved further into the park and parked beside a more modern lighthouse. This was the nautical museum and there were displays of a maritime nature from Mayan to modern times, including the pirates, of course. Our entrance fee included a a ride in the back of a 4wd truck from the museum to what was probably the nicest beach we had seen in the whole of our journey in central america, possibly because it was the most deserted. After spending a couple of hours lounging in hammocks, snorkelling and exploring along the beach we caught the truck back to the museum and then headed on around the island.
The sea state changes dramatically at Punta Sur, the calm waters of the west coast replaced by the surf of the east coast. We managed to drive a flying pelican for hundred yards or more and made an attempt to video it, it was only fifteen to twenty feet away, but soon it swung away down the beach and away from the road.
We came across an American couple who had managed to get their hired 4wd jeep lodged on top of a rock and stopped to render assistance. It was one of the ‘crippled’ jeeps with the 4wd disconnected. With the help of some locals transporting a motorbike in a truck and some others they called from fishing on the beach we managed to get the jeep back on the tarmac.
Drove north as far as possible without an off-road vehicle and turned west towards the town. There are some Mayan ruins north of this road but the gates were being locked for the day as we arrived, so we fuelled the Bug and returned it, unharmed, to Rentadora Isis.
A great day out on Cozumel.
Topics: mexico02 | No Comments »