Cozumel

Who knew that when we docked at Mexico we were going to be thrilled to be back in civilization so to speak. It looked so clean and modern compared to where we had been.

 We got off the ship as soon as we could and hiked over to the water taxi. Wouldn't you know we missed the first available one by 5 minutes which was a huge bummer. But we got the next one a half hour later. I had grabbed my Dramamine and was I ever glad we did. That was one rough 45 minutes. Wow. The band just kept on playing while the workers handed out barf bags and paper towels for cleanup! We found our guide, Jonathon, from Helaman Tours at our meeting spot. We loaded into his van (much nicer van finally too!!), and headed for Tulum. This was the highlight of our trip for sure. I know we were all looking forward to it the whole time and it didn't disappoint. There was a hike from the parking into the walled city with a mob of people but luckily once we got inside the wall it really thinned out.

Here we all are just outside the wall with a lookout tower right behind us.

 

 Heading on in through the tiny opening in the wall. 

Come to find out the wall was not necessarily for protection but to divide the upper class inside from the workers outside the wall. The city was patterned after a typical Hebrew city with five entrances into the city. The ocean was considered a wall here. The Temple was built on the east by the ocean.

 I discovered as Jonathon was talking to us I was getting hot and nauseous. I think honestly I had some sunstroke from the horrendous sunburn of the day before because I sure did not feel good. The ocean breezes helped when we got to the eastern side thank goodness but I was looking and feeling peak-ed.

 Here is an example of a ruin that used round stones cemented together. We know Nephites perfected cement work they probably learned from the Mayan because there wasn't any cement work back in Israel at that time. Also the dark area in the center of the floor was a tomb. They buried their dead in the center of their homes just like the Egyptians did with pyramids and such.

 This is a good overview picture.

Here we all are in front of the Temple. 

It was laid out just like Solomon's Temple with a place to wash up outside and a place for burnt offerings and a priest's home. The people don't know what they have here at all because all the signs called it a castle. At the top of the stairs there are two rooms with a cloth divider that used to hang there to divide the holiest place from the rest. Also in the frieze at the top there are three carvings. One is the highest God, the center one is the descending God (depicted by his head pointing downward) and the last carving is empty which is so obviously the Holy Ghost to us. It's so sad that you can't go into any of the buildings any more because people were peeing in them and graffiti was inside etc. People are so stupid!

 This is a little closer picture of the descending God. The closer your home was to the Temple the more important you were in their society so this was a mayor. Also there were carvings showing the city officials being put in office by the laying on of hands.

 Nasty Lizard!

 This shows the remains of the red paint hand prints on this building that symbolized divine healing.

 The Mayans were really into opposites like good and evil, light and dark. On the two corners of this building there was a face depicted with eyes open like in the above picture and closed like below.

 Also all the buildings were originally coated in blue or red stucco and now very little remains at all.

 A great view of the ocean at the edge of the city.

 This is a picture of a special honeybee hive. They have super tiny and they have no stingers! Also they work 6 days and rest for a day. How cool is that. They would most likely have been the bees to come over with the Jaradites.

 After our tour we had a yummy lunch at one of Jonathon's favorite places. It was delicious and we were starved. The chicken was especially good and they cooked it right there behind us on that big grill. The spaghetti was a little out of place we thought though ha ha. It didn't go on the tortilla very well.

 We all did a little shopping on our own on the way back to the cruise ship. That's where I got my cruise ship pandora charm. Then we had to seriously hustle to get back to the ship on time. We might have had five minutes to spare. Maybe.

 Back on our ship for our 2nd formal night of the cruise. Yup it was a little windy on the deck.

Here we are with our waiter, Milos, from Serbia. He was a great server.

Tonight's towel friend.