TOUR HIGHLIGHTS

San Gervasio Archeological site offers the only temple the Maya ever built to the moon goddess Ix Chel, it is located quite centrally on the island and with a good guide is a fascinating place to explore. Sadly a lot of it was destroyed by its namesake, and that is why the locals are trying to rename it back to its authentic name Tantun.

El Mirador is a short stop at a beautiful rocky beach on the southeastern side of the island.

The Mayan Cacao Company demonstrates some of the history of chocolate making the area, how chocolate is made and the offers a chance to sample their different kinds of chocolate, and of course purchase some.

PRE-TOUR

If booked as a cruise excursion, the tours start at many station points along the quay, your ticket should explain roughly where your point will be. Then it is a matter of finding your tour name amongst the many, many, tours on offer! This is not as hard as it might sound, they are all well signed and there are many people around who can offer assistance. Once you’ve checked in, we waited in one of the teepee huts, with this colourful tuk tuk in the centre, for our entire party to arrive before being escorted out of the port area and to a waiting coach.

The drive to the first stop will take about 30 minutes, and hopefully, you will get a guide as funny and informative as ours was to entertain you along the way. Whilst many guide “jokes” are pretty corny, our guide, Jesus, was honestly funny.

THE MAYAN RUINS OF TANTUN/SAN GERVASIO

The first thing to note about the ruins are the name, San Gervasio is actually the name of a man who explored the ruins extensively, unfortunately, he used dynamite to do so and so destroyed a large part of them in the process. Our guide asked, very politely, if you could refer to the ruins by the Mayan name Tantun and our group had no problem with him doing so.

Jesus started with explaining some Mayan customs that showed how shallow our definition of beauty is, in Mayan times, boys had their heads compressed at a young age to give them a “conehead” and girls had a bead set within their eye line in order to make them cross-eyed! Wonder what “beautiful” will look like in another thousand years?

He then explained about the ruins themselves, again, in an informative and amusing way, the first area houses the tomb structure and the ‘Manitas’ or ‘little hands’, this is named because of the red handprints that mark the walls. It may have been the house of the Overlord of Cozumel and contains two rooms.

Moving further into the complex, there is a well-preserved arch, which leads off to two areas on the site we didn’t visit on this tour as they are off deeper in the woods. It was here we saw one of the many Iguanas that live amongst the ruins.

The final part of the ruins that this tour visit is the temple area itself. This compact area comprises several structures including the Ossuary, Palace, Altar and ‘Murals Structure. Whilst, thanks to a certain Mr San Gervasio, there is a lot less to see here than there should be, we enjoyed our tour and learning more about Mayan history and culture.

NOTE: Whilst photography is allowed at the site, if you want to take video there is a small additional charge.

EL MIRADOR

Before heading to the chocolate part of the tour, the bus stopped at El Mirador. A rocky part of the coastline offering stunning views out into the Caribbean Sea and a chance to relax and watch the waves crashing ashore.

There are a few kitsch shops selling souvenirs as well as drinks and food available if you have a little more time. As this tour stops here for only a short time, we just enjoyed the scenery and fresh sea air.

THE MAYAN CACAO COMPANY

The visit to the Mayan Cacao Company started with a traditional Mayan welcome from one of the staff. This involved the, heavily body painted individual, blowing through a large shell which made an impressively loud noise and recanting some local dialect to welcome us.

We then entered a shed area with some displays on the walls of the history of chocolate in the area as well as some of the utensils that were used to make the delicacy. Our guide gave us further information about the history, including the amazing amount of energy that is stored in the cacao, enough to keep someone going on a long journey on a relatively small amount of food.

Then you walk through a garden where you are offered some Mouli on a small flour tortilla, Mouli is a mix of chocolate and chilli, chocolate is supposedly the perfect ingredient to stop chilli from setting your mouth on fire, better than all those other “cures” you’ve heard about. So by mixing the chocolate directly in with the chilli, you get the taste, without the burn.

You then enter an auditorium, where one of the staff shows you how chocolate can be made with just a few simple ingredients. Basically, the ingredients are just pounded together to make coarse liquid chocolate, this then sets to make basic chocolate.

The tour ends with a taster drink of liquid chocolate that you can add cinnamon, sugar and a couple of other things to your own taste. You can then explore the gardens a little more, or head to the gift shop which offers all manner of chocolate infused soaps and such, and of course, the chocolate that they make for sale. All the flavours were available to taste with the exception of the mint (we guess this is because it is chocolate with a filling rather than flavoured chocolate) and you can then purchase a bar or two of your favourites.

The bus then returns to the port and drops you immediately outside the secure area, as you re-enter the secure area around the port, you’ll need your ship access cards as the port security check everyone is on a cruise ship.

HOW TO BOOK THE TOUR

For Royal Caribbean, from your reservations page on the website or through your Crown and Anchor account, you can goto to the excursions section and find this tour. You can enter the number of tickets you want to purchase and your tickets for the excursion will be in your stateroom when you board the ship.

WHAT TO BRING WITH YOU

For our tour with Royal Caribbean, we could leave items on the bus between stops, so if you do the same tour then at each stop, we would suggest you should bring as little as possible and leave backpacks and bigger bags on the minibus or back on the cruise ship.

Things to remember to bring are:

• Your ship access card and government-issued photo identification
• Water: The tour lasts around three hours and can be very warm, however, you can purchase drinks at the Mayan ruins and at El Mirador.
• Camera! You’re allowed to bring cameras and phones and there will be lots of opportunities for photos and videos.
• Insect repellent: The area is a natural home to bugs which might see you as lunch, so bug spray is worth bringing.
• Sturdy/grippy shoes to walk around the ruins, the ground is not especially rough, but it is not the same as a paved path.

CHECK-IN

You need to arrive at your assigned meeting point within the port compound around 10-15 minutes before your tour is due to depart. Check your excursion tickets to identify the precise meeting point for your tour, once in the vicinity, all the tours are well signed and you should find “Mayan Ruins and Chocolate Tasting Tour” quite easily and be able to make contact with your guide.

WAS IT WORTH IT?

We feel this tour is a good value for what you get. It was well organised and the guide we got (Thank you Jesus!) was one of the best guides we have ever experienced. Actually funny, approachable and knowledgeable, he definitely enhanced our tour hugely. The three stops were well-timed and offer a view of Cozumel’s history and present, and who can turn down tasting chocolate as the icing on the cake?