CCL Miracle-Cavern by Jeep and Beach Combo-12/21/2005

[GarageTwoThree]

This was a great excursion even though the tender boat ride to the mainland was not so good. The waves were pretty high in cozumel this day and tendering was actually cancelled around noon due to the gangway being smashed against the port door :eek: . Anyway once our 45 minute tender boat ride was over to the mainland (Playa Mia) we met our tour guides. The two tours guides were very funny and gave us a run down of what we had gotten ourselves into. They also gave us some grounds rules for driving in Mexico and we headed to the Jeeps. All the trucks are six speed Jeep Wranglers with noradio and no working a/c. They will put the top down for you and will ask for your driver lic. My girlfriend and I lucked out and got our own jeep while thers had to partner up (4 to a jeep or 5 if you had a small child). We started our way to the caverns. It started on a paved road and then led to a dirt road. There are some potholes, dips, rocks, and loose gravel on the road over. I tried to hit has many as posible except for the huge ones that looked like would take a tire out.(I wanted to have fun :D). We finally made it to the caverns which are in a an Ecological park. Here you can go to the "peepee" station and also change if you need to. They then give you a hard hat for a short walk into the caves. The opening makes you duck down a about a foot , but thats about as dangerous as it gets. The gave opens up and it looks very nice. You have to put a life vest on and then you can either jump or walk into the underground lake of sorts. ITS COLD, but you get used to it and the cave structures are very nice. The water is crystal clear. If you have a waterproof camera without a flash don't bother taking shots they probably will not come out :(. Carefully take your digital camera and take some shots before getting into the water deeply or take them from the land where you place your stuff. The tour guide will give you some cool info about the caves geological makeup and then guide you to a deeper part wheree cave divers enter to explore the rest of the caves.. After there they give you a drink( either coke, water, fanta, etc. in cans, and plastic bottles) you dump out into a small area with handicrafts. Now if you don't know how to shop in Mexico do a search, but lets just say there were people in our group who paid 65.00 for thin little Cohiba cigars and I paid $20 for Churchhills that were apparently $80.00 when I first arrived. The key is to show interest there and then when you guys are about to leave all the deals comeout. Everything we bought there was from our Jeeps just about to leave. :D We started over to the beach area which is about a 35 minute drive to the beach mostly by highway going about 60mph. We then hit a small dirt road that leads to a resturant, small shop and beach area. The free buffet is good and the beachis very pretty. We spent about an hour here snorkeling and sun bathing. You can rent waverunners, kayaks, etc. It seemed as only our group was there and wasn't crowded at all. After that we rode back to the area were we first picked the jeeps up and walked back to the tender docks. The ride back was just as bad as the ride over except slower. We think this is a great excursion and the guides were great. The only thing that was a dissapointment was the short length which was CCL and not the tours fault. The captain had waited a longtime redirecting the ship before tender service started. GO DO THIS TOUR.

 

Carlos