The Caribbean has long held a fascination for me, as so many films have been based there. And given our penchant for cruising, it seemed the ideal place to go. This cruise was only five nights, with just two ports of call (Key West, Florida, and Cozumel, Mexico) and the rest were sea days. It was a great way to wind down after a long couple of travel days from Australia.
Think of Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Key lime pie, conch and pirates and you have Key West in a nutshell. This Florida key juts into the Florida Straits with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. It is joined to mainland USA by a series of causeway bridges and US Highway 1 actually starts here. Key West also claims to have the southernmost point of continental USA, marked by a monument that proclaims: “90 miles (145 kilometres) to Cuba”.
The most popular activity chosen by cruise passengers is to take one of the Old Town Trolley Tours or the Conch Train for a guided tour of the attractions and beautiful balconied cottages that adorn the city streets. We found the trolleys in Mallory Square near the Old Post Office, which now serves as a museum. They operate a hop-on, hop-off service, with trolleys every half hour. The highlights we saw included Hemingway House, Key West Aquarium, Southernmost Point with its monument, the Lighthouse, Audubon House, Mallory Square, Duval Street and the Historic Seaport.
We also did some general walking around the streets, admiring the distinctive Key West architecture of weatherboard houses painted in various pastel colours with white timber trims. Finding a spa for a welcome massage was a bonus, as was a great sweet shop (Kilwins) full of wonderful treats. We saw Sloppy Joe’s Bar (the original one) where Hemingway used to drink, and made sure we got to taste the conch (meat) we had heard so much about, at The Conch Republic. It was a bit like abalone (without the price tag) or tough calamari. It could be eaten in various ways, so we settled for a sort of mornay. The other food famous in this region is Key lime pie. All over town there are stores advertising their Key lime pie as the original or the best. We thought the pie at Kermit’s was pretty good!
Just in case I never got to Central America again, I was determined to see some remnants of the Mayan civilisation. While some on our cruise opted to swim with the dolphins, I was focused on Tulum. Although it would be a long way from where our ship docked at the island of Cozumel off the Mexican east coast, we were assured that taking a cruise tour would mean the ship wouldn’t go without us if the tour was delayed coming back for some reason. First we had to walk through the town of Cozumel to the west and then take a ferry to the mainland at Playa del Carmen, then a 62km bus ride south to the ruins at Tulum.
Established about 1200 and flourishing from the 13th to the 15th centuries, Tulum was abandoned late in the 16th century due to the effect of Spanish rule and diseases. The ruins are situated on 12-metre-tall cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and ringed to the west by thick limestone walls. In fact, the word Tulum means a wall or enclosure. Tulum was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Maya and is one of the best-preserved sites. It isn’t as big and beautiful as Chichen Itza apparently, but that was too far for our tour.
Tulum is unique in that it is the only Mayan temple and fort on the coast. Although it has more than 60 restored temples, there are three major structures of interest at the Tulum archaeological site: El Castillo, the Temple of the Frescoes, and the Temple of the Descending God. A number of artefacts found in or near the site show contacts with areas all over Central Mexico and Central America. Tulum was apparently a major trading port for the Mayans. At a further 7.5m in height, El Castillo acted as a marker for the sailors to guide them through the reefs to a break in the cliffs. The Temple of the Wind God stands above the main swimming beach, which is popular with tourists, as they can descend the stairs to the beach for a cool-off after a hot day around the ruins.
We had a guide for the first hour or so and then were free to wander independently. Sighting iguanas atop various walls and parts of the ruins was a real plus for us, as well as seeing the curious coatis, which came to check if we had any food and then scampered off again. The coatis are native to Central America and are members of the raccoon family. We had never seen them before.
Before heading away from Tulum, we had the opportunity to buy souvenirs in the tourist market and watch the daredevil descendants of the Mayans perform a type of bungy jump, as a group of four, from a revolving platform atop a tall post. Our tour ended with a stop for lunch and an opportunity for a brief swim or paddle at the Los Lirios beach resort nearby. As usual, we used this time to check our emails on the free wi fi and did not discover how wonderfully warm the water was until nearly time to go!
It was a long, hot day but we managed to get back to the ship in time. Some other cruisers missed the ferry and, luckily for them, our ship waited until the next one arrived before embarking. This cruise certainly whetted our appetite for more and we booked into another on our return to Fort Lauderdale, to do a 14-day cruise through the south-eastern islands of the Caribbean.