Visitors to Costa Maya can experience parts of Mexico that, just a decade ago, people never knew existed. Puerto Costa Maya sprang up as a village designed for cruise passengers with the completion of a major pier in the early 2000s. Mayan Pavilion Park, right at the port, is a retail and cultural mall featuring Mayan handicraft shops, swim-up bars, restaurants, saltwater pools, and Mayan art and architecture. Nearby, the fishing town of Mahahual features a few hotels, some shops and inexpensive, quality restaurants. Also of note is the Chinchorro Banks, a designated Mexican national park.

On land, Costa Maya’s remote and rugged terrain is best explored by Jeep. The jungle here remains primitive and thrilling, home to exotic birds and lush foliage. After passing several quiet villages a stop at Pleasure Beach, an hour’s drive south of Mahahual, proves ideal for a beachfront lunch and a dip in the clear Caribbean. The crystal clear Caribbean waters teem with nautical treasures, from schools of colorful fish to a living coral reef. Snorkeling tour options include a trip right from the beach to the sea via a Sea Doo scooter or a more leisurely sail aboard a catamaran off the shore. Or you can visit one of the many Mayan ruins in the area.

Excursions require transportation from the ship. In our case, it was going to be another eight hours away from the ship. Unlike Cozumel, however, no ferry ride was needed to get to these ruins – just a really long motor coach ride. The trip to Dzibanche – the first stop – took about 2 1/2 hours.

Kohunlich and Dzibanche are two lesser known Mayan ruins in the southern part of the Mexican state Quintana Roo. Unlike Tulum or Chacchoben, which no longer have active archaeological work, both of these sites are still actively being excavated. In Dzibanche there’s an entire new area that’s been unearthed – so new that it’s not even on the site map yet.

Having visited a few ruins over several trips, we can tell you that each one has some unique element that makes it special. Whether it’s the massive carved estellas at Quirigua in Guatemala, or the enormous carved heads at Lamanai in Belize, there’s something new and different to be seen at each of them.

The name Dzibanche means “writing on wood” in Mayan. This is because archaeologists found carved wooden lintels at the site which were supporting the ceilings in several buildings.

But the biggest discovery made here was jade burial masks found on three skeletons buried beneath Temple Two. While the masks have been moved to the safety of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, the fact that they were found at Dzibanche makes this place special. Very few Mayan remains have been found, despite the number of restored sites, and even fewer with jade masks.

Something else that makes Dzibanche worth the trip is the intact 500 year old stucco, where the reds, greens, and blues are still visible.

Three temples were included in the tour, and unlike Tulum and some other sites, two of the three temples were “all access” – meaning you could climb and touch them. Only Temple Two as off limits, because it contained the tombs where the skeletons and masks were found.

Dzibanche is actually located in what could be called a metropolitan area. Officially, Dzibanche is included in a group of three ruins that includes Kinichna and Lamay. It’s very likely, however, that these three sites were actually part of one very large city during the Mayan era. Unfortuately, due to lack of time, the excursion does not visit these other ruins.

During the approximate 30 minute drive from Dzibanche to Kohunlich, we had a chance to have a box lunch. This was by far the worst part of the excursion. The box luch was arranged by the ship and not the tour operator. We knew from the tour description that this was going to be a boxed lunch and that water would be provided. The box contained: a hard roll, two small pieces of what we assume was pound cake, a mixed fruit cup, a cookie, and a package of tuna salad makings. If we had been stationary or at picnic tables, this wouldn’t have been an issue. Instead, try to balance a box with these items and a bottled water, while trying to extract the tuna from its pouch, mix the mayo and relish, at the same time not hitting your seatmate with your elbow, on a moving bus bouncing down twisty roads. Definitely not an experience we’d like to repeat.

We finally arrived at Kohunlich. Like Dzibanche, this is an active dig site, but what has been uncovered is impressive. One of those structures is a residence that belonged to a high-ranking individual – very likely the chief. We were allowed to climb the stairs to the top, where we were able to see the sleeping chambers, complete with storage cubbies under the bed.

This house was actually built around and on top of older structures that had been in the same place. This has been seen in numerous Mayan ruins, the most extensive being 14 layers thick. The specific reason wasn’t clear, but may have to do with new leaders building on top of the homes of previous leaders. This particular structure at Kohunlich overlooked the Plaza of the Estellas.

Many Mayan cities were built or oriented in such a way that sunrise or sunset on a specific day of the year would have a unique result. In Tulum, it is sunrise on the equinox, lighting up a specific room inside a specific building.

In Kohunlich, it went a step further. During dawn on April 12, the sun rises and shines through one building in the Plaza of the Estellas. As the shines through the opening it creates a path across the plaza and iloumniates another room on the other size of the plaza. That room has a small opening, about the size of a brick, which leads to another room. The correct alignment only happens twice a year, but only the April 12th date has been determined to be significant. That is because it is 4 to 6 weeks before the rainy season starts. Archeaologists believe that this was a sign that crop plantings need to begin in order to take full advantage of the rainy season.

Beyond this plaza was a ball court, similar to the ones we saw in Chacchoben and Belize. The rules are similar: the winners get the honor of being sacrificed tot he Mayan gods, losers live to play another day.

The ball court was flanked by an administrative building that had some thing rare in the Mayan world – round pillars.

But the crowning jewel of Kohunluck are the plaster masks of the sun god. A temple at the top of the hill has five of the original eight masks still intact, still covered with plaster, about 800 years old. It is believed that this temple also had some astronomical function, but the original roof has collapsed so nothing can determined for certain.

An easy walk back to the bus, a chance for a nap on the two hour drive back to the ship, and this excursion was a great way to spend the day.

While we did cover a lot of ground at these two ruins, we’d like to go back in about ten years to see what else the archeaologists find buried under the dirt in Costa Maya.

Once we got back to the ship we skipped the evening entertainment in the Solstice Theater in order to get ready for dinner.

Yesterday – Day 4 – Cozumel

Tomorrow – Day 6 – Roatan, Honduras

Cozumel is an island off the Yucatan Penninsula in Mexico, with access to the mainland (Playa del Carmen) by ferry which typically takes 30-45 minutes.  If you are prone to seasickness, it is recommended to take necessary precautions as the ferry ride can be rough at times.

Few places define “wonderland” like this lush island.  Famous for its array of water sports, there are many ways to get wet and have fun here:  SCUBA diving, snorkeling, swimming, sailing, deep-sea fishing, kayaking and parasailing among them.

The Celebrity Solstice docked in Cozumel at 9am and had a 6pm departure.  Our excursion literally took all day.  We disembarked shortly after docking, catching the ferry to Playa del Carmen at 9:30am.  There we joined our tour guide and boarded a motor coach for the Tulum Mayan Ruins. 

Tulum is, in a word, stunning.  The excavated and restored buildings are not the tallest or most ornate of the Mayan ruins that we have visited over the years.  What makes Tulum unique amont all Mayan sites is its location – over looking the Caribbean Sea. 

The specific excursion that we went on is called the “Tulum Ruins and Beach Break with Lunch” which included transportation from the ship to the ruins, a guided tour of the ruins themselves, transportation to a small resort for lunch and optional swimming on the beach, and transportation back to the ship.   All told, that’s eight hours off the ship.  Why so long?  Primarily because of the location of Tulum.  With Cozumel being an island off the coast of Mexico, which required taking the 30-45 minute ferry ride to Playa del Carmen where we boarded the motor coach for a 45-60 minute ride to the ruins.

Because Tulum is well known, in a beautiful location, and is an excursion offered by almost every cruise line, it has become very commercialized.  Outside of the entrance there’s a collection of shops and merchants vying for your business.  Our excursion was operated by Airomar, and they dropped us off at a jewelry store wtih clean bathrooms and free water and fruit juice.  If you are so inclined, you can purchase a necklace with your name spelled out in Mayan, which you can then pick up at the end of your tour (we declined). 

From this point you have the choice of walking about a mile to the ruins in the heat and humidity, or paying $2 USD per person for a round-trip trolly ride to the ruins’ entrance.   Four dollars and five minute later we arrived at the actual entrance to the ruins.  A short walk and we were inside the wall that used to protect this city from invaders. 

Our time inside the ruins was short – just slightly more than an hour.  That is enough time to see the main buildings and get a bit of history from the tour guide, but not enough time to really explore the area.  And it is definitely not enough time to go down to the beach to see the Mayan temple from the other side.  The excursion was enough of a taste that we want to go back to spend two to three hours there.

But for now it was back to the bus and back on the road for the “beach break” part of the excursion.  About 30 minutes later we arrived at a very small place for lunch.  We would not call it a resort in the traditional sense – in fact, from what we could see there appeared to only be a handful of rooms.  But the food was good, the sodas and bottled water were cold, and the views were great.  This part of the excursion was exclusive to Celebrity, with no passengers from other ships there.  We had about 90 minutes here to eat lunch and take a quick swim in the ocean.  Personally we would’ve preferred less time here and about 30 minutes longer in the ruins. 

After lunch it was back to the bus and back on the road – back to Playa del Carmen this time where we boarded the ferry back to Cozumel.   All-in-all, not a bad day.  In a nutshell, what we liked about the excursion: the Tulum ruins and lunch.  Our dislikes:  not enough time at the ruins, a lot of travel time. 

We would recommend Tulum for anyone that is interested in Mayan history, but don’t expect to get anything too in-depth   This really is a “taste” to see if you want to go back for a longer  visit (which we do).

Our excursion was the last group of passengers to get back onboard the ship before departure.  Had we been delayed, since it was a ship booked excursion, they would have held the ship for us (especially with 102 passengers on the excursion).  We were back onboard shortly before 6pm and headed straight to our stateroom to shower and change for the show at 7pm followed by our 8:30pm dinner seating in the main dining room. 

The show this evening was “Ghostlight – The Spirit of Broadway.”  They performed several songs from popular Broadway shows throughout the years, starting with Rent (525,600 Minutes), then moving onto Westside Story (Cool, The Rumble, Maria, Tonight), My Fair Lady (Get Me to the Church On Time, I Could Have Danced All Night), Wicked (Popular, Defying Gravity), Gypsy (You Gotta Get a Gimnick), Miss Saigon, and ending with Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”  The performances change when there is a major cast change, but this cast has amazing talent (singing, dancing, and acrobatics) and did an amazing job with this performance.  There were some technical glitches (microphone issues for one of the performers) which they handled professionally.  Overall, another performance that we would recommend not missing!

Yesterday – Day 3 – Grand Cayman

Tomorrow – Day 5 – Costa Maya