Cozumel
Cozumel is Mexico's largest island, nestled just 12 miles off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Cozumel measures 28 miles long & 10 miles wide,and is world renown for it's dazzling white sandy beaches and the remarkable clarity of the multi-hued azure Caribbean ocean in which it rests.
The climate is subtropical & the people native to Cozumel are of Mayan descent. The Maya were a great culture of farmers,fisherman & warriors who ruled from Campeche to Guatamala for over 2000 years before the arrival of the Spanish Explorers in the 15th Century. They were quite an advanced civilazation, and the legacy of their culture survives in the vestiges of the huge cities that they built during their reign.
One of the lesser known, but very interesting sites is here on the island and is called San Gervacio. Now a park with a resoration project to study the Mayan culture, this was once a sacred site where Mayan women journeyed to worship the goddess Ixchel, the goddess of fertility. Other facinating sites such as Chichen Itza with its massive pyramids that rival those at Cheops, and Tulum, the only Mayan city built overlooking the sea, and even Tikal in its lush jungle settings where wild monkeys still can be seen, each are an easy one day excursion from Cozumel.
In addition to the spectacular open water diving, the region of Cozumel is well-known for the underground rivers that honycomb the porous limestone of the Yucatan which provide some of the most beautiful cave and cavern or "cenote" diving in the world. Many of these caves are very highly decorated and are like floating through the finest dry cave you have ever seen, simply filled with water that is as clear as air. Because they are supported and protected by their water filled enviornment, they are pristine and each has its own particular marine life, unique to a waterfilled cave environment.
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