On Monday we took the tour to Isla Contoy that we were supposed to take on Saturday, which ended up being not the tour that I booked but a similar tour with another company that we were added into. This meant that instead of snorkeling at a reef and finishing the trip at Isla Contoy we snorkeled a small amount in another area of the water, spent some time at Isla Contoy, and visited - for the third time - Isla Mujeres.

Our boat was full of European tourists - there was maybe one other small group of American travelers on the boat. It was refreshing for us to be surrounded by other languages, but the guides had to repeat everything in six languages, which was quite the challenge for them.

Our first stop was snorkeling, which was in much calmer waters than the previous days. The guides all teased Jason for his sizable waterproof cased camera, which they called an enormous GoPro (some other people had cameras they took in the water, but they were always GoPros in waterproof cases, which was about ⅙ the size of Jason’s camera in his case). Our guide, Alex, took the group of people who spoke passable English on a tour of a somewhat shallow area with many fish, which he fed with “Mexican bread for Mexican fishes” to make them come up to the surface near us.

The shiny striped fish that we saw the most (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Many more fish on this trip (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric with a fish buddy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the end of the tour we went to the edge of MUSA, which is an underwater museum off the coast of Isla Mujeres. It features stone statues of people and cars and various other things, many of which can only be viewed through diving. Our guide took us to a circle of six giant stone hands making the blessing sign that were at snorkeling level. We were not allowed to touch them, but we could dive down and look at them more closely. I swallowed about a cup of sea water by diving down to see them and not clearing my snorkel at the right time as I came back up.

Eric walking like an Egyption near the hands (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After snorkeling we got back on the boat to join everyone who had not gone snorkeling (only about half had gotten in the water) for the ride to Isla Contoy. Throughout the trip we were pressured by the boat staff into drinking very similar tasting, lightly alcoholic drinks of various bright colors. They also played dance music and encouraged us to dance along.

Tropical fruit buddies (with an excellent photobomb) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I had been holding a beer, so my hand was cold (Photo/Eric Strom)

After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at Isla Contoy, which is a wildlife preserve north of Isla Mujeres. It’s highly regulated - no sunscreen is allowed on the island, and the 200 visitors who are allowed per day on organized trips have very limited access to three walking trails and a beach. The island is the most important seabird nesting place in the Mexican Caribbean. Alex took us up in the tower to discuss the island, then took us to look at the birds and the coast.

The name Contoy originates from when the conquistadors came to the area, pointed at the island, and asked the Mayans what it was called. The Mayans thought they were pointing at a pelican. The Mayan word for pelican is similar to contoy, so the Spanish misheard and thought the island was called Contoy.

Isla Contoy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

There was a large community of frigates mating on the island. Frigates are weird birds - they are amazing flyers, but they cannot swim or walk, so their hunting is somewhat limited. They grab fish from the surface of the water or grab them when they jump into the air. The males have a bright red gular sack that they inflate to attract the attention of mates, and they also make a loud clicking noise. Since it was mating season, it was rather loud.

A flying frigate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the only tourist-accessible beaches on Isla Contoy (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

After walking around and learning about the island, we had a surprisingly delicious lunch in the picnic area before spending some free time on the beautiful white beach. At that point, we boarded the boat and went back to Isla Mujeres. We only had an hour on the island this time, and we didn’t feel the need to explore it again, so we went to the second floor of a bar across the street from the beach and drank some beers.

At the end of the trip, as we made our way back to the mainland, all the boat staff dressed up as either the Village People or superheroes and we all danced to YMCA, Gangnam Style, and another song I wasn’t as familiar with. Amusingly, all the European tourists knew the dances to the songs better than we did. It was surreal, but also rather enjoyable.