Cozumel, Mexico

Our last port of call was Cozumel, Mexico.  It was beautiful!!  It was by far the largest city of all the ports we went to, and in many ways, one of our favorites.  Again, I look at the small amount of pictures and wonder why I didn't take more!  

Brian had researched a nice beach resort to go to (without peddlers!) so we hopped in a taxi and were the first ones to arrive at the beach around 8:45 in the morning.  We roamed the beach, saw a peacock sunning himself and a small beach raccoon.  The weather was perfect.  Not too hot, not too windy, and nice clear, warm water.  

 From this jumping platform you could just watch all the tropical fish swimming around.  It was just like Roatan.  You could swim to the reef right from the beach.  I rented snorkeling equipment that we took turns using.  The kids preferred just swimming and playing around.  Brian did much better than in Roatan snorkeling and I took him to the spots I found the most fish in so he didn't have to tire himself out searching.  Me, however, spent hours upon hours snorkeling.  I explored every inch of the section that was allowed (it was marked by buoys).  It was honestly so beautiful.  I felt like I was swimming in a huge aquarium.  There were fish of all colors and sizes.  There were hundred of the them.  It made me curious what bigger creatures we would have seen had our off shore snorkeling excursion not gotten cancelled.  I really loved spending time just floating all over the place at this beach.

 After the beach, we taxied back downtown and spent the rest of the day eating and shopping.  We found an authentic mexican market off the beaten path and ordered random sodas we had never seen and more tacos.  The language barrier was a problem when it was time to pay though.  Both Brian and I thought she said $17, so I have her a $20 and said to keep the change.  But as we walked away the owners in the tiny market taco stand kept looking at us and they kept talking to our server.  We came back asking if it wasn't enough, and they said "too much!"  Come to find out our 4 sodas and 4 tacos was $7, not $17.  We swapped out the $20 for a $10 and thought it was so nice of them.  Man, those tacos were good!  My only regret is not ordering more...especially for that price!

 We shopped and shopped.  The whole downtown is little shop after little shop.  We promised the kids that if they walked 2-3 block inland the same things would be cheaper, and sure enough they were.  Haley bought a tshirt and purse.  Grant bought a dolphin necklace and a small mexican guitar toy.  We bought mexican ice cream and wandered around having a great time.

 When it was time to head back to the boat, the kids actually walked hand in hand down the sidewalk giggling and having a fun time.  It was so sweet.  

Here we are back on the boat and cleaned up for dinner.

 Brian got the lamp shank, and I had the lobster tail.  It was a "free" way to remember I'm not that crazy for lobster.  It was fun to eat so fancy each night, where you actually had to dress nice!  We are more used to hole in the wall places, but fancy dinner each night was a nice treat.