Scuba Ahorita! - Cozumel, Mexico
Well we arrived by our boat from Playa Del Carmen, and were pleasantly suprised by both our hotels location and our upgraded oceanview room for the first 2 nights. We decided to stay an extra night so the 2nd two nights we had to move to another room, this one didn´t have an ocean view, but was a suite and was supposed to cost twice as much...aka 2 rooms, 1 with a king size bed, 1 with a queen size, so all in all, it was sweet only paying 85US for crazy sweet rooms (see pics). The first night we wandered around checking out the sights and sounds, and realizing that cruise ship tourists are almost as annoying as the regular ones in Playa Del Carmen, but Cozumel overall is way better than PDC, because at night when all the tourists from cruise ships leave, it leaves us with the excellent and quiet mexican population, well usually quiet, with the exception of the dance clubs/bars. The first night we went and watched a live band, which consisted of a guy from Manitoba, lol, lots of Canadians here, after chilling there for a bout 2 hours, we hit up a sports bar
and played some pool, no challengers however, that was the next night...hit the hay and got ready for the next day.
The 12th we headed to a National Park called Chakanabb, where we saw dolphins up close, snorkelled for a good hour and 15 minutes, and checked out some crazy fish underwater. It was also nice relaxing on their beach, which was gorgeous. We headed back into the city, San Miguel, and wandered around the markets, checking out all the touristy garbage, and some of the better local stuff. Had some excellent Chinese food for supper, and that night hit up Senor Frogs, which was funny seeing the crazy bartenders, feeding ppl shots, however we couldn´t drink much because of what was going on the next day...
Scuba Diving!!!! Saturday January 13th, was the best day of our trip so far...we got to scuba dive the reef here in Cozumel, and it was awesome. Now all in all my favourite place has been Huatulco, but this day was the best day by far. We went through a 45 minute training of how everything works, and then hit the ocean in the shallow beach area to practice for an
hour, i thought this was pretty sweet seeing all the crazy stuff, but it was only about 8 feet deep, lol. Our second dive was out on open water, on Chakanaab Reef and it was awesome...we headed down about 40-45 feet, with our British friends and our instructor Edgar. Saw some barracuda, crazy colored fishes, fishes that glowed neon lights, a fish that was about 5 feet long, a giant lobster that was about 4 feet long, and crazy amounts of coral and other creatures. Awesome. Can´t wait to do it again in Belize. Its hard to describe the water here, it is the most beautiful i have seen. It is a turquoisy green colour, and is crystal clear, even when we were 40 some feet down, pics don´t do it justice, even if they do look nice. After our second dive, we headed back into town and crashed, we were dead, cuz the dive was exhausting, the breathing is hard to describe, you have to constantly remind yourself to breathe, or you can seriously damage your lungs. So had a nap, and got up at about 10pm, and headed to a Mexican discoteque called Neptune. Wow were we happy
with it, it was like being back in Oaxaca again, no cruise ship tourists, no other white people, excluding a middle aged couple. See in the pics, seats look empty, but really it was packed, Mexicans never sit when the music is playing, everyone is up dancing, i would say the bar was at least 95% full, maybe more, it was awesome, and they played a good mix of north american/reggaeton/mexican music. They even played Dylan´s favourite...Its Goin Down by Yung Joc.
Today (14th), we headed out to the most beautiful beach here on Cozumel island, Playa Palancar, which also has a gorgeous reef that can be scuba dived. Today we didn´t though, the cost is too much to do it everyday. So we opted for a day laying in low 30 degree temperatures, and swimming in the turquoise and pristine waters of the Caribbean. Somewhat of a chilling day. Sunday night we went to the zocalo and chilled with all of the locals, they all get together and listen to live mexican music, because the cruise ship tourists are not in town. It was crazy packed, and they form a giant circle and all of the mexican couples
dance in the middle, and kids run around...its actually like a giant wedding, except it happens every Sunday night, why can´t we have things like this in Canada?
Last half day in Cozumel, we finished up a bit of shopping, walked to the northern part of Cozumel, which is the old town, not the touristy part...saw the marina and lighthouse and then caught our ferry back to Playa Del Carmen and off to Tulum.
Crazy things that have happened in Cozumel...the amount of Canadians here, our scuba diving boat of 16 people, 8 were Canadian...me, Dylan, 2 from Edmonton, 1 from Ottawa, 2 from Toronto and an instructor living down here from Ottawa. Small World. And coming home today from Playa Palancar, we heard a sobbing, and we are in the middle of jungle bush, we like look around, and some Mexican lady on a scooter behind us is balling her eyes out, while driving, and sobbing the most loud sobs i have ever heard, she sounded like a dying donkey, ah well, me and Dylan had a good chuckle at her expense. Also found some sweet Spanglish signs that are hilarious, one place as seen in my
pics is called FU Bar, haha, love it. And there was a tequila shop called Dickbell...yup no jokes...there has been more but my memory is shotty, maybe from lack of air while scuba diving.
