Cozumel!!! I think that this was our favorite day!! Cozumel is absolutely beautiful and we were able to hang out around the beach all day. We had a lot of options for what we wanted to do in Cozumel, but we ended up going on a bar hopping tour. It was a ton of fun, because we got to see so much more of Cozumel than we would have been able to if we hadn't gone on the tour!!
We were lucky because Cozumel was our first port that had a dock. So we were able to just walk off the boat and we didn't have to take a tender. We still had to wait a little while to get off the boat though, because they didn't just let everyone stampede off at once. I was a little bit concerned about how long it would take us to get off the boat, because everything that I had read said that people with Carnival excursions got the first priority to get off the ship first. And this was true... and not true at the same time. They split us up into two different seating areas. The people with Carnival excursions and the people without. They called individual Carnival excursions and those people got to get off the ship, but they also let some independent people go at the same time too. So the wait wasn't really that bad. We didn't have to wait for all of the Carnival excursion people to get off the ship before we were allowed to get off. I really appreciated this.
It was SO bright getting off the ship!! As soon as we got off I was blinded and I had to stumble around to get some sunglasses on!! I had a heart attack at first, because my camera wouldn't turn on at first!! I had charged it all night long, but it was acting like it was dead. I was soooo sad, but then magically it started working!! PHEW!
Here is Cody standing in front of the welcome to Cozumel sign. We had to walk through a long gift shop before we could get into the city. We learned a lot about Cozumel while we were there. For instance Cozumel is located in the Caribbean Sea not in the Gulf of Mexico. I didn't know that before we went on our trip. Also mopeds are considered a family vechile in Mexico and it's not uncommon to see a family of 5 on one moped! Which is dangerous because people don't need drivers licenses there and they don't really follow traffic signals. They are considered yield signs at best. But overall if you want to go to Mexico... I'd say Cozumel is the place to go! Unlike other places in Mexico, Cozumel is a lot safer because it is it's own island and the gangs haven't made it there yet. They say that at night you can hear gun shots from the mainland but Cozumel itself has very little crime.
Here is the Margartaville in Cozumel. Cody was excited about it so I took a picture from our cab. I also learned that Cozumel has the second largest coral reef in the world. I remember years ago when I was getting certified for scuba diving my dive shop was sponsoring a trip to Cozumel to go diving, and it's no wonder... because it's absolutely beautiful there. I bet it would make great scuba diving.
The reason why we had to take a taxi was that there are several docks in Cozumel, and our ship didn't dock at Punta Langosta which was where we had to meet at. It was only a short ride there though, and luckily on the way home our tour group dropped us off at our dock so that we didn't have to take a taxi going back.
But alas! I was as lucky as I could be!!! I was afraid that we were going to miss the Hard Rock in Cozumel, because the island is kind of large and I thought that it would be more spread out. But I guess it was my lucky day, because the Hard Rock was right next to the Starbucks that we had to meet our tour for!!
I was able to get my traditional picture out in front of it!! Yippee for things working out right! Down this area were a lot of shops, and we actually had enough time for Cody to shop around and get his mom a bracelet for her birthday.
About 90,000 people live in Cozumel and a bunch of them live in the projects. The projects are quickly growing, and I don't think that the true reflection of them can be seen in the picture. Because in person it looks a lot worse. At first I couldn't imagine that anyone could even live in the buildings, but apparently they do and it's pretty common. Most families are only able to afford building a house with one room. Credit has 30% interest on it there so it's really expensive. So families build one room at a time and as they get more money they just add onto the house.
Here is the first bar that we went to called Punta Muerta. By the way Punta means point encase you were wondering. You'll see it alot throughout my blog.
Aren't the views here gorgeous?? This side of the island is unique because there is no electricity here. They buy fresh meat and produce everyday to bring in and cook. All of the bars closed once it got dark out. Also its not very developed there so the views are really really nice!! It was enjoyable to see that side of the island. I'm certain that we would have missed out on it if we hadn't gone on the tour.
At every bar that we went to they gave us a welcome shot. Here is the "shot" that they gave us at the first bar! It was in a cup! It was huge. They told us that one margarita in Mexico equals about 3 in the US just because of their size and alcohol content. But that didn't stop Cody from getting one at every bar we went to!
Here we are on the beach! This was the best beach that we visited all day long. And actually it was the only bar that had a swimming pool and a place to get a massage. We hung out by the pool with our feet dipped in towards the end of our hour here.
It was so picture perfect here! I just couldn't stop having pictures taken. I think Cody was annoyed because he wanted to enjoy his drink. One thing that was different about Mexico was that when we had to move on to the next place they gave us a to go cup so that we could take our drinks on the bus with us.
I just loved being by the ocean! The water was so nice there too!!
Here is Cody... unhappily posing for me. After this I let him go relax in one of the lawn chairs and I went to play in the ocean.
Finally I got some girls to take a picture of me!! :)
I love it when I stand in the ocean and the waves bury my feet into the sand! I remember the first time this happened to me was in Hawaii, and I thoroughly enjoyed it then... and I enjoyed when I was here as well.
Here is the second bar that we went to Coconuts. I was pretty excited about this place, because I did a lot of research on Cozumel ahead of time... and everything that I read said that Coconuts is the place to go!
Coconuts is at the top of a cliff, and you basically overlook the ocean. So here we are climbing up!
They had a bunch of funny signs along the way.
Here is another one.
When we got inside the first thing that we noticed was that tshirts lined the roof! They do this because it is cheap, and hurricanes come every so many years and destroy everything and they have to rebuild. So they build them as cheap as they can and move on.
Here you can see a section of the roof. Do you notice that its a light brown color? I didn't realize that it was dried up palm trees! So simple but the realization never hit me until my tour guide mentioned how great palm trees were... and that the leaves were often used in roofing. It was an "Ohhh that makes sense" type of moment.
This picture might seem familiar! It's my Facebook profile picture and probably one of my favorite pictures of Cody and me during our trip!
Remember how I told you that the margaritas were big here?? Well here is Cody's second one!
Here I am outside of coconuts enjoying the view. They had several little trails that you could walk around to see different areas.
Here's Cody!
I'm not sure if you can see the flags blowing in the distance but it was definitely windy that day!!
Here is a view from the other direction. We couldn't really get down to the beach from here. They had nice tables that you could sit at and enjoy the view. Cody and I ended up sitting with an older couple and chatting with them.
Here is Cody standing in front of Coconuts. You can really see the palm tree roof that I was talking about in this picture.
When we got to this section I laughed at the little rope and the sign. Hrmm?? Big cliff right there plunging into the ocean. Danger?? Couldn't be!! Haha
Here is the inside of Coconuts. You can see the cook in the back posed for me. At first I thought he was yelling at me not to take a picture, and I felt bad. But then it just turned out that he was being friendly and I started to snap away!
Here is the cat that was there, Garfield! He was a sweet cat. They had a whole bunch of animals walking around there.
Here is the wall of bars and underwear there. While we were sitting around these guys kept walking up to Cody and giving him photo albums. I was like hrmm... what is this? Turns out that it was girls that had flashed them in the past and they had a photo album of it.
Haha... Coconuts... I get it. They had this sign at the top corner of the building. I almost walked out and missed it, but someone in my group thought it was funny and pointed it out to me. I think this was the last picture I took there.
Another one of their pets... a crocodile.
Next we went to Playa Bonita. This is the view from there. It was amazing how beautiful each bar we went to was. They were all right on the ocean. It was so nice.
Here we are! We really enjoyed our time on the tour. And we ate some REALLY good food here! Cody had fish tacos and I had the BEST shrimp! Ahh it was sooo good! And they gave me quite a bit of food too!
They sure weren't shy on the portions here! Look at this margarita! Holy cow! It was huge. They had a small and a large. This was the large, but it was really funny at how big it was. They also had guys there that sang to us. We were all having a good time there and it was a lot of fun. The two girls in the pink that you can kind of make out in the picture ended up becoming our friends for the day and we hung out with them.
Here is a view of the bar. It's very open.
I'm so sad that this picture didn't come out because it shows our two new friends.
We were doing good on time so we got to make an extra stop. They sold something called coco loko here. Which is "spiked" coconut juice and apparently really good. Three bars later my Coco was drunk!
He had to go to the bathroom and cross the street. I felt like a mother hen. I was so worried something was going to happen to him. But he stumbled his way across and made it back.
But while he was away... what else could I do but get some pictures taken! I'm quite a fan of this picture even though I'm holding Cody's drink.
Here he is! He made it back!
So we looked up and there was the large cliff with tons of holes in it. Cody points to it and says that we are going on it. I'm seeing my life flash through my eyes but I couldn't let him go alone so I followed him up. And it was so windy! Here I am in mid attempt to try to stop my hair from blowing.
There he goes... starting to walk towards the edge...
Finally I told him that was enough and it was picture time. He was more than excited to start letting me take pictures now!
Here is the last bar that we went to called Rastas or the Bob Marley bar. It was a theme of... you guessed it Bob Marley. They had a little souvenir shop there that was decently priced so I got a cute necklace there.
Here we are with our bus driver!
Here is a picture of the bar.
Once again the roof was lined with t-shirts. There are our two friends up ahead.
Cody ordering his 4th margarita.
He wasn't happy with me taking pictures of him...
Here is our group sitting outside on the beach
Cody tried to talk me into it... but it wasn't happening!
My Bebesee!
Here we are!
We had to get a picture with Bob Marley. I was trying to expand my picture poses here... but whenever I do that I end up looking like a nut!!
I sure did here!! Cody was purposely trying to put his hand on her boob but I didn't realize where my hand was until later on when we were reviewing the pictures! We got a good laugh out of it.
Isn't it beautiful?? I wish we could go back!
Here is one of our tour guides! It took us forever to get this picture. The sun was directly in our eyes. And the pictures either came out too dark or we were all squinting. This ended up being the best we could do.
And here we are later on after we made it back onto the ship. 1 tequila... 2 tequila... 3 tequila... floor! I couldn't help but take the picture of him. The poor thing we came back and laid out on the deck and he fell asleep... I tried putting suntan lotion on him... but BOY did he get burned up that day!! He was so funny when he got up. He was like you fried me up like a lobster! And he kept saying a whole bunch of stuff like that... it was so funny.
