Cozumel

if you thought the cruise stories were over you were wrong.  dead wrong.  let's go back to april 30th, 2013, the day of our first stop.  the day of cozumel.

i don't remember everything but i do remember that i was super excited and had about a billion butterflies in my stomach like a girl in love for the first time.  i was in love--in love with travel and adventure.  i believe this was the day that i woke up early and could not go back to sleep.  so after laying in the dark on my bunk staring into nothing for a while, i decided that i may as well get up and get ready.  first i had to find the ladder.  every time i stuck my leg over the edge of my bed all it found was empty space.  i finally found it where i didn't expect it to be and climbed down, went to the bathroom and did my morning thing.  when i came out i told sarah and kyle it was time to get up.  they were all, 'ya we've been awake for a while thanks to you.'  and i was all 'oh, i thought i was as quiet as a mouse and then i was all COZUMEL TODAY!!!' and if i didn't jump up and down on their bed in actuality, i did it in my mind.

when we went for breakfast we saw that we were moored to a foggy land with lots of palms and green scragglies.  sarah and i chose breakfast burritos from the blue iguana, because they were awesome and so were we.  i mean they had crunchy little hashbrown bits in them!!  we each seperately but together chose sausage to go in them.  we did what was right and just.  kyle went and got himself another eggs benny.  it was what he had to do, but it wasn't right and just.

it wasn't long until we, fresh cruise newbies, full of excitement and jitterbugs, were walking off the boat and onto the dock. it was hot and humid and it was mexico.  first we had to walk through this duty free store.  i wasn't really innerested, but sarah eyed some perfume she wanted.  outside of the dutyfree shop was a whole shopping plaza just for cruise people.  to say we were unprepared for aggression of mexican sales tactics is an understatement.  each store had people calling you into it.  the first one was the famed diamond international that jay the cruise shopping director loved to talk about. there was a girl there who would not be denied.  the general atmosphere was frenzied.  i saw a booth and stopped to check it out. sarah joined me.  it had these cute braided leather bracelets that caught our eye.  the booth proprietor was a short rectangular block, a shape and type i saw a lot that day.  every time i touched a bracelet, he ventured to tie it on me, peppered me with questions, what colour do you like? offering prices with such hopefulness. i was wearing a peachy pink striped shirt that day and so naturally everyone offered me pink jewelry.  this man was the first in a long line.  i did end up getting a soft pink braid and sarah got a thin brown. we finagled a price and gave our money.  he had to go get change and came back with the wrong change in his favour, which we caught.  then went back again. eventually we got the right change and walked off the proud owners of leather braided bracelets.  sarah found a really big clunky necklace that she wanted but kyle pooh-poohed it. we went from shop to shop fending off the hopes of many sales people as best we could.  there were people dressed up in traditional costumes all around.  you could pay them for a pic with them.  one time sarah was walking by a fountain and this guy with huge long wings and a bird headdress rose up out of nowhere and extended his wings right above her. she was naturally startled.  i saw it from afar and had a good laugh about it.  so we'd go into one jewelry store and come out.  the next store would be a jewelry store.  so we skipped some.  everyone was calling to us, come to our store!  one guy i remember, was all, 'please come to our store, you went to their store, it's our store's turn.'  lots of lady 'callers' said funny things as we passed by like 'please come in, i promise i'll be quiet.'  kyle made sure we made it to a store jay literally physically loves, and that is del sol.  ever since sarah lost her sunnies in that tragic gym incident and ever since jay told us about the famous del sol sunglasses which change colour with the heat and which are life time guarenteed even if you LOSE them, kyle knew sarah had to have a pair.  and she got some.  came with a beach bag that changes colour with the heat.  eventually we came to sammuel's store.  sammuel was a good salesman.  he was the block shape and had a friendly kind block face.  somehow he talked kyle into getting this ring for sarah.  i mean it was a long process.  i mean so many times i thought kyle had gotten himself out of it, only to see sammuel get back in the game.  in the end sarah had a gorgeous topaz heart ring.

we eventually left the cruise shopping plaza out into the real cozumel world.  we had only loose plans.  eat at this restaurant sarah's cruise friend told her about, go to a beach, maybe some more shopping. whatevs.  we walked down the path and hit the sidewalk.  we were bombarded with offers of this and that.  we were fresh meat.  we retreated to the fountain to make a plan. and that's when i found this bird.  i saw them everywhere on cozumel.  this jaunty fellow was having a drink and i took his portrait.

 in the end we rented a dune buggy.  cool right?  so cool.  and this is a glimpse of the sea as we drove.

as we drove to some shopping areas, i busied myself in the back, taking clicks of reflections in the side mirror.  

 i like our hair in this one.

right at this very minute kyle is thinking about how he rocks the dune buggy.

 my view.

so we decided to do a bit more shopping first, and this is where we parked.  i got a bracelet that i probably shouldn't have, and sarah and kyle got some cool wrestling masks for their kiddohs.  

 when we were done shopping we were ready for lunch.  that's when we drove up and down the streets a lot.  alto means stop.  i'm just helping you out in case you didn't get the clue by the way the sign looks identical to our stop sign except for the word alto.  the lady in the lime green shirt turns her back on your stop sign confusion.  "why don't you alto bugging me?" she mutters irritably.

here's a reflextion of our doonbuggay. dooniloo.

 so i wasn't paying attention int the least to where we were going.  i left the finding up to sarah and kyle.  eventually they decided to park in this dirt parking lot.  i liked the blue wall with the flowers.  i paid the boy some 'mercan money and got mexican change in return, which i still have actually.

then we walked for a while.  this is a road in cozumel.

 these are my feet and a cozumel stamped sidewalk, in cozumel.

these are sarah and kyle.  note sarah's del sol bag.

 eventually we found the restaurant.  restaurant proprietors were just like the shop ones.  coming out on the street to get you to come to their place.  we were pretty sure we had the right restaurant and as soon as we sat down, it seemed a cute little man showed up and started playing guitar.  at first we thought he worked for the restaurant but then we realized we were expected to pay him.  after he left more came but we ignored them..

we got virgin strawberry margaritas. yum.  they were two for one, so we got four.

 sarah got cerviche.  i got something very yummy but which i can't recall... and kyle may have had some kind of fajita.  we all shared.  it was yummy but more expensive than we expected.

while we were eating a man from the restaurant came and showed me his jewelry.  i was all.. that's nice, i'm tryin to eat here..then he asked me if i wanted something from the pharmacy.  weiwd.

after lunch we jumped in the doonbuggyloo and headed out on the highway to find a beach.

 this is the entrance to the beach.

so we swam and had a good time.  we swam out to the raft and i had my underwater camera and was taking pictures in the water.  suddenly it stopped working.  and that was the end for that camera.  the sad thing was not being able to take it snorkeling.  after swimming back from the raft we did a few rounds of conducting each other's movements in the water and then we found some seats that suctioned our bums and chilled on the beach.  this is a view from my belly's perspective.

it was while we were chilling that manuel came and stood over us with a bundle of jewelry for us to look at.  really, anytime is a good time for a sell in mexico, it seems.  but i ended up buying a coral set.  manuel said it was coral from cozumel and that was the clincher.  sarah and kyle may or may not have bought something for ann.

too soon it was time to go back, and return the doonster and head back to our boat. please see our funship below.

that's how amazing the colour of the water was.  there may or may not be a tropical fish in this pic.

 back on the boat it was nice to be back in air conditioned coolness and at the same time, it was too cold if you know what i mean.  we had dinner and were seated on the side with a quiet filipino waiter with a birth mark and jutting lower lip.  for starters i had french onion soup, sarah had black bean and we'll jusat sayh that kyle had sushi.  main course, sarah and i had the seafood and salmon penne and kyle had jerk porkyloin.  dessert kyle and i chose the warm fig date and cinnimon cake and sarah got a very disappointing uncheesecake of the strawberry variety.  after din we went to two family comedy shows. the first one was just meh and kyle particularily digged the second one.

kyle stole the cheesey pics of him and sarah and totally got caught.  sarah and i were like, ya, we thought you couldn't just take them. woah.

we went to bed, sarah and kyle watching something cheesey on their laptop, me working on pics or blog or summit.  next day--cave tubing in BELIZE.