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Posted by Christine on 05/02/02

Sol Cabanas Del Caribe
Sol Cabanas Cozumel
-click for info -
Casa Delphin
Casa Delphin exterior
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Trip Report  - 1st week (warning-long!)

It’s taken me a while to write this trip report I think because we had an OK time - not fabulous as usual. It wasn’t scams or smelly hotels, it was…bad weather! Now who can you bitch to about that? Remebering it and writing it I realized we had a good trip despite the bad luck with the weather. Just different. Anyway, here is our trip report from Feb 22 – March 7, 2002. I think we were there the same time as Bob P. and his wife. We are Jay and Christine from Sonoma County (Northern CA Bay Area) and this was our 6th visit to Cozumel since 1987.

Because we like to walk (and were very fiscally challenged) we usually stayed in town. This year for at least part of our vacation we decided to stay on the beach. Because the airfares were high (from the SF Bay Area to Coz they never got cheap) we booked with Apple Vacations and chose Sol Cabañas (due to the many raves from this board - thanks everybody) for our 1st week. The hotel price stayed the same but the airfare seemed to come down a couple hundred bucks with the package deal. After a full day of waiting, security, airports, waiting, airports, waiting, we staggered into the Sol Cabañas and to our 2nd floor room. It was not luxury but fine with us… 2 beds, a sitting area, big closet, tiled bathroom and (a big + with us) a big balcony with a hammock and chairs and view of their gorgeous garden landscape, the beach and that blue water. Perfect. After unpacking, we decided to run a tab at their wonderful Las Gaviotas restaurant and had a nice dinner outside by the water. The evening was warm, the food was good…  aaahhh, we were finally here.

The next day (Friday Feb 23) we hung out on the beach. Sol Cabañas is truly a special spot. The hotel is at least 50 years old so the landscaping has grown and matured – palms and other trees, flowering hedges and bushes, just beautiful. The hotel is small, only 2 stories with several small private cabañas to one side with a small pool in front of them. The iron shore splits right in the middle for a genuine sandy walk-in-the-water beach, yet on either side the rocks provide the fish cover and thus great snorkeling. I think all the bread they are fed from the waterfront restaurant helps the fish population too! So it is the best of both worlds: beach and snorkeling. You can walk up the sandy beach past El Cozumeleño and the Paradisus and on & on from there. The other way you can walk by Plaza Azul, and the now defunct Club Cozumel Caribe. That’s as far as we could get.   There is a scuba desk there run by Sand Dollar Sports. When I asked this board about contacting Sol Cabañas, Suzanne, the owner of Sand Dollar was nice enough to e-mail me and volunteer to relay my message. Plus it was convenient so I decided to book with them. They run their boats out of the Reef Club in the south and include your cab fare to the Reef Club… nice! Signed up for 3 days starting tomorrow and went back to my lounger to read and snooze.

About 2:30 it started to get overcast, so we went up to the room to clean up and decided to walk into town to Chedraui to get some snacks etc.. and then cab back. It was a much longer walk than either of us realized but we like to sightsee at that slow pace & enjoyed it. I kept looking at the sky getting darker thinking “I hope it doesn’t rain”. We had just reached the north edge of downtown when the drops started. We didn’t worry, we could dodge under awnings and duck inside if we had too. We got about a block past the main ferry pier when the sky opened up and it started POURING. I have never gotten so wet so fast. I stuck out my arm and magically a cab stopped for us and took us to Chedraui. The water was sloshing in the streets; even the cab driver was shaking his head in astonishment. Sopped, we got our stuff at Chedraui and caught a cab back to Sol Cabañas. That cab driver told us a hair-raising story about being with his father on a dive boat years ago that went thru a real hurricane off the coast of Belize. This is nothing, he said as he let us off. Ate at Las Gaviotas (inside – great chicken Caesar salad) and called it a night. I wondered if diving would be possible tomorrow. Had an unsettled night’s sleep listening to the wind howl outside. It did stop raining but the wind just wouldn’t let up.

Next morning (Sat Feb 24) it wasn’t raining but very windy and actually chilly. Is this Cozumel? When I saw whitecaps on the water I knew we weren’t going to go diving but got up to meet Juan Carlos anyway. He confirmed – no diving and no hurricane, just an “el norte” and let’s try tomorrow. Ok, now what? Got cleaned up, actually wanted to put on pants and socks (!!), took a taxi into town to walk around. As we got away from the waterfront and the wind it got warmer. Found the Mercado and had an omlette at one of the stands…Cheap and good. Went up to 30th looking for Mari’s salon – the gal I always go see for my $10 manicure and pedicure. She was busy but I told her I’d be back later in the week. Turned toward Corpus Cristi church and down towards Summer Place, found Henny and visited a while by the pool. We’ve stayed at SP1 & II on past trips and think of Henny as a dear friend, as I’m sure anybody who has ever stayed there feels. From there we went to Chedraui again and to the internet café across from PLG. Their connection is fast and their price is fair. We went to check out the new mall and movie theater behind Chedraui…wow. It’s not little old Cozumel anymore. Very polished, trendy shops and hardly any customers. This would change when we went back on Sunday and saw tons of local families cruising the mall. Since we really had nothing better to do (still too cool/windy for the beach) we caught a matinee at the theater. Great stadium seating, sound system etc.. + marble bathrooms all at $2 per tix (matinee price).

By Sunday, Feb 25 the wind had died down but it still felt a little cold and I felt more comfortable hanging out at the warm beach than diving, so told Juan Carlos I’d go diving tomorrow…I know, I’m a wus.  Instead, I got my snorkel gear and took a cruise around the rocks at Sol Cabañas. I was astonished at the volume of fish around those rocks. As I was eyeing a baby barracuda some guy was waving and pointing at something closer to the rock wall so I swam over to see what he was excited about. Right under the ledge of the restaurant was a school of fish, OK, nice.  Then something BIG moved and I involuntarily ducked & inhaled and got a mouthful of water. Cough cough. I looked again and at first thought it was a sea lion or turtle, but on second glance I could see it was a HUGE spotted fish, probably a grouper. Nice spot he’d staked out. Later, when lounging on the beach, I saw a big group from El Coz come down to snorkel from our little spot back to their hotel.  

Went to El Morro for dinner that night and it was good and orange as usual. Walked back from there (75th St.) over towards Corpus Cristi church where a song filled mass was going on. Down to Chedraui to pick up a bottle of wine. When we got to the check out stand the lady told us no booze sold after 3pm on Sundays. Oh well. Cruised down the waterfront past the new cruise ship mall. Too big, too slick…. Past a very loud club with tons of Mexican teenagers hanging all over the place. Actually saw nose & lip pierced tattooed local teens… Mexico is changing. I guess MTV is everywhere.

(Mon Feb 26) Up early to go on my 1st dive. My husband Jay doesn’t dive so I am off on my own. In the taxi that Sand Dollar sends I meet Elvin, a pastor from New York, who is staying at the Paradisus. He and his wife (who doesn’t dive) have a timeshare there and he always dives with Sand Dollar when they come down so he knows the drill - I follow him when we get to the Reef Club. We get checked off on a list and get issued cards for BC and Reg, then at the next desk turn in the cards and get the gear. Then we go down a winding path thru the trees to the boat dock. Several big boats, wow. We make our way to our boat and immediately everybody is gearing up their tanks. I’m so spoiled, the little companies I’ve gone with in the past do it all for me but this is good practice. There is good camaraderie on the boat. 16 people are divided into 2 groups and our group goes off first. 1st Dive: Palancar Gardens. A good first dive to shake the rust off and get back into the groove.  2nd Dive is Yucab and it is glorious. I much prefer the light & colors & aquarium-like marine life of the shallow dives. Among the highlights: a manta ray, big groupers, file fish (beautiful) and my favorites the Yellow Submarine-ish parrotfish. The current was really fast on this dive and we were flying over those reefs. All too soon it is over and we are back on the boat.

When I got back to the Sol Cabañas I went upstairs to take a shower. Turned on the bathroom light -  no light. Hmmmm. Tried another light - no light. Went down to the desk and told them about the electricity and they said Right, none in the hotel and shrugged. Oh well, this is Mexico. Managed to take a shower before the pump stopped working and got dressed to go into town. When we went to grab the cab dropping off some other people we got the word there was no electricity in town either. OK. Thank goodness we had our trusty little travel flashlights. At dinnertime we looked out our window and saw lights at Las Gaviotas, so we went over there. Bless their hearts, they had candles on every table and were carrying on. They cook with gas. We sat outside on the patio and realized there weren’t any lights on across the water in Playa either. Uh-oh. One of the bigger hotels down the beach had a generator going – very noisy. Dear little Sol Cabañas had candles and it was quite peaceful and romantic. We found out the next day that several state’s power had gone out including Oaxaca, Chiapas, Q Roo, Yucatan.  

Tuesday, Feb 27 dawns as a windy, cloudy day…sigh. Not a beach day. Decide to walk to town again. Reached town just as it starts raining (again), but only sprinkles this time. For our second week in Coz we have rented a “villa” (really a duplex) thru Alex and Jidan here at Travelnotes. They sent us the Can-Do map showing it was in the north section of town. I had wanted it in the southern Corpus Cristi section of town but had accepted reality and was ready to try a new neighborhood. We went looking for the villa, but couldn’t find it. What we did find was Hacienda San Miguel! What a nice place – beautiful building surrounding a lush, tranquil garden. Said hi to Nicole. Walked on to Diamond Bakery across from the Mini-Golf and had a nice juice. Walked on to the main square. It’s all torn up – what a mess. I feel sorry for the businesses that are marooned by the construction. We got a USA Today at the newsstand ($5!) and caught up on the Olympics. Talked to someone later who had cable TV at their hotel and they didn’t get the Olympics either.  It stands to reason the Winter Olympics aren’t a big interest item in Mexico.

Wednesday, Feb 28. I’m going on my second dive today with Sand Dollar. It was still windy but the dive was on. I was happy to see my buddy Elvin in the cab.When we got to the Reef Club we found out, due to a cancellation of a wreck dive, there would be 22 divers on our boat. Yikes! Mooo! Elvin and I ended up in group #1 again and went off first at Santa Rosa wall.  Our group gathered ourselves at the bottom and then group #2 landed on top of us. The whole dive felt like that – chaotic and bunched up. Irritating because this is a favorite spot of mine. The seas were choppy when we came up. With such a big number of divers there is no time to take your weights or BC off. In the crunch I slipped and banged my shin on the ladder, ouch. I liked going out of the Reef Club because you are so close to the reefs, the dive masters kept most of it under control, but this cattle boat approach sucks big time. Sorry, Suzanne, but that’s my opinion. Give me a small boat anytime. Dive #2 on Tormentos was a little better, not so bunched up. Still, we ended up with a guy in our group #1 that was from a different group. Where was his buddy? Elvin was a good buddy – we kept each other in site all the time. The sea was very rough coming up from this dive – we had to really hang onto a rope to stay with the boat. This time the 1st mate helped me up and I appreciated that. It takes a while to round up all 22 divers and we stopped for some divers that got separated from their boat – we didn’t pick them up but made sure their boat came and got them.  I had just gotten my wetsuit off and towel and jacket on when it started to rain. Jeez, what #%&* weather! When I got “home” to Sol Cabañas I found Jay in the room; he said it hadn’t rained up here but he’d left the beach hours ago because the sand was blowing in his face. Sigh, this is not what I’d call a typical vacation in Coz. He had cabin fever so I cleaned up, grabbed our dirty laundry and we headed out to town. I always bring an extra bag with garage sale goodies for the Humane Society and we dropped that off at Rock n Java. Then went to the Laundromat on 11th. Got that going and then went to find our villa rental agency – Aguila Rentadora. Found it behind Fat Tuesdays bar. The big American guy wearing gold chains and stuffing his face with pizza as he talked to us was not confidence inspiring. I asked for the person whose name I’d been given as a contact and was told he was no longer with that office. But in the end they we got it all straightened out. They agreed to pick us up from Sol Cabañas and take us to Casa Delfin tomorrow. Still could not get a straight answer on the location of the villa – North? South? It will be a surprise. We worked our way back to the Laundromat on back streets and went around the cemetery. All the bodies are in above ground tombs. I guess they can’t dig too far down on this rock island! Put the clothes in the dryer and then dropped by Coffee Net. Very slow connection and more expensive than the internet café across from PLG. Pick up the laundry, grab a cab and head "home".We are predicting the weather will get hot and sunny as soon as we leave our beautiful beachfront at Sol Cabañas. Will it? Stay tuned for week 2.

Trip Report - Week 2 (long)

Thursday, Feb 28,  have we been here a week already? Despite our predictions of the weather turning hot and sunny (because we were leaving our beloved Sol Cabañas beachfront) it was still windy and cloudy with occasional flashes of sunshine. We went to breakfast at Las Gaviotas. We hardly ate anywhere else this past week, it is so good and comfortable and convenient and the staff is great. We went back and packed up and then hung out on the beach till our check out time. This is truly a sweet place and we are going to miss it. We will definitely come back here.

Javier, our cheerful Aguilar rep showed up and off we went to our villa.  The question was finally going to be answered. Casa Delfin is in the...South!, in the Corpus Cristi neighborhood, about 2 blocks behind Chedraui. We know the neighborhood  - it’s down the street from Summer Place I.  When we pulled up I instantly recognized the place from the picture on the web site with the big beautiful purple bougainvillea spilling over the wall. Thru a wrought iron gate and a nice yard, double locks everywhere. The ground floor has a small living area with 2 built in “couches” (cement with pads on them), the dining table and chairs are in the middle and the kitchen is on the other side. A small WC/shower is off this room. Included is a TV with satellite feed and a phone for local calls. Inexplicably, they had rugs all over the tile floors...rugs in Cozumel? We rolled them up for our visit. Up a winding staircase is a huge bedroom with king bed, small balcony and another WC/shower. Out the sliding doors off the kitchen is a small pool with the most picturesque coco palm curving over it. At $600/week plus tax it was the lowest price private rental with a pool I could find (in the location I wanted) and it was perfect for just us 2. We unpacked and went over to Chedraui for supplies. I think we were in that store for ½ of our vacation! Still kind of overcast and blowy, so I decided to hike up to 30th to Salon Mari and see if she was available for my annual manicure/pedicure. She was, and we proceeded to catch up from last year. My Spanish is fractured and she speaks no English but we manage to communicate pretty well. Talked about the elections, the weather and her upcoming trip to DF (Mex City).  We had arrived just after the local elections and the PRI had won. I asked about them versus PAN and what about Presidente Fox. Politics are a touchy subject no matter where you are. She likes Fox but is careful not to dis the party in power. We watched the noticias (news) on TV. Seemed to be a lot of stuff about that multi-state power outage that originated in Puebla. Dear Mari also gave me an unusual fruit from her grandmother’s tree. Told me it only grows on the Yucatan Peninsula and ripens at this time of year. A cayumito. Tasted like a creamy mango, but with small seeds – delicious! She said it was getting rare, hard to find even in the markets. Cost for almost 2 hours of her services? US$10 plus tip – what a deal! And a pleasant way to while away part of an afternoon. She’s a nice gal and I encourage everybody to look her up. Around 13th Sur and 30th. She doesn’t get much money from tourists and cruise ships being so far off the beaten path.  

Friday, March 7th – What a day. I felt like we were having an open house! Hey, the more the merrier. In the morning a guy comes by to drop off clean towels and make sure we have drinking water. Then Javier comes by to make sure all is well. Still windy/cloudy weather so we walk into town to do a little shopping. Up to 30th to find Ace Hardware for WD40 (squeaky doors). Then go by the town Mercado looking for matches (los fosforos) for lighting the gas stove top. Down to Diamond Bakery for a Vitalidad juice (orange, papaya and strawberries –yum!) Across the street is our old hotel from many years ago – The Letty. Now with a small pool the rooms go for $20/night. I think when we were there in 1988 it was $12. When we got back it was obvious Lucy, the maid, had been there and we immediately tracked mud onto her clean floors. Would it have been better to track it all over the rugs? The brick walkway leading up to the door was covered in mud, (why? you’ll find out) so Jay got out there with the hose and a broom and scrubbed some of it clean. A pool guy showed up. Later in the day another pool guy showed up.(??) About that time I went to use the faucet and no water came out. Uh-oh. I asked Enrique, the 2nd pool guy if he was doing anything with the water and he said no, but he would tell the management about the problem. Several hours later I phoned Aguilar and told them we had no water. That was the first they’d heard about it, but they promised to send over a plumber right away. At 7 o’clock at night? Right. ½ hour later the plumber shows up! That would never happen in the USA. He took the lid off the cistern, jiggled some things and we had water. He said he would come by tomorrow with a new part. Total # of visitors: 6. Aguilar was taking good care of us.

Sat March 2nd. Woke up to lots of wind...sigh. Made a yummy beans and egg, avocado and tortilla breakfast. We actually didn’t eat out hardly at all – our 1st week was mainly at Las Gaviotas at Sol Cabañas and now we had our own kitchen. So much for the many new restaurants in my folder I’d planned to visit (I’m a folder chick, no binder). Went into town and found Caballitos del Caribe dive shop. I went with them last year and liked Adrian the dive master. Good ol’ Silvino was at the desk - I prayed for better weather and signed up for 3 dives. Went to the mini-golf and had a great round of golf. I had a 2-stroke lead on the front 9 but had a disastrous 10-stroke hole on the back 9. Even with my hole in 1, Jay beat me. Loved the iguana falls. This is a beautiful spot and a can’t miss for any visitor. Bravo Scott & Sally! Panchita, I’ll have to try their sangria famosa next time. On the way home we stopped at Flor de Michoacan ice cream, sat on their beautiful hand carved benches and pigged out on coco-piña ice cream mmmmm. By this time it had gotten warm, hot even (hooray!) and we were sweating by the time we got back to Casa Delfin. Immediately jumped into the pool...aaaahhh. This was more like it. Sat on our patio under the coco palm and felt peaceful and glad to be here. That evening we strolled up to 30th and walked over to La Mission. The have expanded the place to include a nice outdoor dining patio in the back. I had 3 pork tacos and loaded up at the salad/condiment bar. Jay had the shrimp scampi – I should have gotten them, they were delicious! Coming into the place I saw a lady making homemade tortillas and inquired if I could buy a few to take home. One of the waiters, her husband, told me sure. When we got them and the bill, it was explained the price of the tortillas was a propina – a tip. We tipped generously and everybody was happy.

Sunday March 3rd. My first dive in almost a week. Not quite how I’d envisioned this trip.  Got up early to walk the 2 blocks to Plaza Las Glorias and wait under a palapa by their pier. We have spent time here a lot on previous vacations so this was nice and familiar. It’s entertaining to hang out and observe all the boats going by and the boats loading and unloading divers. That is what Jay was going to do, hang at their “beach” and relax, while I go diving. Pretty soon a boat came by and I saw Adrian and waved. We hugged after I boarded – he remembered me too and appreciated that I wanted to come back and dive with him. Our first dive is Santa Rosa wall. Landed on sandy bottom, grouped and then over the edge. It is incredible to look down into that infinity. We stay around 85-90 feet. Tons of coral.  2nd dive is Yucab. I’ve done both these dives already with Sand Dollar, but the experience is so pleasantly different with a smaller group. Calm, gently moving, tons of fish. Really noticing the beautiful black and orange file fish this trip. There seems to be a lot of them. I’m looking for moray eels but haven’t seen one yet. I’m wearing my new dive beanie. Looks kind of geeky but it’s keeping me warmer. I get chilly, especially on the second dive and welcome any edge to stay warm. Jay isn’t at PLG when I get back, so I amble back to the house and meet him there. When I go to hang my things on the upstairs balcony railing there is a furious rustle of leaves that startles me. A bird, what? I look closer and see I’ve startled a HUGE orange and green iguana that had been happily sunning itself up there. He’s bolted to the tree and is heading up to safety. When I look up I see another big orange & green iguana face peeking over the roof making sure her sweetie has made it to safety. We nickname them Fred & Ethel and give them a wide berth. They’ve been here longer than us!

That evening we set out for the Zocolo to join in the Sunday fiesta. Lot’s of people in their Sunday best. We had been hearing a noise all over town for several days, clack, clack, clack. Finally pinned it down on this toy they were selling at the square. 2 balls on a string that you move in rhythm until you got them clacking on the upswing as well as the down, fast. It’s tricky! Stan & July mentioned it in their trip report too. We bought one and turned into kids trying to make it work. What was even more fun was everywhere we went that night we had the perfect icebreaker. All the locals, no matter what age, wanted to try it. Even the hard sell guys on Melgar would stop their sales pitch to play with the clackers. Cab drivers waiting for a fare, blanket sellers...everybody. Went into Rock n Java and half the staff waited to have a turn. All to much hilarity. The capper was when we went into Chedraui right before it closed and the little bag boys were practically falling over each other over who got to do it next. We had a mini contest and the smallest boy turned out to be the champ. He had the cutest grin as he was wizzing those things up and down, perfectly. Everybody was smiling and enjoying their fun. As we were leaving I could see their supervisor scolding them for fooling around on the job. I shot one of them an “uh oh, sorry!” look and he just grinned at me.

Monday, March 4th dawns to driving wind and rain. Oh God, not more of this. I call Silvino at Caballito’s and he tells me the port is closed, no diving today. Maybe tomorrow. It’s pouring rain heavy and fast like last week and pretty soon we see water in our front yard. Remember the muddy path to our front door? This has happened before. The road seems to be higher than the yard and it’s just filling up out there. We are literally marooned in our house! Fortunately the water dissipates pretty fast thru the limestone rock and we were able to get out after a while. I swear I’ve never watched the weather channel so much in my life We were starting to have cabin fever – had to go do something somewhere. So we went to the internet café to check in with home and to a matinee at the movie theater… Shallow Hal in English with Spanish subtitles. It was either that or some violent movies.  Could only hope it would clear up for tomorrow. We were sure reading a lot of books on this trip.

Tuesday, March 5th  Today there’s not much rain but a driving wind. Oh *&%#! I call Silvino at Caballito’s and he reports the port is still closed. As disappointed as I am, I realized this must have been costing a lot of local people money in lost wages. Dive masters, boat captains, snorkel boat staff, beach club crews, outdoor restaurant workers etc... Not a whole lot of work in the rain. Jay and I were starting to get cranky being cooped up, so he decided to go out for a walk.  I had e-mailed one of the locals who posts on this board before I left in hoping of meeting her, so this morning I called Suze. She was home and happy to get together. As it turns out she lived only a few blocks away and before I knew it she was knocking on the door. I had gleaned from her posts that she had taught English in Mexico earlier in her life. I volunteer teach English to Mexican vineyard workers here in "Wine Country". Someday I want to come to Mexico and teach English so I thought I’d try and connect with her and get some real life perspective. Susan turns out to be a delightful person and we gabbed for at least a couple hours, sharing our life experiences and our love of Mexico before she had to leave to pick up her kids. When I told her the clacker story she just held her head and groaned. I guess many parents aren’t as enamored of them as we are. After she left, I decide to take a walk into town. We’re leaving in 2 days and I haven’t done any souvenir/gift shopping. Passed Caballito’s on the way and stopped to see if they had any news. All the instructors and dive masters were in there playing Chinese checkers…just waiting and hoping for the port to open. Scouted out some nice Talvera platters (flat –can pack in suitcase) at Cinco Soles. Man, that place is packed – with people and nice stuff! I like to support the smaller shops but they seemed to have what I wanted. Walking around in that north section of town I stumbled across Manati’s Restaurant. Open! Met friendly Patricia, the owner’s sister who has taken over the reins of the place and has it going again. Told her how we talk about the restaurant on the internet and how everybody loves it and is sending her brother and his family good wishes. She was so pleased to hear that and said to tell everybody they are open now. Promised her we would be back for dinner before we left. As it turns out Jay bought a bunch of food on his outing, so he cooked it and we ate at home that night and watched more weather channel.

Wed, March 6  I wake up and peek out the window. SUN! NO WIND! Woo Hoo! Qué milagro and graciás á diós. I called Silvino and he said "Nos vamos mi hija." We’re going! Met the boat at PLG and head for Palancar Caves. Big turtle flies by right off the bat. At that point we’re at 110 feet (!) - Adrian gets us back to 80’ and we cruise past soaring coral pinnacles, giant sponges and wild plant life. Eventually we’re at 60’, then 40’ then 30’. A nice dive. Everybody is so gol dern happy on that boat just to be there! Adrian is saying Dive #2 is at Pancho’s reef, named after our boat captain. Also called La Francesca. A little known reef in Coz? Doesn’t seem possible, but let’s go! This was the killer. We pass a HUGE spotted barracuda just still in the water watching us all; turtles fly by; Adrian is motioning to me with his hand on top of his head, what? OMG, a nice sized shark, resting on a ledge; then, an absolutely GIANT grandfather lobster under a rock ledge; saw a strange fish called a box fish that has horns; a splendid toad fish - everybody is waving their fingers under their chins. One of my boat mates, knowing I had wanted to see a moray eel, made a point of making sure I saw this tiny green moray sneaking a peak from his hidey-hole. Oh, what a dive. I don’t know if it was because I’d had to wait for it, or knew it was my last dive of the trip or what, but this one was special in every way. Gave Adrian and Pancho big hugs and said hasta luego – see you next year. Jay met me at the pier and I know I was just babbling all the way home. As we came in and went around towards the kitchen door by the pool, there was a big splash. I looked around Jay in time to see Fred the iguana swimming to the edge of the pool and then make a mad dash up a tree. He must have been sleeping in the coco palm over the pool and we startled him and he fell off. Poor guy – you can have your house back tomorrow. Later when Lucy showed up I told her about the iguanas and she said Yes, they live here, up on the roof. She thinks they are “muy feo” (very ugly), but I think they’re beautiful.

That night we walked to Manati and had an exquisite gourmet dinner: Mango salsa chicken, grouper in ginger sauce, ensalada with olives and capers, home-made bread with oregano and garlic butter. mmmmm it was delicious. The electricity went off a couple times but we had candles and eventually they fixed whatever it was. Mellow music on the stereo, even the bathroom is artistic there. A nice place run by nice people, we wish them well. After picking up those Talavera platters at Cinco Soles, we walked back along the waterfront squeezing every last tropical drop out of this  - our last day. As we turned the corner by Chedraui I felt some real drops... got in the door of Casa Delfin and guess what? Rain! We didn’t care. Our vacation was coming to an end. Silvino owes me 1 dive and I will be back next year to claim it. The weather was the pits for the most part, but in the end we still had a good time in our favorite place, Isla Cozumel.


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