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Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Danna on 05/21/01

Cinco De Mayo, our first day

O.K., we have the linking down so here goes! To bed the night before late, 12:30p.m. for my nap, to be up at 4:30a.m. The boys were so excited that they barely slept either. Out the door at 6:00a.m. check in at 7:00 LAX on ATA (charter).

The flight was scheduled to depart at 9:15, we are still on the runway at 9:40. Not to worry, the pilot tells us  that he will make up the time in the air...WEE!

Next stop immigration, what a time consuming task for a family of five (four of them hot, sweaty, impatient men), we get the green light!!! On to Aero Caribe, check in and have a little time before we board.

My two older boys have let us know that one of the perks of this family trip is that they are of legal drinking age in Mexico (they are 18 &20)! So we Go to the little airport snack bar and have our first Sol...feel those tight shoes loosen right up.

Our oldests bag comes off the baggage conveyer half shredded, not to worry, we transfer his things to everyone elses bag and promise to buy him a new one once we get on the island!

Fun flight to Coz, we can only drink half a beer and we are already there. Get off and start looking for the guy who is supposed to meet us. There is no guy there to meet us, wait around a bit, start to worry a bit!

We go outside and start talking to the transfer people, they end up being very helpful. They tell us that these little mixups happen all the time and that our rep for our condo is probably waiting for us at Puest Del Sol Condo's. O.K. I will bite (my family is about to kill me). The maintenance man at the condo's calls around and we eventually get in to our place about 7:00p.m.



Fernando, our rep felt very bad that he had not been there for us and offers to take us to the market to get some beverages and then to a little place to get some taco's El Pastor to take home to the guys, YOU BETCHA!

We got Sols,Dos XXs,and Ruffles con doble crunch queso at the market. We tipped the little boy (12) a dollar and he was proud, my husband forgot ice and had to go back in and the little boy came running out holding the bags of ice for him.

Back to three starving boys, we all eat and then look what I got to soak in after a LONG day of traveling.



Here are a couple of pictures of what it was like in the morning in front of our condo. Our lesson learned for the day was that everyone that we encountered was sweet, generous and very helpful!

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Ocho de Mayo, our fourth day

Up at 8:00 a.m. to the pound, pound (like Chinese water torture), pounding of hammers! Wow that is very LOUD. Is somebody hammering on our wall? I open our front door and see that the condo directly across from us is remodeling. Shower and make coffee, Mike showers as well and we once again leave our sleeping children and head off  to Papa Hogs to set up the resort course for the boys. All set for 1:00 with Margaret, Perfect!

Next stop Chedraui (Big Kmart), this is great!  We stock up on water, Beer, can’t beat  27 cents a bottle and sodas. Some O.J. and some of that fun milk in a box (for my coffee). The pastries look good too!  I watch a man getting a tray and some tongs and then I do the same and then a gal comes over, bags them up and writes the price on the bag. Next the pillow department, the ones in the condo are huge and hard (stiff neck material). I find these “baby” pillows (you know the papa bear, mama bear, baby bear thing), very soft and only $5 bucks! We will take two, grab some more cash from the A.T.M. and we are off.

We get back to the condo to BLARING music! The boys have also had it with the hammering and are drowning it out with the Loud music. We pack up and Carmen the maid comes in (I WANT to take her home with me), perfect timing as usual. The guys want to eat at Hog Town Café, sounds great. We get there and Margaret gives them the paperwork to read about halfway through lunch. The food was terrific! After that she meets with the boys and goes over the material they have just read. I hear her saying Breathe several times and when she feels like they understand we go downstairs to gear up.






We have all of our own snorkel gear so they just need B.C.s, Regulators and weight belts. She has them wear skins as well because of all the jellies. Margaret goes over deflating the B.C.s and a few other things and then they are in the water to go over skills. Kyle is having a hard time clearing his mask and I can see that he is getting frustrated and the tension is building! I see Margaret grab Kyle by his B.C. and says “You CAN do this”, gives him a few minutes and what do you know he is clearing just fine five minutes later! We then watch our three boys and Margaret disappear  into the ocean, kind of a funny feeling… We go up to wait for them and Mike, Margaret’s husband looks at me and says “Get out the credit card mom, they will be wanting scuba lessons when they get out”!







 
We set up a scuba time for Thursday at 8:30a.m. and head back to Dzul Ha for a little more snorkeling and they have a film crew there. They are making a commercial for a Korean cell phone. It was great fun to watch! We didn’t stay long, we wanted to get back so that we could get ready for a NICE dinner at El Moro. Mike wants to head out while it is still light because we know that it might take a few tries before we find it!





We head back into town and the boys get their first glimpse of how the people of this tiny island live. The boys are more concerned by all the stray dogs and the condition that they are in than any thing else. My sons are all serious animal lovers (we have had every animal known to man kind, almost) and it makes them sad.

We have our trusty map and with the help of Michael our oldest (he speaks the most Spanish out of all of us) and some very helpful locals we find it! One guy thinks we are looking for Los Moros Del Moritos and sends us going the other direction, there was a couple on a motorcycle with two babies that over heard and chased us down to tell us where it really was. Yeah! We found it. First off we order Margaritas, WOW are they big! I order the infamous shrimp on a wire, we ordered a lime soup to share, three of the guys ordered another kind of shrimp and Michael ordered fajitas, again (he is our fajita guy)! This was our families favorite dinner. Mike bought another T-shirt for his growing collection and up to the waterfront to buy some gifts, a duffle bag and some Cuban cigars.






We head home at 10:30. Michael and Bret have been talking about doing some partying of their own but they keep coming home with us… I don’t think they are such party animals after all. Tomorrow we head for the other side of the island.

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Seis De  Mayo, our second day

Up at 8:00a.m., still tired but got to get going! Arrecifes snorkel tour at 9:30a.m. Give the boys the wake up call and go out on to the balcony. I see this HUGE jellyfish (five stories up) and yell to the boys that I think what I am seeing is A Portugese Man of War floating by. They race down and sure enough that is just what it is! Boy am I glad I brought my dive skin with me...

We have to be at the Pro Dive Pier at 9:15a.m., Eduardo shows up at 9:30 and says that the boat is going to be late. The guys were out late last night(Cinco De Mayo) and the time change has them running late.

Chu Chu and Pedro show up at 10:00 and we pick up the others on the way. We end up with 20. On our way to Sky, our first stop we are suddenly surrounded by Dolphins...no one has cameras out so it is a mad scramble to catch this wonderful treat on film.



Then, before we got to sky we saw an awesome Turtle swimming by! The only turtle that we would see all week... Here I am relaxing on our way out to the reefs.


The first stop was great, we saw tons (our underwater pictures are with disposable,my husband has vowed to get a real underwater camera our next trip). Here is Kyle, our youngest, with Eduardo...he was in heaven!



It took me quite a while before I was diving down but it was fun once I did!



We stopped for lunch at Nachi Cocom,it was great as far as buffet style goes. Half of our group was from Minnesota and they all sat together and chatted about home. One couple was on thier honeymoon! There was one couple from Europe and the gal had a G-string on. Her man kept guard over her and they both liked to drink tequila ALOT, it was fun to watch them dance.



The second stop was Columbia and suddenly I saw an Eagle Ray, I started yelling for Bret, our second son(he works at a salt water reef store in Newport Beach and is VERY into all of this), he takes off after it and this is the best picture that we could get(instant cameras).



Eduardo and his crew were very good to our boys, they had a blast! Dsul Ha was the last stop and the best. Eduardo had tortillas in his pocket and the fish really loved that! Bret found this brain coral as well.



The crew is sooo accomidating, they end up letting Kyle(not yet fifteen) skipper the boat! I don't really think that the rest of the passengers knew all the details...



We saw huge parrot fish,queen angels,puffers,file fish,flounders,etc.,etc. What a great day, we tipped them $50.00. We figured that there were five of us and we felt that we had certainly gotten our money's worth!





We get back to Puesta Del Sol and Kyle wants to snorkel, we get in and there are a ton of thimbles. He lets me know and we get out pretty quickly, it's nice that he is looking out for his mom!

This Sunday was a big religious day for Cozumel- the anniversary of the first mass. 400 years or so(depending on who you talked to)since the first mass. There was no band on Sunday night because of the mass but there was plenty going on in the square. We ate at Casa Denis(it was very good)and the boys handed out candy to the little children.
It is 10:00p.m. and we have had a very full first day!

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Siete De Mayo, our third day

nueve de Mayo

Up at 8:00 to that pounding next door. Shower and look out the window, there is a HUGE storm coming our way in a hurry! We watch it come across the water and it is right in front of us within a few minutes. Not to worry, today is our day for the east side and San Gervacio Ruins. We decide to take it slow and by the time the boys are up and going it is 11:00. Carmen our awesome maid has come so we hurry, fill the cooler with cervesas and head out.

Off to Chedraui for more pesos (Thank God for ATM’s), and with the help of our handy can-do map we head for the other side. Mike is really getting the feel for the layout of the island! First stop Mezcalitos, we are starving and I can’t wait to get my hands on that infamous shrimp. On our way there Bret sees a tiny turtle in the road and makes Mike turn around and go back so that he can rescue it before the next car turns it into soup.






Wow, with all the rain it is really windy! We sit down and one of the waiters comes over and grabs my shoulder, he says “quick lady, back to the hotel…the hurricane is coming”! I guess he saw the blonde tourist and wanted to have a little fun with her. Okay, very funny, now give me a Sol! He then takes Kyle over and shows him how to play the ring toss. The Guacamole was super as were the cheeseburgers and of course the shrimp. Kyle feeds the rest of his cheeseburger to the resident dog and we are off to Coconuts.



The view at Coconuts is wonderful! Kyle decides this is a great place for a little rock climbing. We order soda’s, take pictures, I check out the ladies room that I have heard so much about and we head for Bob Marley’s bar. My boy’s get a real kick out of this place and want to get pictures of all the pictures of Bob Marley (should I be worried?). We buy a few more Tee shirts and head back. We stop along the way and check out the beaches.








We arrive at San Gervacio about 3:30 and its not crowded at all. Bret buys a little dress for his girlfriend’s baby sister and we start on our journey. We contemplate the guide but decide that we are all a little too ADHD and would lose interest so we opt for reading the signs and just kind of wander through. It feels eerie to me being in this place where there was so much life and now just the remains. Seeing how they lived was amazing to me.





 

We can’t resist the PeePee Stop, so we check it out! The prices are high, they were much better back at the ruins. We take a few pictures and head back so we can get ready for dinner. The guys snorkel for a while and then come in for showers. Michael our oldest comes out and tells everyone to check things out when they change for dinner. He brought a tick back from the ruins, it is amazing where those little buggers will show up!



We are going to Los Moros Del Moritos for dinner. There are four cruise ships in port today but honestly we have not noticed any difference at all! I guess if you spent all your time shopping or in the square you might notice but it was never an issue for us. Dinner is great as usual, enchiladas, fahitas, kabobs and some great Margaritas. We shop a little after dinner and end up at Kiss My Cactus for a little dancing. It was great fun to have a dance with all three of my sons! We left at 11:00p.m. What a full day. Bret makes his daily phone call to his girl friend Devynn. He says that the only cranky people on Cozumel  are the phone operators! Tomorrow, a two tank dive with Papa Hogs.

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diez de Mayo

Up at 7:00a.m. (too early), we have to be at Papa Hogs by 8:15 for a two tank dive. This is going to be tuff getting these guys going (not one of them is an early riser)! I start to wonder if I should have made an afternoon dive time and they finally get going. Kyle says he’s not going and then changes his mind at the last second! We make it and Margaret says that the boys will be diving with Ivan. She has stored all the guys gear so that they don’t have to reconfigure. Ivan says that my guys are the only ones going out and if Margaret says its O.K. Mike and I can go out on the boat with them! We are thrilled.



First stop Chankanaab, it was great but Kyle cannot get one of his ears to clear and ends up aborting the dive. Michael and Bret are fine and Ivan goes down with them. They were down about thirty minutes or so. They came up with big grins and told us about what they saw.



 

Next stop was Paradise and Kyle wants to try again. Ivan senses his fear and talks to Kyle for a few minutes (we think it is the whole depth thing that spooks Kyle) and they decide to go down. He does fine and Ivan keeps them at about 40 feet the whole dive. He was going to take them out deeper but he could tell Kyle was nervous. While they were down the captain flagged down another fishing boat and asked them for tortillas so that he could feed the fish. We saw some BIG beautiful fish.



The guys came up and we headed back, they really liked Ivan. We tipped Ivan 300 pesos and then head up to pay Margaret. It is $240.00 U.S. for the three of them (wow this could get expensive). It is 11:00a.m. and we are all starving!  No one wants to eat at a restaurant (except for me) so we opt for getting take out. We head back into town to find a little taco stand and what do you know we find the Chicken place that we couldn’t find the other night. They are only open daylight hours. We get two whole chickens to go for 100 pesos and take our wonderful smelling lunch home. Carmen is still there so we take everything out to the balcony and have a little picnic. Kyle heads straight for his room, no chicken just a siesta for him.

Today is beautiful, no wind, puffy white clouds and warm. The boys can’t stop talking about the diving, what a wonderful experience! We decide to go down and hang out by the pool and relax for the afternoon. There is hardly anyone here at the complex,it is so nice. Kyle wants me to go and snorkel up to the Coral Princess with him so off we go. It is so beautiful, we see French Angels, a big File Fish, Anemone, lot’s of coral and suddenly right below us we see three Divers! It was fun, we waved to them, they waved to us…I have to admit that was the first time I have had that encounter!  It suddenly starts to rain, the weather can change so quickly here in Cozumel. Time to get out.

The guys are all under the palapa drinking a beer. I hear a sound and think that it is thunder and then the gal upstairs pokes her head out of her balcony and says someone just had an accident right out in front of  Puesta Del Sol. I stay put, I don’t do well with that kind of thing. The guys go out to investigate and it is a Volkswagen that has swerved to avoid a motorcycle and ends up rolling his car over the median. The guy on the motorcycle is lucky, the guy was able to avoid him. The guy in the Volkswagen  is lucky as well, he climbed out without a scratch. The police get there and they help the guy roll his car back over and off they go!



It is Mothers Day here in Mexico and when Mike gets back from Chedraui he has a Very cute card (Spanish) and all the boys signed it! It is definitely a keeper. We get cleaned up and head out to La Meson Parilla on 30th and 8th. I Love this place. No real windows, just wooden poles half way up. The food is Great and our waiter was terrific! He lived in Chicago for a while and it was fun to hear about his life and ambitions. It suddenly starts to POUR. Thunder, lightning, the whole nine yards! It sounds wonderful, it was like being out on a patio but not getting wet. The only down side was that this was the night that we were going to go to mini-golf to meet Sally and her husband. The boys were really looking forward to playing Golf and I even had treats in my purse for Sunshine!



We end up at the Havana Club for some cigars and FuFu drinks. It is fun to watch the local elite having dinner and the jazz band is good. Mike has to buy his Tee shirt and finally I have had enough. It’s 10:00p.m. and we call it a night. Tomorrow is our last full day and we want to check out  the beach clubs.

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once de Mayo

Up and moving about 9:00a.m.  I was hoping for blue skies and it looks pretty dark out there. If there is anything I have learned this week it is that the weather here in Cozumel can change in a heart beat. We are going to head for Mr. Sanchos beach club anyway! I pack the cooler with drinks the boys get up and off we go! We get there and it is not to crowded at all. We order Nachos and Margaritas and pay for the guys to jump on the trampoline. I brought my coupons for free Margaritas or Ice Cream from Mr. Sanchos web site. There are a ton of thimble jellies here today. We look at the sky and Mike says “The squall is coming”. We tuck up under the palapa and the people on the beach run for cover! It doesn’t last long and the sun is out again.



The guys decide to go out and try the trampoline, it is kind of flat so that doesn’t  last long. We try out the bar stool swings, pretty cool. We ordered a combo appetizer and Kyle decides to snorkel for a while. We all decide that we have had enough and take a vote on what to do next. Everyone wants to go to Punta Sur to see the Crocs (except for Mike) so that is what we do.



We get to the gate and they let Kyle pass as a child so we pay $60.00u.s. in cash. They only accept cash or travelers checks. They show us where to park and there is this little Boar that comes out to greet us and boy does he like attention! He rubs up against our legs and then lays down so that Bret can give him a good belly rub.



They also have Koati Mundis (a Mexican raccoon) that were very cool. They load us up on a double decker truck and down the bumpy road we go. First stop a restaurant, we grab a cervesa  and get back on the truck. We stop at the light house for a minute and then they take us further down to a beautiful beach and we hang out there and wait for our turn to go out in the little boat and search for the Crocodiles in the lagoon.



The boys snorkeled at the beach and it was very cool. The water got deep and then  there was a huge sand bar way out, they could stand and the water was only up to their knees. They saw Huge sponges, anemones, scat rays, ramoray sucker fish (one suck on to Michael) and a ton of baby fish. They said it was like a nursery out there. It was our turn for the Croc search so we walked down a path and get in a little dingy and an older gentleman cruised us around until we spotted one. He drove the boat up on the shore and told the boys they could get out of the boat to get a closer look. They got within about five feet before he scurried off into the water. He was pretty good size and we took one picture but you have to look close to make him out.





 

We go back to the light house and climb up & up & up!!! What a fantastic view from up here, even if we are panting and sweaty. The coast is gorgeous! We take a few pictures and back down again (I wonder if anyone has ever had a heart attack in this thing), they do make you sign a waiver before you go up. We talked to a nice couple who have retired on the island. They have been there for three years and built their own home. We are the last group so the entire staff gets on the truck with us and we go back to where our car is. We head for home and the guys from the refuge are all in the truck behind us, we pull over and they zoom by us (I guess they wanted to go HOME). Get back to the condo and walk out on the balcony, what a gorgeous sunset for our last night here!





Tonight is our last dinner out so we decide on Lobster Cove. Mike hasn’t had lobster yet this week and he has to have it once before we go home. It is pretty crowded and we have to wait a while but it isn’t too bad. Twenty minutes later we are seated right in front of the Jazz band, it was very nice. Bret and I order Coconut Shrimp, Michael orders Fahitas and Kyle asks for a salad and a cheeseburger. Everything is great and then when Kyle gets his cheeseburger that is exactly what it is, a CHEESE burger. No meat, just cheese so we call the waiter over and he starts laughing. He tells us that it is new on the menu and they don’t even have a burger patty in the joint. Kyle says that’s O.K. he has had enough salad and appetizers and he is full. We talk about what a fantastic week that it has been, all our new experiences and great memories and we call it a night. We want to get a few more souvenirs and a good nights rest!

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