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Cozumel Island
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Cozumel Trip Report Trip report for Feb. 12-21, Part One Greetings! Trip report for Feb12-2, Par two Wed. Valentines DayOut in the sun all morning at PLG. We followed up on some apartments that my dive instructor had for rent for next time. Very nice. We went across the street to Chedraui for lunch. They have a new deli with places to sit that serves several different authentic meals per day. Each entree' is 1 dollar so you can sample lots for less than five bucks for two people. We also got ham, cheese, veggies and rolls and made our own sandwiches back in the room. Each morning for breakfast, we got rolls out of the bakery for less than a dollar. They are so fresh and so good that they are hard to pass up. For Valentines dinner, we went to La Cocay. I really like this place but we had a very bad experience this time. After an hour and a half and several chats with the waiter, we found out our order had been lost. My wifes filet and shrimp were served to a guy who ordered salmon but he proceeded to eat over half the meal before informing the waiter he had the wrong meal. Apparently, at this time, is when things went south. Our order never was found but we eventually got to eat. To their credit, they would not accept money for the food. They were very embarrased and our romantic evening was less than perfect but what the heck, we didn't get too buzzed about it. To lick our wounds, we went to the Havana Club for solace. In bed by 10:00. Thursday was sunny again so we sunned at PLG, at lunch again at Chedraui. I dove in the afternoon while my wife read arounf the pool. Our new room at PLG was on the first floor and a walk-out to the beach area. We liked it a lot. We hadn't stayed at ground level before. We had sandwiches on our deck from Chedraui for dinner and then walked down to Minigolf for the Thurs. Chatters Meeting. No one else was there so we had a great time chatting with Sally since it was kind of quiet there too. About 9:00, a group of about 14 people with about 10 of them being under 10 years old, came to golf. The two mom's got them started with dad's and grandpa's and then they left. They apparently had never played minigolf before and Sally had a hard time explaining why they couldn't play with a twelvesome. They were from Argentina and a real joy to watch. They had a great time eating banana's and playing golf. We left the minigolf and happened upon our favorite hot dog vendor in the parking lot next to the Casa Mexican, by the phone/post office. He has the best hot dogs wrapped in ham and bacon with fried onions and all the fixin's for 90 cents each. We have eaten these for years and never gotten sick. Look this guy up, he's only there at night. Went home without stoppoing at the Havana Club. One of the advantages of PLG is the walking distance to down town. We took virtually no cabs and felt down right justified in eating all this food since we walked a lot each day. I am on my way snowmobiling for the weekend so I'll continue the ramblings on Sunday night. We are preparing for a blizzard on Sat/Sun so it should be interesting. The east is just digging out. This must have been Nick F's delay. Have a nice weekend. Trip Report-Part Three For those of you still interested, here is a continuation of the report from last Friday. We were on our way snowmobiling and anticipated a blizzard. We had a great time since we got 20" of snow where we were.The report is for Feb.12-21. Part 1 and 2 covered Feb 12-15. Part 3- Friday Feb. 16 Friday- Today is the day we rented a car and did the east side. We got a Tracker at PLG for $60. with insurance and taxes. No great deal but very convenient. From PLG, we went south and got on the new road. Nice road but not very much scenery. There are very few places available to get back on the old road so unless you are in a hurry, take the old road especially if you want to get to a place that is before Iberostar. Anyway, we took the new road trying to get to Dzul-ha and had to go way passed it and come back. However, when we came back on the old road, it was blocked off temporarily by the policia. so we went back again, got on the new road and bagged going to Dzul-ha for today. First stop was Coconuts. It was about 10:30 and not open for some time. That was great. We sat up top in the sun and just enjoyed the solitude.By noon they opened and we had the ceviche and shrimp quesidillas. Very good. As we were eating, Pearl and Trent from Minnesota came up. We finished and told Pearl (Susan) that we were off in search of the natural jacuzzi. We had directions given to us in advance if we agreed to pick up two bags of garbage on the east side. (Which we did.) We believed we found the right spot and it was confirmed when Pearl and friend showed up. A very cool place. Next, on to Punta Morena where we took in the sights for an hour or so and then on to Mescalito's. We split an order of the marinated shrimp and headed for home. Stopped and put in $3 bucks worth of gas. I always tell them how much I want and watch that they re-set the pump. It never takes more than a couple of bucks if its only one trip around the island. We got back to the hotel around 5:00 and there was a message to call Sally. We found out Alicia was having a used clothing sale at her B&B for the benefit of Chrysalis and could we help for a couple of hours. We agreed to be there by 8:30, then took the rental car for a trip up to the north hotel area and a ride around town. We stopped at Leo and Janet's, the people from Sally's church and visited for a while. Since we were close, we went to Yucatequita for dinner. It was very good and the owners were very nice. It was very hard to believe that less than a week later they decided to close. I think they were just too far off the beaten path to make it without some sort of gimmick. Good food and service, unfortunately, doesn't always guarantee success. In bed by 10:30. Boy, we sure are party animals. Up Sat. morning early. Had fruit and rolls from across the street and got a cab for Alicia's. The sale was on in full force when we got there. Jean went inside and helped reload the hangers and I worked outside as sort of an overseer. We had a great time. We worked with a couple of kids that Alicia helps out and a couple of the people who work for Alicia. We were treated to a couple of omelettes and fruit as things wound down. Here is a pitch for Chrysalis after seeing it operate and talking with Alicia. Folks, as much as they appreciate all the donations of supplies, what they really need is money. So if you plan on going out and buying X amount of dollars of supplies, consider writing a check for the same amount instead. They are the best judges on a day to day basis on what they need. They are currently overstocked on some things and understocked on others. Money really provides them with the flexibility they need. We got back to the hotel around 1:00 and took a cab to Dzul-ha. The deck is still under construction but it looks like the end is in sight. We really like the laid back atmosphere, giant parrotfish and non-pushy staff. Lots of small jellyfish in the water but they didn'y bother anyone. On our last dive, our DM got nailed by a big one at about 50' and his arm really puffed up. We met a group of ladies from Minn. and found out we had a number of mutual acquaintenances. We took a cab home and hit the happy hour at the pool at PLG. Decided to use our discount card at the Lobster place on the north end. We cabbed up there and found out it didn't even open until 6:00 so we loaded up again and went to El Foco. Very good food. We had not been there before. We had an 8:00 tee time at minigolf witha bunch of locals who play every Sat. night. They make up a lot of there own rules which is fun. One of them is that you can't be on the same team as your spouse. I played on a fivesome with Daisy who is near 80 and started playing just a few years ago. She was an absolute dead eye at anything within 5'. It was a great experience. We sat and bs'ed until about 10:30 and walked home. Tomorrow(Sunday) we change hotels. See ya Trip Report for Feb. 12-21, Part 4 (final) & long This report covers Sunday, Feb. 18 to Wed. Feb. 21. Parts 1-3 listed below cover the earlier dates. SUNDAY- Still at PLG. We once again had breakfast on the patio from the bakery at Chedraui. Fresh rolls, fruit and coffee cost less than $3. total. At PLG you can rent a coffee maker for $1. a day. Bring your own filters and coffee or buy it across the street. We sunned at PLG until check out time of 1:00. We learned last year to pay the misc. cost such as drinks, safe rental etc. with peso's. They really rip you off if you pay in dollars at PLG. We got the final bill, about $120. and went across the street to Chedraui to get peso's out of the cash machine. No problems with check out. A final thought on PLG. This was our seventh time there and it really hasn't changed a lot. We still have not had any problems with road noise that is a common question on the board. The staff is not overly friendly but nobody bugs you either. They are generally responsive to requests and the rooms are large and clean. The proximity to down town and being on the ocean side of the road are still big advantages to us. The in-house dive shop, Cedraui and pretty good snorkeling make it an overall good spot.We threw our bags in a taxi and went north about a half a mile to Casa Mexicana(CM).This place had just opened last year when I was here on a diving trip. It looked interesting, so my wife and I signed up for Sun-Wed. Since it is new, so is everything in it. Very friendly and helpful staff. Fairly large rooms with many having an ocean view. It is across the road from the ocean and next to Jeannie's Waffle House. It has a second floor access you reach by escalator from street level. Small, shallow pool on first level with a bar open from noon to 7 PM. Absolute great people watching from this elevated level. Quick elevator to the 4 floors above. Rates were $130. per nite total. This includes a fantastic breakfast each morning. Made to order omelettes, fruilt, juice, cereal, pancakes, french toast, bacon,sausage, potatoes (for Dan Quayle) etc. The down sides are: Rooms with adjoining doors can get noisy if you are on a different schedule than your neighbor. There is no sound proofing between these two wood doors. Staff will be happy to fix it if you bring it to their attention. There are no refrigerators in the rooms. This was a surprise after accumulating cold stuff all week. We had to convert a waste basket into a cooler for a while We ate lunch in the room to reduce our supply of cold food. Took a nap and headed to La Veranda for dinner. Great as usual. Friendly, attentive staff that really make you feel special. We then headed to the plaza for Sunday night festivities. It was the beginning of Carnaval and they had all sorts of entertainment. Bought some neat Carnaval t-shirts and headed home. MONDAY- We had breakfast in the buffet downstairs and I headed off diving. CM is right across the street from the down town Aqua Safari shop so I got in the boat and went to PLG to pick up people.By coincidence, I ran into a lady from MN who was my dive buddy last year. We had a great time catching up and we buddied up again this year. We did Palancar Caves and Tormentos. Home by 1:30. We had lunch at Jeannies' Waffle House and took a nap. We had drinks on the patio on the main level and watched local kids set up a ramp on the Aqua Safari pier and procced to jump their bikes off the ramp into the ocean. They were having a great time and from my vantage point, I got great pictures of them. I shot a full roll, got them developed at the one hour photo place down the block and gave them to the kids. They loved having action photos of their fun. We decided to try something new and only have an appetizer at each place so we could sample more dishes. First stop was the Havana Club for a Cuban, drinks and the ceviche but the star of the show were the crab cakes and sauce. We had a wonderful time again there and really like the atmosphere. I was pretty wiped so we headed for the hacienda about 10:00. At 3 AM is when we found out the doors between the rooms were far from sound proof. TUESDAY- Breakfast at the CM buffet again. We laid in the sun on the patio overlooking the street till noon. Once again, great people watching because of the proximity to down town and the cruisers. Being one floor removed puts you in a whole different level away from the maddening crowd. Back to the Havana Club for our own order of crab cakes and ceviche. They honor the discount card on appetizers too. We are hooked on these now. We are going to try and duplicate them at home but I'm not too hopeful we can match them. Back to the room for siesta. Walked to our new friends Janet and Leo and said good bye and then to minigolf to say the same to Scott, Sally and Sunshine. We are so happy to be acquainted with these folks. They are so nice and provide a real service to this board by being so factual. Thanks again to them and a round of golf at the minigolf is an absolute must. We headed to Casa Denis next for fish soup and Mexican sausage. We can't elaborate enough on how good these two dishes are. Doing the appetizers is a great way to expand your options. We will do more of it next time. More Carnaval festivities and then home for bed. WEDNESDAY- Up at 7 AM, had breakfast at the buffet and off to the airport. Took the 20 min flight from Coz to Cancun on Aeromexico. This was part of the deal when Sun Country canceled their Wed. flights. Caught the 11:50 diect flight from Cancun to Mpls. Home on time, through customs and home by 5:00. A virtually perfect trip. Thanks to all who helped make it that way. Please e-mail with questions. I hope the ramblings were not too long. Lodging Reviews
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