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Cozumel Trip Report Binder Chick Report - PART 1 WARNING LONG..... Trip Report - Cozumel - David & JayneJanuary 20-February 3rd Hacienda San Miguel Part 1 Just a word of warning…except for the end of this report this is a LONG non-diving report. So if that is your only interest - you may wish to skip the rest of this report J However, if your husband or wife doesn't dive and they are worried that there may not be enough for them to do in Cozumel - then read on!! We left at 3:00 a.m. on January 20th for Toronto Airport. The airporter picked us up and got us to the airport in this -18 degree weather. We lined up with our luggage as the counter was not open yet. There were two Canada 3000 counters but only one line and some guy from the Airline told us to move up as most of the other people in our line were going to Cancun or some other place on another plane. We moved up to the front of the line and everybody started yelling at us!!! We were overweight on our luggage (Okay I have to take everything just in case) and after listening to the people in front of me "Dive Gear…no tanks" that is what I said when we got up there OKAY SO I DON'T DIVE AND I LIED…maybe my fins and wetsuit were what put us over our weight limit - yeah right - anyway it worked and they just waved us through. Tried to get a coffee and gave myself at least a second degree burn on my thumb…but being the good prepared Binder Chick that I am…I had aloe gel in my carry-on. After an uneventful flight we caught our first glimpse of 'Cozumel' certainly looked like paradise to us! We cleared customs (David got the green) and it only took us a few minutes to find Pearl who graciously agreed to pick us up! We managed to throw our four large bags into her vehicle and we were off to the Hacienda San Miguel. Pearl left us to get settled as Nicole showed us to our room. It was glorious. We were staying in the Alcatraz a double room overlooking the garden. For those of you who will be staying at HSM there is not a bad room in the hotel so don't worry. The fountain welcomes you as you arrive and the gardens are truly magnificent. The ladies at HSM (thanks Steph J) had Champagne waiting for us on our arrival to celebrate our 25th anniversary I tried very hard not to cry!! We quickly checked out our room and walked down the main street to El Centro. I wish I had been warned me about the people on the main street who try to get you into their stores. For some reason I found this irritating, but having said that after the first time if I was not in the mood to 'run the gauntlet' I could cross the street or take the back streets to El Centro. We wandered around a bit confused and ended up at the Sonora Grill where we had fajitas for about 250 pesos. No memorable and a little different than I'm used too.Bought some Kaluha candies from Cinco Soles a nice store near HSM and some neat Mango tequila. They had large bottles of Kaluha for $14.95 US FOR TWO BOTTLES!!! Yummmmm. Sunday 21st Up early - the birds woke me up at 5 am and yes the beds in Cozumel are harder than we are used to. Breakfast at Ernesto's for $9.00 US and tip. We walked all the way to the Chedraui and were pleased to see such a modern supermarket. We enjoyed looking at all of the different grocery and produce items. Timeshare guys tried to pray on us as we walked by. I took the opportunity to be really mean and since I know a fair amount of sign language I signed to the guy that I did not understand what he was saying to me - he was momentarily stunned! David had a terrible time keeping a straight face and we quickly walked away. The weather was awful, cold and windy and we stopped to watch some poor person's Catamaran sink just down from the divers monument. Saw many memorable things: fruit vendors, pizza delivery mopeds, families riding mopeds, grandmothers driving mopeds, and sadly some drunken tourists. We really enjoyed the Siesta routine and quickly learned how things worked. We walked back at night for the Fiesta and loved watching all the small children all dressed up - one of my most favourite Cozumel memories.We met Stephanie this evening and felt like I had known her for years - getting to know Steph is one of our other most favourite Cozumel memories! Monday 22nd Finally sun today! We grabbed a cap to Chankannab and could not believe how windy and wavy it was. Well I put on my wetsuit and fins and tried to get in the water - the waves freaked me out and I retreated! After a rest period I tried again this time without fins and had success - I was amazed at the fish all around me even though there were tons of people in the water! Saw some barracuda, parrot fish and sea urchins. Could not believe the size of the iguanas at Chankannab and some idiot tried to feed one and it bit him DUH! Managed to get a brutal burn on my legs and we retreated to HSM for seista. Walked to Manati for dinner and surprise PEARL was there working for the first time! It was great to see her and she was an amazing hostess! We had a wonderful oriental salad, corona, wine, spinach lasagna and meat lasagna and tiramisou all for $238 pesos plus tip(we had one of those great 2 for 1 cards). I would recommend the 2 for 1 card without hesitation it saved us a fair amount of money. We used the card twice at Manati, at Tony Romes, at the Mini Golf and Morgans. Tuesday 23rd Woke up with burnt legs DUH, it is supposed to be 84 with sun and cloud today - don't worry if the weather report looks dismal just before you leave, ours said cloud for the first 10 days and that was not correct. We took a cab to Dzul-Ha today, I remembered what my fellow chatters had told me so we paid $6 US for a cab and got out at the Topes. It is true that the beach club is not much to look at - and we were unsure about which one was the 'best club' so we settled in front of the Sand Dollar Diver shop. They came to see if we wanted anything and then basically left us alone for the day. As far as we could tell the beach club that we had read about was under construction getting new boards so it was completely useless. We spent a wonderful day sunning, reading and snorkelling. I saw a ton of my absolute favourite Spotlight Parrot fish (adult and juveniles), a peacock flounder (thanks Chas for the identification), sea urchins, grunts and a ton of other fish we attempted to indentify. Back to HSM to shower and then slipped in to Kiss My Cactus for some Pina Colada/Cervesos and listened to a Mariachi band and watched the cruisers. Bought some silver, churros (David's favourite), some more silver and had a Kahlua Dairy Queen Blizzard - YUM. Wednesday 24th Got up at 6:00 am to be at the airport for 7:15 am flight to Chichen Itza. This was my Christmas present from our son so I was very excited. Booked through IMC on line before I left home for $276. US per person plus $29. Airport tax each. Quite expensive but worth it if this type of thing appeals to you. Again God Bless Dramamine…off we went in the small 18 seater for a semi-turbulent ride to Chichen Itza. They fly over the ruins first to allow for pictures. The tour was amazing as was our guide Julian. Very knowledgeable and entertaining. Arrived back at the airport and they tried to force us into suburbans for the ride downtown for $7. Per person. We walked down the street - as I had read here - and paid $4 US with tip to take a taxi instead of $14! Siesta (sigh) until 4:30 and then walked into El Centro for dinner at Morgans. Was okay not great David ordered a mixed grill with 'sausage' and it turned out to be a hotdog! Hiliarious we howled!! Had a nice visit with Steph then off to bed! Life here is so tiring!!! Still to come in Part II....the Dramamine Queen rides the ferry, and we rent a car :) David & Jayne Addendums to Part I I forgot to mention in Part I that even though Hacienda San Miguel is a 'small' hotel it has big hotel type of luxuries. Awaiting us in our rooms were robes and the same wonderful little 'towel creatures' with flowers that you find in the more expensive resorts. We found the maids to be amazing and each day they did some extra little trick with the toliet paper like tying the shower curtain back with toliet paper and making a toliet paper flower. Sounds strange but it really was an adorable touch. Each day we left the maids a small treat and money and I'm not sure if our service was better than anyone elses but it certainly more than met our requirements. Each room has a large water jug, television and remote and stove and fridge. Rooms are also complete with a safety deposit box and you are not required to leave a large money deposit for the key like you are in some hotels. Each morning you are served (at your requested time) a continental breakfast of orange juice and coffee and sweets from a local bakery - absolutely delicious! We bought a box of milk at the local supermarket and kept it in our fridge for my coffee. Some mornings we would eat the breakfast and other mornings we would go out for breakfast and save our treats to eat on the beach during the day. On the morning we left for Chichen Itza we were worried about getting a cab so early but we managed to flag down a cab (yes you really can find one at any hour of the day or night) and made it to the airport. The taxi driver was absolutely charming. He sang to us on the way to the airport and played Mariachi music full blast and then turned off the music and sang acapella!! Absolutely charming - definitely a memory for us to take home! He was tipped well for his talent and zest for life at 6:30 in the morning!! Thursday Jan 25th Today was the first of our three day car rental and we arrived early in the morning at Smart Car Rental to rent our car. On the advice of people on the board we asked to see the car before we signed the contract and used the insurance with our credit card rather than take the extra insurance. Having said that…not having the extra insurance worried me after seeing the way some people drive including locals! But again…I have read here that people have taken out extra insurance and still had to pay cash for losses etc. so make whatever decision you are comfortable with. After renting the car we were off on our way to the East side. It was very cold and the water was very rough and it reminded us a bit of the east coast of Canada. We couldn't help but notice that there was a succulent bush type plant with white flowers that had a fragrance that was unforgettable! Does anyone know what this plant was? We drove to Mr. Sanchos and tried to sit on the beach and we were almost the only people there and left soon after arriving - it was freezing! After Quesadillas (sp?) at Mr. Sanchos we were full so we skipped dinner and after siesta went to take our school supplies to the Mini Golf. Tom and Sally were very gracious and thanked us for bringing the supplies. We brought a Dentabone for Sunshine who has just finished eating ice-cream brought to him by Tom and his wife. Sunshine was not sure what to do with this healthy type snack. Nice meeting you and your wife Tom - keep those great pictures coming! After an enjoyable round of mini-golf we headed back to the HSM and called it a night. Friday Jan 26th Woke up to a really cloudy day and drove to the East side trying to chase the sun - no luck! We finally ended up at our favourite spot Dzul-Ha and for the first time there were other people there. We arrived at about 10:00 and stayed until 3:30 or so. I swallowed my required gallon of salt water due to the choppy conditions (I swear at this point I could do the tequila and lime and use my own salt). Was really pleased to see all the many types of fish especially the parrotfish! When the sun finally came out it was glorious. Some cruisers left us a few crumbs of bread and we fed the fish and were swarmed!( I know we weren't supposed to do it - but we're tourists and this was pretty much our only transgression) We went to Panchos backyard and had a lovely dinner of grouper in mustard sauce and a beef shish-kabob. Both were absolutely magnificent. We tried to check our e-mail and found the system was down - we noticed this was a problem at least four or five times during our stay on the Island. Saturday Jan 27th Hard to believe we have been here for a week today! The weather was glorious again today and we walked to the museum for breakfast. Had a wonderful breakfast looking out over the blue ocean and thought life doesn't get much better than this. For the first time in a week the winds have changed and the ferry looked almost 'doable'. Spent an hour or so looking through the museum and especially enjoyed the old black and white photos of Cozumel. Drove to the East side again and David bargained for a hammock but decided to pass. We both decided that we really don't like bargaining. We are stuck somewhere between wanting to be polite and not insult them by not offering what we think is a fair price - and not wanting to be taken! I tried the half price and come up somewhere in the middle trick and had two shop owners (in the flea market place behind the plaza) walk away from me in disgust. Oh well….went to the next booth and bought my stuff there. Snorkelled at Dzul-ha again today and by mid-afternoon the current had shifted dramatically and the waves became huge. Pay attention to this if you are new to snorkelling as it could become difficult to get back in if you are not paying attention to the direction of the currents. We took the car back a little early and I am pleased to report did not have a single problem although it was slightly more expensive by about $10.00 than I had been told. I decided it was worth it just to accept the price as I had been pleased with the service etc. I had been feeling a little queasy but was really looking forward to the 'meeting' at the Havana Club and was really determined to go anyway! We had a great time and met Pearl, Dave, P of P&J, Julie, Richard and Audrey, Terri and Kraig and Stephanie and Felipe there. Had a great chat and after four Pina Coladas I was finally ready to call it a night! What a treat it was to go somewhere for the first time and feel like you were among friends. Thanks for the memories everyone! More to follow in Part III Lodging Reviews
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