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 Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Morgan and Scott on 01/20/02

Trip Report 12.22.01 - 12.29.01

Plaza Las Glorias
 

Scott (29) and Morgan (24)
Second trip to Cozumel.
Seven day trip report from 12.22.01 – 12.29.01
Stayed at the Plaza Las Glorias for the first time.
This is quite long and detailed but for those of you who haven’t been to Coz I’m sure it will be very helpful. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to e-mail me and I’d be happy to help you!

12.22.01
Left home in St. Paul at 4:00 a.m., arrived at the Minneapolis airport, checked in, stood in line for about an hour and fifteen minutes, everyone was checked and some were randomly searched. We took off a little after our scheduled departure time of 6:00 a.m. It was about 14 degrees. Arrived in beautiful Cozumel at 10:30 a.m. and we were at The Plaza Las Glorias, at the pool with chips, salsa, guacamole, and a Sol by 11:25 a.m. Life is good! The sun was shining and hot, we had talked with some folks at the pool who had been there a few days, they said this day was the first in six that it hadn’t rained! Did we ever feel lucky! The bell-man, and the hotel desk clerks were very eager to help us and incredibly pleasant our entire trip. We stayed in room 224 with a gorgeous view of the ocean and a large balcony to walk on and look down at the pool and ocean. We rented snorkel gear, and laid on the pier. We were tired from the trip over so we went back up to our room and took a quick 30 minute nap, and came back to the pool just in time for the 4:00 happy hour. Scott isn’t the type to be happy just sitting by the pool, but he couldn’t help remarking, “this is fantastic!” I had to agree. We hung by the ocean until the sun set at about 6:00, we went up to our room, showered, and we walked to the Lobster Cove (about a 5 minute walk north of the hotel). We asked if we could sit outside and the host was more than happy to seat us at a lovely table in the center of the outside dining area where we took off our sandals and dug our feet in the sand! The service was great, the boiled lobster was to die for, I swear it melted in my mouth! Good potatoes and vegetables too. This isn’t the most cost-effective place for lobster but with the atmosphere that we were enjoying it was well worth it. We had all intentions of checking out the “new” Carlos and Charlies but we were tired out! We were in bed at the hotel by 9:00.
It was a FANTASTIC first day!

12.23.01
We were both wide awake at 5:45 a.m., we got out of bed and checked out the view, just beautiful! It rained all night…we were a bit disappointed at the fact it looked as though it were going to rain this day so we crawled back into bed. (Many folks have mentioned how horribly hard the beds are, yes, they are hard, but that’s just what you get when you travel to a different country, they do not have box springs, just a large cement block with about a 4 inch mattress, we slept fine the whole time). We woke again at about 7:45 a.m. with the sun shining and the rain drying up. We showered quickly and headed north looking for the famous “Rock N Java”…found it about 7 minutes north of the hotel (walking). Great breakfast, cheap and the wait staff was very friendly. We watched as the Mexican Navy was preparing for their day standing in formation, taking orders and adjusting their uniforms. It was interesting. We headed toward town to shop
a bit. I bought Scott a silver ring for his pinky finger, he bought me a sarong at a nice shop in town owned by a sweet gal from NY who was very pregnant, nice too!
Scott and I had discussed taking the Discover Scuba course, and we decided to go ahead with it, we had plenty of snorkeling experience so we thought we were ready for the next step. We booked with Aqua Safari for tomorrow at 12:30.
We couldn’t wait to get back in the ocean so we walked back to the hotel, grabbed our snorkel gear ($5.00 for 24 hours at Aqua Safari in the hotel) and dove right in. After a few hours we were getting hungry so we went back into town looking for the much talked about “La Choza” man that creamy orange salsa is good! We shared a plate of awesome chicken fajitas, chatted with a couple from Chicago and went back for some more snorkeling. Was it already time for dinner?? What?? Is this all we do when we’re on vacation? Eat, sleep and play? I guess so! That’s what it’s all about! So we went looking for Guidos (our favorite last year) and they were closed! So we thought we’d experience Pancho’s Backyard again, we had been there last year too. This year though it wasn’t near as busy as last, we sat by the falls and shared a combo plate, yummy and romantic. After dinner we stopped by Sr. Frog’s  and Carlos N’ Charlies,  both are very much aimed at tourists and young partiers, (ages 18-25 probably) Loud music, strong drinks and a crazy but fun wait staff. The newly remodeled buildings are nice and colorful, but I found it strange that every time I used the restroom I felt compelled to tip the attendant. I know that’s just how it is, but I found that hard to get used to, especially when I didn’t use any of their services, I just washed and I was out of there. After a couple of drinks we walked back to the hotel and we were asleep by 10:00.

12.24.01
Christmas Eve in Cozumel! Wow! I still can’t believe we’re here on Christmas Eve again! We woke up to a beautiful sunny day, AND our first trip to the bottom of the ocean! We went to Costa Brava for breakfast, north of the hotel, take a right and go about a block and there it is, all colorful and ready to serve you! This was by far the cheapest breakfast we had the entire trip! It was five bucks for the both of us. We had coffee, eggs, potatoes, and bread. We were full so we thought we’d head back to the hotel for reading, relaxing, more sunshine and to anxiously await our scuba course.
WOW! Diving was the most awesome experience I have EVER had! Our master divers were just terrific, we had Patricio and Gabrielle, who were both incredibly patient and kind to us newbees. We took the course with 3 other people and we all seemed to do very well. Diving was unbelievable the colors were so real and gorgeous. I had no idea what a different world it was down there. We are going to get certified this coming spring and hopefully go back to Coz next January. What a cool (but expensive)hobby to have! After our perfect day we ended it with the perfect meal at Prima, fantastic! I had the lobster fettuccine and Scott had the fresh blackened grouper. Everything was scrumptious from the wine to the entrée. The owner of the place was very talkative and lively, he wanted us to keep on coming back. It was incredibly busy there, I guess so, it was a holiday I suppose! Last year we had gone to Kiss My Cactus and it was a quaint little club with a live band, this year it was all changed, it is now a jewelry store and cigar shop along with a tequila bar. We sat and had a drink and people watched for a bit. We started our walk back to the hotel when a man approached us to stop in at his restaurant Aquario, we thought, “what the heck” so we stepped in and walked out to the pier, what a view! We had a drink and we were in bed by 9:15, Whew! What a day!

12.25.01
Christmas Day? How can it be? It’s hot, sunny and the sky is blue! Scott and I trekked it over to Aquario for breakfast, yummy! He had the fresh fruit, good bread, fresh squeezed orange juice, granola, and yogurt and I had tasty chilaquelas (sp) it was so great but I was full from mooching off of Scott’s plate! The service was wonderful and of course the view was breathtaking, what a way to start the day! We decided to make a tradition out of Park Chakanaab on Christmas Day (we were there last year too.) So we hopped into a cab and we were on our way. We found the most beautiful spot under a palapa near a spot where we could easily hop into the water and snorkel at any given moment. We spent the rest of the day reading, snorkeling and just relaxing. By the way, the pineapple drinks were out of this world! We got back to the hotel at about 6:00, Scott was tuckered out from the sun so he took a little nap and I read some more. We decided to find La Mission for dinner, we loved the romantic atmosphere last year…we walked downtown to where we thought it was and it turned out that they are either remodeling the old one or closing it down. A nice young man who was standing at the doorway asked if we’d like a ride to the “other” La Mission about 10 blocks from there, “sure” we said, the tortilla soup sounded really good! He drove us to a beautiful palace with a garden and yard that had looked extremely well kept, we walked into the foyer and lo and behold, there was La Mission, it looked to be the owners home. It was gorgeous. We ran into a couple that was on our dive boat the day before, we chatted with them while our table was being set. We ordered drinks, our food and we were doing just fine! We had fresh bread and the yummy tortilla soup I mentioned before. For dinner I tried the grouper and rice, Scott had charred pork, both meals were fabulous. The atmosphere was something to be seen, how come I don’t live there? We were back at the PLG by 9:30 and snoring by 10:00.

12.26.01
“The sea is angry my friend, like an old man pushing away his soup at a deli.” (Seinfeld) What a day! It was HOT and WINDY! We woke up to loud crazy waves crashing against the reefs of our hotel. Lots of whitecaps but the morning was hot, what a weird day! We trotted down to Jeannie’s Waffle House, very expensive compared to what we had paid for breakfast previously and by far the most “American” food we’d had. It was just ok. I had the waffle benedict and Scott tried the Monte Cristo. We were looking forward to our second dive which we had scheduled for today, but since it was so windy we had wondered if we’d be able to go out. After breakfast we went back to the hotel to check in with Aqua Safari, they said we wouldn’t be going out, bummer!! We had sad faces for a few minutes there. Patricio said, “the water is not cooperating today.” It sure wasn’t. I went to the pool to enjoy the sun and my book, (by now I’m on my second novel). Scott visited a couple of realtors (I think he wants to move to Coz) We spent the rest of the day by the pool with Sol’s, our books, and the hot, hot sun. For lunch we shared chicken fajitas at the pool restaurant, the wind started to pick up and the sun wasn’t so hot any more so we went back up to our room for a nap. AHHH, vacation is wonderful! For dinner we decided to check to see if Guido’s was open and it was! Yeah! Our craving for the garlic flat bread would be resolved! Scott had the pizza San Miguel and I tried the special of the evening, a lovely homemade pasta with beef, ham, and fresh mushrooms in a nice cream sauce, it was divine! After dinner we decided to go back to the pool and enjoy a couple of sangaria’s. Then up to bed, after all we had a big day of fishing ahead of us!

12.27.01
We woke up at 6:30 to be at the pier at 7:30, it was still incredibly windy and the white caps on the ocean were HUGE! We weren’t sure if Rita from Albatros Charters would be able to pick us up there or not. It turned out it was too windy for the boat to dock at the pier so Rita met us by foot at the dock and drove us to the Reef Club where our shared fishing partner would be staying and hopefully it would be less windy at that pier. We met Rob from Tennessee, our fishing partner and then the boat came. We were so very excited! We met our Captain Pedro and our First Mate Antonio. What a great couple of guys! We hopped on to the boat and we were on our way. Since it was so windy Rob was a bit queasy and not all that talkative, I read my book and laid down to the relaxing sway of the boat. Finally a bite! Scott let Rob have the first catch, how exciting! It was my first time deep-sea fishing and what a blast! Throughout the day between the three of us we caught 2 tuna, one mahi-mahi, one yellow tail snapper and 3 barracuda. None of which were of any size to brag about. It was a great experience though! Good thing I wore my capri pants and fleece jacket or I would’ve been freezing! Antonio was great, he had a splendid sense of humor even though we weren’t catching much. We were out until about 5:00 and then when we got back to the hotel we were so tired from trying to catch our balance all day we laid down and we were out for the night!

12.28.01
Yes, another day of fishing and the sea is no longer angry! Albatros Charters met us at our pier off of the PLG, we picked up Rob from the Reef Club pier and we were on our way to our fishing spot by 8:00 a.m. Now this was THE fishing day! MUCH more exciting than the first day. The weather was warm, the ocean was calm and things were just great. I caught a small mahi-mahi, a small tuna, and three barracuda weighing in at about 5-10 pounds or each. Scott had an epic struggle- man against fish, he had a 25 pound (or so) mahi-mahi on his line and then while he was bringing it up, Antonio missed it with the gaff and the fish was off and away. That was a sad few minutes…”oh well, there will be more” said Antonio and we understood. Rob caught a small mahi-mahi, small barracuda and then came the excitement of our day all of the sudden he had a HUGE wahoo (sp) on his line, it took about 15 minutes to reel in this baby…holy cow I had never seen a fish this big, when we weighed it in at the end of the day he was 62 pounds and taller than our First Mate Antonio! After the day of fishing, Pedro cut it up into fillets and steaks. Rob was kind enough to share a couple of steaks with us. And he gave the fillets to Pedro and Antonio. We brought the fish to Guido’s and they cooked it up for us, seasoned and very tasty, it was actually wonderful, the most mouth watering fresh fish I’ve ever had. We had some sangaria and it was bed time again.

12.29.01
Oh no, did this day have to come? It’s our last day, our plane is to take us home to the cold and snowy-ness of MN. We woke up, showered and walked to Aquario for our last breakfast until next time. Again, wonderful view, great breakfast and cheery wait staff. We went back to our hotel to pack up and head out. At the airport everyone’s bags were checked we made our flight with 10 minutes to spare. We flew in to MN, it was 5 degrees, all we wanted to do was turn right around and go back to 82 and clear!

Side notes:
 The Chedraui Grocery was right across the street, we went there almost daily for snacks, water, etc. There’s an ATM in there too.
 The hotel was terrific, when we arrived they had cards for beach towels, when we wanted dry ones we just brought the wet ones in and exchanged them. On our last day we turned in our last wet towels and got our card back.
 The room was clean, it was huge with a queen bed and then another room which we stepped down into with 2 cots in it.
 There was a mini kitchen with sink, fridge, and small counter (worked perfectly to cut our limes for our Sol).
 There was a sliding glass door which led to the balcony and view of the ocean
 The pool was large
 There was a man made beach there with palapas, hammocks and plenty of sun
 Lots of reefs to snorkel off of
 Lorenzo and the other hotel staff were very accommodating.
 Each evening the sunset is amazing from the hotel, we took many pictures and we were sure to watch it each night.

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