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 Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Sara on 02/17/02

Trip Report - short trip/long report LOL

Coral Princess

Just returned from my shortest ever trip to Coz - but not without great times!!!  Left Minneapolis at 6 a.m. on Wed. 2/13.  Checked into Coral Princess and hit the beach by 1 p.m.  I have used Pepe Scuba from the Coral Princess for all of my Coz diving and they continue to provide great service!  After signing up for tomorrow a.m. dive, my girlfriend and I spent the afternoon soaking up sun and Sol.  I know Coral Princess is more expensive than others but you can't beat the service!!!  We cleaned up and headed to town.  Checked out the new Carlos n' Charlies.  All of the (over 30 yr. old) waiters have been friends for years.  The BBQ shrimp was delicious as always.  The new restaurant is huge and really nice but they've killed the "party bar" atmosphere.  We went upstairs to see Senor Frogs and to talk to some more old friends.  No drinking/partying for us tonight because of the early a.m. dive tomorrow but we still managed to play some great ping pong and even had a chair race before leaving.  Tucked into bed by 11.  A new record for me!  I want people to know that C n' C ... does not have to be only for drunken idiots.  Again, it's the people who make it home.

Thursday morning we headed out for el Paso del Cedral.  Pepe Scuba never takes more than 6 per boat/divemaster and this morning we were only 4 in the boat.  As an infrequent diver (every six months or so) I appreciate the close attention.  Picture all of the regular posts - beautiful coral, breathtaking fish, stubbornly ugly barracuda...  but the absolute highlight was coming up on two nurse sharks - MATING!!!   I almost flooded my mask from laughing!  The male was twice as big and enjoying himself as the female had her head wedged under a piece of coral and just layed there on her back.  A gal that was diving with us came up late on the situation and thought that the female was dead.  She actually reached out to touch her and jumped out of her skin when the female decided to skiff away.  We made a new rule - try not to interrupt romantic moments under the sea!!!  LOL  We followed with a safety stop at Plaza Corona and our second tank at Chankanaab.  More beautiful colors and unbelievable peace.  Thanks be to God for giving us this sight of heaven!

After lunch and a nap (we're really taking this restful/relaxing vacation thing to the Nth degree!) Sue and I headed into town.  Visited with some more old friends, had a couple of drinks at Fat Tuesdays then met our old friends from the island at Guidos/Yolandis (pick a name, any name) for delicious Italian.  What a great place to enjoy Valentine's dinner.  Too bad my husband was home in Iowa! LOL

Friday morning - had to take care of some souvenir shopping.  I normally don't get too excited about this part of my trips but each of my family members had put in a request.  The hardest thing to find was those silly bobbly head turtles that my kids wanted.  They wanted big ones and it took me awhile to find them.  If you don't want them, they're everywhere!  What I really noticed downtown this trip was two things:  A.  where are all of the teeny boppers?  B.  the salespeople are not as agressive?  In these post Carnaval days, maybe everyone's just tired?  

Now here's where loyalty pays off.  Because it was important to us to see our friends for dinner Thurs. night, Sue and I had decided to forego an a.m. dive and sign up for just the p.m.  Pepe Scuba requires 4 divers to take the boat out.  When we returned to Coral Princess around 11 a.m.  we were the only two signed up for our boat.  We offered to pay double!?! but Pepe pish poshed that idea.  For crying out loud, Sue has been diving with Pepe Scuba for about a dozen years.  He gave his blessing for us to take a boat and our own personal divemaster.  We headed just north of the hotel (San Juan but not the REAL San Juan I'm told) to look for the rays.  Sure enough we weren't down five minutes before Manuel stops and points into the darkness.  Five spotted eagle rays came up as graceful as can be.  I've died and gone to heaven!!!  If Manuel hadn't made me continue, I would have just frozen there until my air ran out!  Our second tank took us down the coast.  I had been telling my friend that I was surprised I hadn't seen any crab/lobster.  Well that's because they were ALL down at Paradise Reef!  The creepy little bug eyed creatures were lurking under each crack and crevice!  Again, I have to remember not to laugh (I have a low humor threshold) so as not to flood my mask.  

Back to the hotel where happy hour found us meeting with a couple of girlfriends from our hometown who had just arrived.  We took in the soft breezes, mariachi music, and enjoyed the wonder in the eyes of Kay on her first trip, first afternoon on the beautiful island of Cozumel.  Time to get cleaned up, off to town for another wonderful meal with our friends, 20 rounds of tic tac toe with 9 year old Diego, and a little dancing before telling all of our wonderful friends goodbye - for now!  This much is known, we will return and we will grow deeper and deeper in love with the second home we find on that little island!

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