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Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Texrobin on 06/22/01

Christi and Robin's VERY LONG trip report

WARNING – LONG REPORT AHEAD!      Let me say this right off the bat… there are lots of details in this report.  So for those of you who despise trip reports that tell every single detail… Let this be your warning to either close the post now and back away or skim really fast!  

Day One
Landed in Paradise on May 28th.   Got in transportation van.  Driver was a sexy land shark.  Greeted by Rogelio at Sol Cabanas.  Made fast friends we moved in to room 211.  Went to el banco, had a beer at the Kiss me Cactus bar.  Stopped in and met Stephanie and Achu at Hacienda San Miguel.  Talked for a while and had Stephanie tell us the story of how her and Felipe met.  Picked up a cooler, beer and food at store and went back to Sol Cabanas.  Went back to hotel.  Met Julio, Luis, Carlos, Edgar and the rest of the gang at Sol Cabanas, fast friends again.  Drank at the beach bar, made plans with Julio and Luis to go to the “local hang outs” when they got off at 11:00.  Hooked up with Panchita over at Playa Azul.  Chatted for a couple of hours then we decided to go for a swim.  Later, Christi and I took a disco nap, then got ready to go out.  Met boys in lobby, headed to Mi Ranchitto. Got drunk, danced (some of us around a pole) and had great fun.  We were the only non-locals there.  Mi Ranchitto closed so we head to Canarote downtown, another local hang out (probably slaughtering the spelling).  Place was packed, again stuck out like a sore thumbs but the patrons welcomed us and kept us busy on the dance floor.  Julio and Luis danced our tails off too.  Okay, 3:30A, time to go considering we had been up since 5:00A the previous morning and only had that one little one hour disco nap.  The boys drove us back to hotel…. So much for “we’re not going to Cozumel to party, we’re going to relax and read.”!  

Day Two
Ughhh, hung over the first morning.  Hung out at our lovely beach and snorkeled all day at Sol Cabanas.  Well, hung out at the beach bar too.  That evening we had the Travel Notes dinner at El Moro.  We met Panchita, her three friends, Glassman, and a couple that Panchita met on the east side.  Great dinner!  Got to know everyone a little better and was intrigued by Glassman’s story of how purchased a house in Coz after his first trip, met Lilian, and moved himself and his business to Coz to live with her.  Regretfully, we never made it to his gallery.  Hopefully next time!  Next stop, Hard Rock Café.  It was dead so we tried to become our own entertainment, but we were tired and decided to call it a night.  

Day Three
Ate breakfast at El Museo – excellent!  Went to Dzul Ha for most of the day.  Claimed our territory right in front, near the ledge and started drinking.  Each time Xavier would make us something different.  Xavier and Francisco are awesome and you should get to know them if you go.  When it would start to pour down rain, we headed for cover (not bad, it was closer to the bar) and played cards.  Well, 4:00 rolled around so we decided to leave.  Headed to Chidreau (spelling slaughter again) – it’s the giant grocery store that sells motorcycles and swing sets too.  Got rum, nail glue and other necessities then headed to hotel.  Julio and Carlos were getting off soon at the hotel so we all decided to walk down the beach and have a little sunset/mosquito party.   Uh… next day…

Day Four
Rogelio, the God of concierge, took care of our Chichen Itza and snorkel tour arrangements and this morning we woke up and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Chichen Itza.   Flight was fantastic, sun was peeking out and we were heading to Mayan ruins… what more could you ask for?  We started our Mayan tour at Mayaland Hotel – Wow, beautiful… Our guide was so outstanding and informative!  It’s so amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone that has the interest in time to go.  Man, that climb up the main temple was pretty scary, actually the climb down is worse, but you have to do it if you can!!!!  We were back to Cozumel around 2:00 and made a quick stop in town for money exchange then back to Sol Cabanas.  We hung out the rest of the day/night at our beach, bar and restaurant.  We ate dinner at Los Gavitios (which by the way we had been eating at on and off all week, loving every meal).  Sat there for hours, feeding the fish, playing cards and talking to the guys working at the restaurant… Too much fun – their hospitality is out of this world.  

Day Five
Up early, ate at El Museo, headed to Pro Dive Pier for our snorkel trip on the Arciefies.  Got there a little early so we hung out at on the boulevard near the pier.  We sat there for a while talking and looked up and we are directly across from the Calling Station.  I started to laugh because we had been talking about trying to figure out how we could coordinate a group shot on the live web cam and here we probably had been in the picture for 15 minutes and didn’t even know it.  Oh well.  Met some guys diving and waiting for their boat.  They made fun of our Texan accents, we made fun of their Chicago accents… we hit it off great!  Time to go the boat, got on and there was another family on board  (we were the first pick up).  It didn’t take long for us to all figure out who the other was… It was GARY… from the board…. How strange is that?????  Wow, it was so cool to sit there and talk to him – never met him before yet we knew all the same people.  We picked up the rest of the folks, 26 more I think then headed to Punta Sur.  Visibility was bad so Eduardo suggested we just head to Columbia Shallows.  Okay, get there, jump in and visibility is still bad but oh well… My plan was to stick close to Eduardo because he’s the master!  Christi learned quickly why I was so determined to choose this snorkel trip over all the others.  I just don’t think there’s another guide better than Eduardo.  It was my second trip with him and I’d love to go again.  Well, unfortunately, all the fishes must have been hiding because we were striking out.  Let me rephrase that, we saw fabulous things and incredible coral formations, but as far as the out of the ordinary things, we’ll just have to save it for another trip.  We did get to witness two stingrays mating.   Headed over to Plancar and watched Eduardo do his magic.  We ate lunch at Nachi Coom, nice beach club!  Last reef, Dzul Ha.  Got to see a huge spotted moray and of course all the other fabulous fish!  Okay, that’s it, time to go.  All in all, visibility was just plain bad this day, but it was all good.  Swam with the master in the big blue ocean, hung out on a big boat, got some sun while drinking beer! Can’t complain!  OHHHHH….. Gary did SEVERAL tequila shots on the way back.  What a man!  It almost made me puke watching him! (tequila and Robin are not the best mixer)  Gary, you and your family are awesome.  I’d like to try to hang out again!!!!!  We went back to the hotel, got dressed and headed to town to eat at La Choza.  Food was great then went for a round of mini-golf.  On the walk over there were heard “Hey, Wall Girls” we looked and it was the guys we met on the main boulevard earlier that morning at the Pro Dive Pier.  We chatted for about ten minutes then left.  I kept telling Christi how awesome this course was but no words can describe it.  You just have to see it with your own eyes.  Sally was in bed (it was almost 11:00) so Scott and Sunshine greeted us with at smile.  We visited with both of them for a while before hitting the course.  We were neck and neck the top nine.  Break… had to use the walkie-talkies to order some more beer.  Christi used a little combo English/Spanish/French to order the drinks… Scott understood perfectly!  We requested a little disco for the 2nd nine.  This is where Christi pulled out in front.  Yup when it was all said and done she beat me by one stroke.  That’s okay, I was kicking her A** in cards!  Well, we chatted for a little while with Scott then headed back to the hotel.  

Day Six
Julio graciously offered to take us to the east side of the island on Saturday, so that’s what we had planned!  Woke up and packed for the day.  Julio picked us up, we filled the cooler with Sol Cerveza and headed to the east side.  An adventure Christi had only heard about until this point.  First stop, Paradise Café.  OH MY GOSH!  The sun was out in full force, waves were crashing, Bob Marley was playing and we were soaking every ounce of it all up.  Ordered some Sol Cerveza, I chatted with Julio and Christi completely vegged out in the hammocks.  This is where she had the brainstorm to re-create this place (mini-style) in her back yard.  We all discussed how it would be done.  Poles would be cemented into the ground (duel purpose poles… they would hang the hammocks and serve as dancing poles once the lights go down and she throws one of her parties).  Hammocks hung, sand brought in (one bottle full straight from Cozumel).  What a plan!  Time to move on… El Mirador!  Took all the touristy pictures and gazed in amazement at how beautiful this place was.  Jumped in the car and moved on to a secluded beach.  We all hung out, drank beer, played in the water and chatted for a couple of hours.  Must move on though… Had to hit Coconuts!  We grabbed a table next to the cliff and began the creation of Drunk Coconuts.  You see, they had been making fun of me all week because I tend to nurse my beer.  It takes me forever to drink one beer.  So I kept saying “I can really chug beer if I’m playing a drinking game” so we thought there’s no better way for me to prove myself than to create a drinking game.  Got the rules established then it was time to play!  Julio was astonished…. Before we barely started on the first beer I was ordering another round.  He looked at me like “You’re not kidding about this fast drinking thing.”  Sure enough, I slammed the first one and the others followed.  Christi and Julio kept throwing doubles and making me drink.  Finally I got the darn dice and “pay backs are Hell!”  So, we all drank many beers, ordered some delicious nachos and enjoyed our time at Coconuts.  Julio thought it was hilarious that we needed a drinking game to drink .  As he put it “we just drink.”  Well, it was getting time to head back to the west side, so we packed it up and paid our tab.  The rest of the night we hung out with Carlos and Julio, ate dinner at Los Gavitos and I decided to do a night snorkel in front of the restaurant.  Julio went with me because I was too scared to do it alone and it was AWESOME!  Well, again most of the fishies were sleeping but we saw two lobsters and it was like defeating a fear of mine which is always exhilarating for me!  It started getting late so I called it a night.  Christi stayed up for hours chatting with some friends then called it a night.

Day Seven
Woke up to more rain so we decided to knock out all our shopping.  By the way, lots of the shops are closed in town on Sunday.  We managed to do some serious damage anyway!  After four hours shopping, we headed back to the hotel loaded down with bags then went straight to the beach bar.  Hung out with our friends and made our plans for our last night in Cozumel.  Julio picked us up at 8:00, I had made a reservation for myself to stay at Hacienda San Miguel the last night so on the way to town I checked in.  Felipe was visiting his woman (Stephanie) so we got to meet him.  Man, this place is so beautiful!  I had one of the large studios I think.  It overlooked the street and the courtyard.  We moved on to town square.  Great music, lots of people dancing and having a great time.  We ran into Felipe so he hung out with us for a while.  We started gravitating towards Prima Italian Restaurant and ran into Christine and her new hubby.  Felipe recognized them since Stephanie coordinated their wedding.  We all chatted for a while.  Finally, the three of us made it upstairs to Prima.  YUM, YUM, YUM….  Did I say YUM?  Next stop, Viva Mexcio!  Walked that way and wouldn’t you know it, we saw Christine and Hubby again (can’t remember hubby’s real name) so we stopped at the sports bar to have a beer, but not before Christi threw in her infamous pole dance!   Okay… now… Viva Mexico!  We arrived, lots of people there and it must have been around midnight so I know there are other happin’ places other than C&C’s after 11:00!  We danced, Christi entered the “go get” contest, but lost to England, drank, did the limbo, danced more… watched the Dos XX girls and guys perform, danced more then it was time to go.  Yup, by this time Christi and I were getting pretty sappy since we were leaving the next day.  Christi was dropped off at Sol Cabanas and I went to Hacienda San Miguel.  

Day Eight - Last Day :o(
We ate our last breakfast at Sol Cabanas, hung out on the beach, packed then it was time to go.  We paid our hotel bill, said all our good-byes to our new family, and headed to the airport – CRYING ALL THE WAY!  We sat at the airport bar drinking our last cervezas on Mexican soil…. For a trip that wasn’t suppose to be about drinking, we sure did a lot of it so we felt it only appropriate to finish it with Dos XXs in our tummies!  Off we flew, back to Austin, not hardly a peep was spoken the entire flight back.  We just sat back, closed our eyes and replayed the trip a million times in our head.  Soon as we were back home, we started planning our return trip… Date to shoot for…. July 27th.  It’s Julio’s 30th birthday and I heard there might be some Travel Notes regulars there at that  same time.   Not that we need a reason to return, but it was an excuse to tell our family, friends and boss of why we just spent 8 days in Mexico and within 45 days we want to go back!  

So there you have it… the best vacation ever.  Well, for me it was.  I think I’m safe in assuming Christi had a pretty good time too!  :o)