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Cozumel Island
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Cozumel Trip Report Left DFW on Friday 4/20 at around 9:15 on Champion Air for one Glorious but
all too short week in Coz. OK flight, tho’ of all the charters I’ve flown, I
swear their seats are closer than any others. I have short legs, and I was about
to develop major cramps by the time we landed. Arrived in Coz around 11:30, tho’
it was 10:30 there. Coz does not participate in that stupid concept known as
DST. Got to the Playa Azul around 11:00. Room not ready, so we changed and hit
the beach. Wow, what a view. Not even noon, and I am on the beach, cold one in
hand, listening to the waves…….ahhhhhhhh. Had lunch at the Playa Azul Beach
club next door. Good food, a little pricey…nachos, guac, couple of cokes for
around $12. Room was ready around 3. Wow. Ground floor room, could step from our
patio to the pool deck, and what a view. Later I discovered the view from the
upper floors (3 and 4) was even MORE awesome. I know several of you out there
were interested in pics of the Playa Azul. Email me……I took tons………I
cannot say enough about this hotel. Mrs. twelvevolt and I will stay NO WHERE
else now. More about hotel in later installments…….. Got cleaned up and took
cab to town to get our car from National “Screw-You-Around” Rental Car. OK,
it you wish to skip the part where I flame the hell out of National Car Rental,
please skip the rest of this first installment. This is the only negative thing
that happened to us all week. So, now that you have been forewarned, here
goes………. Trip Report Part II - Dzul Ha and the Wild, Wild ride........... Saturday: Up around 8 am, having breakfast on our patio……juice and
pastries from Chedruai….trying to decide which is the most brilliant blue I
have ever seen…..the sky or the ocean…….I was totally thrilled by the view
from our patio…till I went up to the third and fourth floors….WOW!!!!!! My
one piece of advice about the Playa Azul is to get a room on one of the upper
floors, that is if you are really into the view thing. After eating, we grabbed
all our snorkle stuff, and headed out for Dzul Ha. Wore our dive skins that
morning….mostly because of all the reports of the thimble jellies we had read
about. Mrs. twelvevolt liked the skin because it kept her warm…..I just got
hot in the thing. Anyway, saw no jellies, but TONS of fish. There was one big,
coral covered rock formation that I started counting different types of fish
that I say, and I lost count after I got to twenty…….really a great snorkle
experience. The current was fairly stiff, north to south. Speaking of
currents……can anyone tell me how the current can be north to south there at
Dzul Ha, and south to north at our hotel??? Mystery to me…..anyway, we spent a
couple of hours there, snorkeled twice, and got in the car to drive over to the
east side. Stopped and checked out the new beach club, Mr. Sanchos. It was ok,
but was too "noisy" for us. Looked like a beach club for cruisers for
sure. But then, I guess we are getting kind of "old and crotchity".......grin.
We still like the Nachi Cocom better. Started to stop at Bob’s Marley bar for
a margarita, but was too crowded. Drove on to Mezcalitos. Stopped for lunch. We
split a cheeseburger and some guac. Both were awesome. So, of course, were the
margaritas. They are some of the best, if not THE best on the Island. And they
definitely get my vote for the strongest!!! So, we just vegged out for awhile,
then back to hotel and camped out on the beach for awhile. Went to town for the
evening, lots of activity on the plaza on Saturday night too. Nothing to compare
to what we saw Sunday, but still lots of locals. Love to watch those guys spray
paint those pictures. Really cool to watch. Had dinner at Casa Denis. Always
good. Mrs. 12Volt had the lime soup, pretty good but once again pales in
comparison to that served at El Moro. I had some kind of pork Yucatan style, was
very tender and great. Couple of cokes, got out for about $11. Walked around the
plaza, I had to have my “churros fix”, then back to hotel and zonked. Off on the Arrecifes, and my FIRST Shark!!!!!! Monday: Slept in a little on Monday – woke up at 8:00. Had another breakfast of pastries and juice on the patio. Once again a sky so blue it almost hurts to look at it. I had breakfast with my sunglasses on, it was so bright outside. Went to plaza in search of I-net service. Found a place behind and upstairs from Fat Tuesday. Was ok – it had a/c and was like, $4 for fifteen minutes. Do not go here to do your email. We went to the Calling Station later on – they were only 10 cents per minute, minimum of $1.00. MUCH more reasonable. Anyway, after we sent a few emails to some amigos back home, we headed out for the Nachi Cocom Beach Club. We went here a couple of times last year……really liked it. Quiet, very nice beach, good food……but then we heard they were charging $10 per person. We thought we would go and check it out. We pulled into the parking lot, and saw a sign that said $10 adults, $5 kids. So we went on in, saw some cruisers, but found a couple of lounges under a palapa down the beach. Laid out our stuff, and no one ever tried to charge us. So, we did the reading/sunning/swimming/eating thing for the rest of the day. Food note: The guac here is as good as we have had on the island. The nachos were really good too, but the salsa does have a bite!!! Great for me, but mrs. twelvevolt had to take it easy on it. Back to the hotel, cleaned up and back to El Moro for dinner. Mrs. 12V had the sopa de lima again, and I had shrimp veracruz………shrimp cooked up in a tomato based sauce with onions, peppers………muy delicioso………and the biggest danged shrimp I have ever seen. Do not, and I repeat DO NOT miss this restaurant. Back to hotel, and sat out on the beach looking at the stars. An awesome sight indeed, especially if you are used to the bleached out, light polluted skies here in the states.Tuesday: Up early this morning, more juice and pastries, and off to the pro-dive pier to meet the Arricifes snorkel boat. Boat was late, got there about 9:30. We pier-hopped down the coast, picking up other passengers at the various hotels. Wound up with about 20 on the boat. Two of the crew, Edwardo and Chuco, remembered us from last year. (Probably because most of the passengers last year stiffed the crew tip-wise, and it pissed me off so bad I know I over-tipped, but I did not want them to think all Americans were arrogant, snobbish a__holes…..OK, OK, I will get off my Ugly-American soap-box). It was really nice that they did tho……..Anyway, all the way down the coast, I continued to observe heavy concentrations of the thimble jellies. Good thing we brought our dive-skins. As we neared our first stop, we started putting them on. Several people asked us if we knew something they didn’t. I told them about the jellies, but as we got further south I did not see any more, and did not see any at all the whole time we were in the water. I took my skin off (was getting hot) but mrs. twelvevolt kept hers on.….she always got a little cool in the water. First stop was at “Second Sky”, lots of starfish, fish, and……..MY FIRST SHARK!!! About 4 feet long! WOW! Was I excited!!!!! OK, OK, it was a nurse shark. But hey, to a land lubber like me, it was very exciting. But, big brave shark that it was, the minute it saw us it took off for parts unknown. But I hung back of the rest of the folks, and sure enough, he returned a few minutes later. It tried to hide down beneath a coral formation, and a couple of people who had stayed behind with me, we went down to check him out. Touched (very briefly!) his tail, then rejoined the group. Next stop was the Punta Sur reef, which we did not do last year. Wow. I mean, like wow. The most awesome coral formations I have ever seen. Fan coral, HUGE staghorn corals that looked like trees, reaching almost to the top of the water. Not a lot of fish, but the many types and the vastness of the coral formations more than made up for it. Wow. Then on to Columbia and Palancar. Mrs. twelvevolt got a little nervous when we drifted over the Palancar reef, and saw the drop-off into the “abyss”…….I thought it was really cool………Edwardo and the rest of the crew really work hard to make sure everyone has a good time and enjoys themselves. This year, we had a pretty “serious-snorkeling” group….so there wasn’t a lot of partying going on. But, once we snorkeled all the reefs, and headed for lunch at Nachi Cocom, everybody did kick back and enjoy a few cervezas………..The buffet at Nachi Cocom was really pretty good……not worth the $11 they charge everyone else…..but pretty good after a full morning of snorkeling and swimming with the current and all. Met some really nice folks on the boat, all agreed to meet at Dzul Ha Thursday morning. Dropped everybody off, back to the pro-dive pier, took pics of the crew, and drove back to the Playa Azul. Cleaned up, went back to the Plaza. We were pretty tired, a full day, so we just snacked for dinner and back to Playa Azul and just crashed. I really recommend the Arrecifes if you really are a “serious” snorkeler………Great boat and Edwardo is simply the best. Lodging Reviews
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