Day 5 - Cozumel, Mexico

Day 5 dawned and boy, was it hot in Mexico! Again, we leisurely ate breakfast and made our way off the ship to shop as our Carnival excursion wasn't until 11:00 a.m. Cozumel has a very nice outdoor mall right across the street from the port terminal. I'm sure this wasn't by accident. We picked up some souvenirs for the kids, went back to the ship to drop them off (it's so nice to dock and not have to tender back and forth)and then proceeded to the end of the dock to meet our tour leader.


This tour was labeled Clear Kayak and Snorkel Adventure. We met the rest of our group and then waited (for I don't know what!)for about 30 minutes in the blazing heat. I think maybe our guide was rounding up the 6-8 taxis that were going to transport us to the place we would begin.

Aaaaahhhhhhh! Crazy Mexican taxi drivers! At least they drive on the right side of the road (in Jamaica and Grand Cayman, they drive on the left), but still. I feared for my life the way they zoom around bicyclists and slam on their brakes at the last minute for someone driving slower than them. Wait. My husband does that, too. Obviously, though, we managed to arrive in one piece.

We arrived at a beach area that had a snack bar, drink bar and access to watersports equipment. Apparently, lots of tours go through there because we weren't the only one. Our guide sat us down in a classroom-style formation on the beach -- chairs in rows and everything -- and gave us our instructions for kayaking. We put on our lifejackets and set off from shore in our own clear kayak. This is kind of like a glass-bottom boat. The premise is that you can see through the bottom of your kayak to all the wonders of the sea without actually having to be in the water. But the reality? The bottom of the boat was kind of foggy and you couldn't see much of anything. The visual clarity was helped by putting some water in the bottom of the kayak, but for obvious reasons, we didn't want too much water. We kayaked for about 30 minutes, getting bumped into about every 5 minutes by the same two people that did not know what they were doing. Then we headed back to shore.


Part 2 of the tour was snorkeling which Tim & I always love to do. Again, a lot of hurry up and wait as we were issued our snorkeling equipment and then had to wait for instructions, etc. I just wanted to ditch everyone else and go! We were finally given the go-ahead and told to watch for our guide who would have a flag in the water and to stay close to him at all times. Um, it's kind of hard to see the flag when your face is in the water! The snorkeling here was good, but not great. The last cruise we went on docked in Cozumel as well and our snorkeling tour that time was awesome. The difference, I think, was that the previous tour took us far out in the water via boat, whereas this time we just waded out from shore. We didn't have nearly the depth of water which I think affects the number and types of fish you see. We did see one giant parrotfish, which was cool and quite a bit of coral. We were supposed to snorkel for 30 minutes, but I think we were out there for about 45 minutes to an hour, so I felt like I got my money's worth out of the trip, but by the time they called us in to shore, Tim was done. His mouthpiece leaked and he kept getting salt water in his mouth and he'd just had enough.

They also gave us coupons for one free drink at the bar, so we got that, packed up our stuff, got in a taxi and left. We could've stayed longer and enjoyed the beach, but we were ready to head back. We decided to go to Carlos & Charlie's across from the terminal for drinks and fish tacos. It was all good until we went to pay the bill and found out they no longer take American Express, even though their signs said they did. Tim hadn't brought his wallet with us, only the card, so he trooped back to the ship while Carlos & Charlie's held me hostage. Not really. While Tim was gone a conga line of drunken guests weaved through the restaurant while waitstaff poured shots of tequila in their mouths. Our waiter encouraged me to join in, but gee, I passed. Tequila shots are not my thing, especially from a bottle that has touched how many other people's mouths? Ewww. I know my brother-in-law, for whom cleanliness is an OCD issue, will agree with me here.

Finally, my knight-in-a-swimsuit arrived to rescue me. We headed back to the ship where, as we were boarding, we saw the difference in security measures between passengers and crew. Three female Carnival staff were pulled aside into a small room and were frisked from head to toe. They already have airport-like security (though not quite as strict) where you have to put all your belongings through a conveyor belt/x-ray machine and you yourself go through the metal detector. And you'd think they'd have more to worry about from the passengers that rotate every week than from the crew that lives there for months at a time, but apparently not. Tim also thought the things the crew members chose to buy on their days in port was interesting. One of the aforementioned female crew was getting on board with bags and bags of Cheetos and candy bars. Hadn't thought about it, but you can't get Cheetos on board. Lobster, yes. Cheetos, no.

So we left our last port of the trip and waved goodbye to Mexico. Tomorrow would be one last day at sea before home.

Towel animal of the day:

Can someone please tell me what this is? A ninja? A polar bear? A ninja polar bear?