Day 19: Cozumel, Snorkeling, Crazy Scooter & Margaritas in The Back of The Tow Truck
Today the plan was to visit the beautiful island of Cozumel. Chef Alexandra was very adamant about me visiting the island that she took the whole day off to take me there. I arrived at her place at around 9am and immediately we headed out. The plan today involved a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown Playa Del Carmen to Cozumel, a snorkeling session, renting a scooter and touring all the best places Cozumel has to offer.
Over by 15th Avenue and 2nd Street, we stopped off at a little juice shop where we enjoyed some delicious juices. In Mexico, there are a ton of juice shops offering fresh juices for you to enjoy. The prices are also a lot lower then most carbonated beverages. Why drink anything else when you can enjoy fresh juices at almost every corner.
We walked over to the ferry and we were immediately bombarded by tour salesmen offering different packages for Cozumel. Chef Alexandra enjoys a good negotiation! She is a lot like me. She has the business gene in her system and can’t help herself. You can see it in her eyes as she is out striking a deal. It’s too bad that I didn’t speak Spanish very well, I would have loved to have joined her on the action. She managed to get us a deal that was almost unheard of. So much so that I don’t even want to mention it here on the blog, just in case the guy who sold it to us manages to find out about it. The bottom line is that in Mexico, you can get some good deals if you are willing to do some negotiations.
We headed over to the ferry for the ride. We didn’t have to wait long before we got on the boat. Chef Alexandra and I managed to nap the entire way there. Right after arriving, we took a little walk in downtown Cozumel. It’s not as big as downtown Playa, but it did have a bunch of souvenir shops and the restaurants looked very good. We walked around for a bit and then headed to the dock where the boat for snorkeling was ready to pick us up. There were 8 other people joining us and 2 crew members who were very helpful with explaining all the information about snorkeling. I personally have never been snorkeling before. I was excited to see what the deal was all about. We were taken to two different diving locations and one was a lot deeper than the other. It was very interesting to see the different fish. I even got a glimpse of a sting ray that was scraping around the bottom of the ocean. The water was a little on the cool side but when you jump in, you get used to it and it starts to feel very comfortable.
After snorkeling, it was time to grab the scooter. We walked over to the downtown Cozumel scooter shop and picked one up. I was secretly very excited about getting the scooter because it was the closest I had gotten in years, to riding a motorcycle. I used to own a sport bike back in 2008 and that was one fast and thrilling time of my life. I know these scooters would by no way get you up to the speeds of a sport bike, but at least it was something. I jumped on the scooter and Chef Alexandra jumped on the back. To my surprise, the speedometer didn’t work. I am sure however, it didn’t afford me the excuse if I got pulled over for speeding. Regardless, I wanted to squeeze as much adrenaline out of this scooter as I could so I full-throttled it all the way down the road. Rafael E. Melgar Avenue, is a road that almost wraps around the entire island of Cozumel. We headed down the road with the scooter which was actually pretty fast. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what speeds we got up to because of the broken speedometer, but this little thing was doing a very good job passing cars on the road. We eventually ended up at our first destination, Mr Sanchos.
Mr Sanchos is a beach bar that offers water sports, a private beach and very strong margaritas! We ordered a couple with some shrimp quesadillas that were also very good! The beach was very empty and there were only a few people at Mr Sanchos. It was perfect for relaxing after a long snorkeling session. The waters were also very calm. After spending about an hour or so there, we jumped back on the scooter enjoying the views of the sea and beaches as we wrapped around the island.
We must have rode around for about 20 minutes until finally stopping off at Coconuts Bar & Grill. This place had an amazing view. The bar was elevated above a small cliff, overlooking the crashing waves against the huge rocks. We ordered two more margaritas and I almost wished we never did. Here is where the night started to get a little more interesting… The margaritas were the strongest I have ever had in my life. Now we were starting to feel a little tipsy…
After spending around 20 minutes at the Coconuts Bar & Grill, we walked over to the scooter as the bar was just about to close during sunset. I tried to start up the scooter and it wouldn’t start. It looked like the battery had died. I went upstairs to ask around for some jumper cables. The owner of the bar was very helpful and he called the scooter rental place to ask for some help. I ran back down to tell Chef Alexandra who was waiting by the scooter. “I got the scooter place on the phone, they are sending a truck over to pick us up”, she said. “Alright, lets go talk to the owner of this place because he has them also on the phone”, I replied. We walked back up the dark steps to the bar and sat down with the owner. He poured us another two cups of the killer margaritas. This time they were even stronger then before. After then, it was all over! We were really starting to feel the Tequila hitting us. After hanging around with him for a while, we saw the pickup truck show up to tow the scooter so we headed back downstairs fumbling. (Thanks to the killer margaritas)
The huge Styrofoam cups in which they served the margaritas in, were still half full. I helped the truck drivers pick up the scooter and put it in the back of the pickup truck. There was no room to sit in the front because it was a single cab tuck, so we asked if we could sit in the back bed which they gladly agreed to. The was amazing… The road was dark and we sat there in the back of the pickup truck as they flew down Rafael E. Melgar Avenue back to the rental place while sipping our margaritas, smelling the fresh ocean and laughing our heads off. It was pitch black and there were no lights on the road. The stars were out and the sky was clear. I have never seen the stars like this before. It was something else… After about 20 minutes of cruising in the back of the bumpy pickup truck, we ended up at the scooter place to drop off the scooter. Thank God for the ride back. I couldn’t imagine walking back to the scooter rental place along Rafael E. Melgar Avenue which didn’t have any cars or lights whatsoever. We headed over to the ferry after walking around downtown Cozumel as the Tequila effects seemed to amplify with each passing moment. Now I know first hand, the effects of good Mexican Tequila. When we got back to Playa Del Carmen, I jumped in a taxi and headed back to my place. As soon as I jumped into bed, I went straight to sleep.
A little side note as I end this post…
If you read yesterday’s post, you will notice that I didn’t post any pictures whatsoever. On this post you will also notice the same. There is a good reason for this, I explain tomorrow… Thanks for reading!