Cozumel

When someone says Cozumel, I hope your first thought isn’t, “That is where they killed people and put their heads on stilts in the town square!” So, that happened that one time, but when you vacation there, you are a long ways away from anything as scandalous or scary as that!

This is going to make me sound like a serious fatty, but my favorite part about Cozumel was the authentic food we ate! The mister, as per the usual, just got fajitas but I ordered tamales and a sopapilla that came with honey, nuts and apples on it! Commence intense chunky girl traits and show food pictures:

Pancho's on the pier

Best pico ever!!!

Tamales

Fajitis...Doug is boring.

The most delicious dessert I have ever eaten.

In Cozumel however, I also got to experience snorkeling.  It was fun but the waters were very crowded and I kept getting kicked in the face by other people’s flippers. I also looked upwards once to see a woman in a thong bikini! I didn’t look up again!  We saw some pretty fish, a wreck, a lobster and a crab.  It took me a while to get the hang of the snorkel.  The waves would come and I would try to swim against them because it was freaking me out a little that I was on the open ocean and when I fought the wave, I sucked in serious salt water.  Eventually I got the idea that you are supposed to just roll with the waves and let them carry you and then my snorkeling experience increased tenfold.

Cozumel was a lot of fun actually because the snorkeling was so early in the day that it allowed for time all afternoon to explore and shop.  Mostly we just browsed but it was fun to see all the things in the shops.  They had some cool water fountains and structures in the square as well as dressed up dancers and singers.  The water was very, very blue in Cozumel but in my opinion, not as clear as the water in the Cayman Islands. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very beautiful! We also found out from our dinner companions that the dock and all the shops on it are owned by Carnival. The shop vendors pay rent to Carnival to use the spaces.  They said they just asked the people on the pier and got all that information, so I have no way to verify the validity!  The day we ported in Cozumel, there were 4 cruise ships docked close to each other.  There were two HUGE piers and a ship was docked on both sides of each pier. It was pretty impressive to see such massive ships next to each other like that. The tourism alone must keep that island running.  I also learned that almost all Western Caribbean cruises port in Cozumel regardless of the cruise line, so I imagine business is good there!

Cozumel was very pretty and Doug got to use his Spanish speaking skills so that was a lot of fun. It was sort of a bitter sweet stop for us though because it was our last stop and we knew getting back on that ship meant heading home to cold weather! We had a lot of fun that day walking around and playing the tourist game, I would definitely go back if the opportunity arose!