Day 11 - Cozumel - Part 1
I was woken up by Captain Mickey again and straight away jumped up out of bed and got ready for the day ahead - today we were in Cozumel, a place I had never visited before, so I was really looking forward to going ashore and checking it out. A quick phone call to the kids cabin made sure they were at least awake and hopefully give them a nudge in the right direction. In the meantime Tony and I headed up to Topsiders for our usual breakfast, and as we were eating we were joined intermittantly by one or other of our offspring, until we were all sitting there enjoying the morning sun. We had booked the Fury Catamaran Sail and Snorkel trip for the afternoon, but for the morning the plan was to just have a wander around the town and buy a few souvenirs. As we were enjoying breakfast, an announcement came over the speaker to tell us that because of rough seas our catamaran trip was cancelled, as were a few other of the water-based excursions. I was really disappointed as I was looking forward to this, and it seemed a bit strange as the seas appeared anything but rough at that moment in time, but maybe the powers that be knew something we didnt!
Once breakfast was finished we headed back to the cabin to prepare to leave the ship for the morning. We wandered into town, along a very long jetty, which led into a outdoor shopping centre, mostly consisting of souvenir type shops.
View from the shopping centre:
There were also a few living statues which were quite interesting to look at but who were charging 10 dollars to take a photo - they werent THAT good! However as soon as we arrived there we were hassled by every shop owner to enter their shop, and by car rental guys trying to get us to rent vehicles - I know the local people have to earn a living, and Im sure a lot of it comes from cruise ship passengers, but to be honest it was really off-putting and actually had the opposite effect on us - we avoided the shops with pushy salespeople and tried to whizz through the shopping centre area as quickly as possible! The kids were really freaked out by all the hassle from the locals, as this is something they had never experienced before. Unfortunately, and this is entirely our own fault, they have always spent their vacations in
Disneyland Paris or WDW, and therefore have a rather Disney-fied and therefore sanitised and unrealistic view of the rest of the world. This was real Mexico as opposed to the Epcot version, and they were certainly not used to the hassle we were getting while just walking about and minding our own business. Once we were down in the streets we were offered all sorts of things by the guys we passed, and not all of it was legal, and the girls began to complain that they didnt feel safe and wanted to go back to the ship.
I was determined to show them something of the real world, to make them appreciate a different culture and way of life, so we walked around the streets for a while and looked at the architecture and took a few photos.
Some interesting local art work:
They were still desperate to return to the Magic, and in the end we gave up and headed back. On the way back we bumped into Andy, Helen and family in the shopping area, and they were headed back to the ship for the exact same reason. So we took all the kids back to the ship and then decided to come back and have another look around ourselves.
A welcome sight for the girls
.
Great place to make a call:
My happy family waiting for me to stop taking photos!
Goofy hard at work:
At the last minute Stephen changed his mind and decided to come along, as I think at 19 he was a bit fed up with the US licensing laws and he knew he could at least have a beer in Mexico!
So Tony, Stephen and I and Andy and Helen headed back into the town along the sea front, stopping off at a Tequila tasting shop so that the guys could taste some tequila,
while Helen and I gave it a miss - I was very put off by the horrible larvae in some of the bottles. After the tequila experience we wandered for a while before stopping for a Mexican beer experience, corona with the lime in the neck of the bottle, at a bar called Fat Tuesdays!It was actually very pleasant sitting in the bar, which was located on a wide square.
After enjoying the rest we decided to walk back to the ship via Senor Frogs bar, as this was somewhere you had to visit when in Mexico. Senor Frogs was always a notorious hang out for ships crew when I worked for Princess Cruises, cruising on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, so I owed it to my illustrious past to pop in for a look around.
The Hard Rock Café:
The local transport:
On the way back there we noticed that the sea was getting really rough in the bay, waves were coming over the sea wall and a boat had been lifted over onto the road and smashed up. Seems the powers that be had been correct in their assessment of the weather conditions, and for that we can only be grateful!
We arrived at Senor Frogs and went upstairs
..underneath some very strange ceiling décor
But when we reached the bar area it was all very quiet and when we sat down at a table, no one came near to take our order, so we decided to give it a miss and after a quick photograph on the swings
we headed out and decided to visit Margaritaville instead.
Margaritaville had a much better atmosphere and location and we grabbed a table near the ocean and ordered margaritas as it would be silly not to really considering we were in Margaritaville!
The margaritas were wonderful, but on an empty stomach it really went to my head, and one was certainly enough! The guys got really brave and decided to get a tequila shot off one of the girls going around. This was caught on video by myself and was really funny! Even Stephen had a go, and after the tequila tasting in the shop, a couple of beers, a margarita and now the tequila shot, we even got him to smile for the camera, although it was the video and not the still camera so I have no proof for you all to see!
Apart from Margaritaville, which to be honest could have been anywhere, I was not overly impressed with Cozumel, mainly because of the pushy salespeople everywhere, and I certainly would not be wanting to rush back there anytime soon.