Crusan with Susan

2014-12-11 Cozumel:

While eating breakfast, we got a kick out of this tiny barge. Kept watching it to see if it was going to sink.

This is a port Angie and I had been to many years ago on her Graduation reward cruise. The port didn't look anything like I remembered. I thought we were right by town instead of in a boarded off port area. It did have a lot of duty free shops.
Loved the cigarette machine with all the warnings on it.

Restaurant by the docks.

more shops

even fake Aztec buildings.

nicely landscaped

and lots of colorful things.

Even Christmas decorations.

Jane posing with the Christmas tree.

Near the taxi stand.

Carolyn and Jane wanted to shop around. Angie and I were looking to get out and find some real Mexican food. We found the taxi stand and listened to their offer to take us on an island tour and to a restaurant for $25@. Another couple was interested, too, so the 4 of us went. I was a bit surprised and annoyed when he drove about 5 minutes and took us to a Tequila distillery. The tour did turn out to be pretty interesting, though, even though I had been to a much bigger one in Puerto Vallarta a few years ago.

Back on our ride through town.

Love the colorful buildings

and the Christmas decorations.

They even have a Sam's Club.

typical side street in Cozumel.

sculpture in a round-about.

on the other side of the island.

We asked him to take us to a real Mexican restaurant for lunch. Even asked him if this was the kind of place he'd take his family to. He, of course, said yes. Imagine our surprise when we got in there and saw Mac and cheese, fish sticks, chicken wings, pizza, bagels and cream cheese, ... ! A bus pulled up then and we quickly snuck out. Then we had to find the driver---who was apparently with the other bus drivers probably laughing about us stupid tourists.

He was pretty quiet from then on. Not much of a talking tour, but the sights were pretty---all taken while riding in the car.

Should have gone to Coconuts.

Another tourist trap.

shoreline.

Wouldn't mind snorkeling here.

Looked like these places would be easy to reach by rental car.

more beautiful shoreline.

took a picture of this sign to remind me of the area in case I'm back here on another cruise someday.

Even inland had interesting views. Reminded me of the Everglades.

I liked how they had a "highway" and an outer road.

Where Angie and I had gone when we were here before. A beautiful beach. Snorkeling was so-so, but there were a lot of purple fan coral.

Originally I had wanted to go to Chankanaab National Park, but taxi ride and entrance fee probably would have been about $40@ and I knew Jane wouldn't let us pay for her and Carolyn probably wouldn't have wanted to pay that much. Sounded like a really neat place to hang out at a beautiful beach, walk around some gardens, snorkel, get some refreshments.

Our driver finally took us to a nice restaurant back in town and said he'd be back for us in an hour. The place was really nice, not too expensive, food was good, but our service was terrible. We got the distinct impression we weren't too welcome. Even after we finally got waited on and ate, we waited forever to get our bill. By then, we were anxious to pay and leave so we just split the cost with the other couple. Without thinking, I gave them cash for our half .

Neat scene they had set up by the door.

the Restaurant from the street. Yes, our taxi driver was there and none too happy. I guess he'd been waiting for awhile. Then came the panic! I realized I used most of cash for lunch (had planned to charge it) and didn't have enough cash for the taxi (no charge allowed). Here we were begging the other couple to float us a loan and being so embarrassed! They were very nice about it and fortunately had enough cash for us, too.

We went straight back to the ship and Angie ran the cash up to their cabin. We then spent about an hour watching people come back on the ship. It was rather interesting! Our room was directly one floor above one of the walkways back onto the ship. Great location to people watch. Occassionally someone would see us and wave wildly.