Day 6: Cozumel

Day 6:  Cozumel, Mexico

After I sent yesterday’s blog MA and I went to dinner at our restaurant on the ship called the Magic Flute around 7:30.  I mention this because we met a couple from Washington, D.C., Royce and Ginny Walters.  Both work for the Dept. of Homeland Security.  They were celebrating Royce’s return after spending eighteen months in Bagdad as the liaison for HS.  Royce is a former Navy rescue swimmer and served in both Gulf wars.  Ginny is a recruiter for Homeland Security.  They were a delightful and interesting couple.

We arrived early this morning at Cozumel, an island off the Yucatan peninsula.  If there ever was a destination in the world that was designed for cruise ships, this is the place.  The Voyager of the Seas pulled up to the dock and began discharging passengers.  Another Royal Caribbean ship was right behind us and it also docked and discharged its passengers.  There were 3 other cruise ships docked at Cozumel at various other locations. I’m guessing about 15,000 tourists in all descended on this busy place today.

MA and I disembarked about 9am with no real plan to do anything specific.  I decided to just take my small Canon G9 camera and see what was out there. 

As we walked through the cruise terminal huskers, sales people, shop owners greeted us and urged us to check out their stores. This is constant no matter which way you turn. We just smiled, said good morning and continued our way out.  We got a cab which took us about three miles down the beach to what I thought was the old town.  We never found it.   We did find the souvenir shops, jewelry stores, cigar stores, and everything else stores.  Each store there also had sales people urging us inside to see their merchandise with “big discounts for cruise passengers”.  I did not marry a shopper, thank God, so we just walked around.

Fidel and I are good buddies

One small hiccup was being stopped by a young man, who looked like a local, asking us if we spoke Spanish.  Mindful of our experiences in Spain where this is way pickpockets get close enough to pick your pockets, MA turned to him and said, “No! Francés!”  He was definitely not prepared to hear that and we went on our way unscathed. 

After a nice walk we caught a cab back to the terminal and boarded the ship.  We thought it would be a great idea to get our bathing suits on and spend the rest of the day by the pool. 

Cozumel and the other destinations on this trip are great if you snorkel or dive.  Most of the shore tours are geared around water activities.  We just didn’t want to do the water thing this time.

Well, it’s about time to get ready for dinner so I’ll say so long for now. MA’s asking me to go to the pre-dinner show, a tribute to Elvis!  Oh well. Like I said, she’s not a shopper!  We have tomorrow at sea and we arrive in Galveston Sunday morning.