The short:
Cozumel is sooooo wonderful. It takes all of the best bits from other places in Mexico and leaves behind any negatives; it's not particularly touristy; it's beaches, sea and reefs are the purest and most untouched; you escape most of the tacky American pop-ups that appear on the mainland; and the people have a laid back "happy go lucky" attitude to life, and are super friendly and eager to help. It's the perfect size as, although it's an island, it's big enough with 100,000 people living there that you can find every thing you could possibly want and there is still plenty of choice. Plus, it's only a short 35 minute boat ride to Playa del Carmen. I personally think that it offered the perfect balance of lifestyle if one wanted to live on the coast in Mexico!
The long:
Monday:
We arrived in Cozumel shortly after lunch time and with slight cloud cover decided to skip the beach and explore the town.
We stumbled upon a church and I couldn't help but have a photo with the little authentic Aryan doll guardian angels that hung above the door.
Michael was peckish so we stopped off for a quick burger,
washed down with a splash of tequila.
I joke, I joke. I have to say I don't think I've ever seen a more unappealing option in the sandwich section before! We did stop off at a cute little restie at the edge of the square for some chips and a drink however.
Cozumel is home to all sorts of shops but there was an oddly surprising amount of jewellery stores. No matter what the shop sells however, the staff offer you everything imaginable. My favourite combination of goods that we were offered was "tequila, cigars, full body massage?" from a man standing outside of "Diamond International"... You can't help but wonder what they've got hidden in the back room!
We were probably not dear Pepe's favourite customers, taking advantage of their 50% off drinks all evening, requesting extra free bread and ordering 2 rounds of the cheapest main course on the menu; burger and chips... but we were pretty chuffed with ourselves when the bill came in at £12 each for 4 drinks and the most deliciously juicy burger (number 10 for Michael) served with truffle chips!
Tuesday:
We jumped out of bed super excited; SNORKELLING TIME! We found a "company" on the beloved Tripadvisor that had excellent reviews for snorkelling and wasn't a tourist trap, in that it's run by just 2 people that only take small groups on a private boat, giving you a more personal experience. It turned out to be just Michael and I and another young American couple that we got on with really well, so it was a lovely, relaxed, fun day.
After driving out on the boat for 20 minutes we entered Cozumel Reefs National Park boundaries, and found ourselves in the middle of the most crystal clear turquoise sea imaginable. It was incredible.
We snorkelled in 3 different areas. The first is known as the Nursery and is pretty shallow, at approximately 10 feet deep. This is where the water colour was the most beautiful and we saw the most different types of fish.
Our guide, Cuchi (cutest name in the world?), was clearly a water baby and an absolutely pro snorkeller, with the ability to hold his breath for up to 2 minutes and free dive to up to 80m which, aside from being unbelievably impressive, made the whole experience that bit more special, as he would just disappear down to the sea floor pointing out things for us to see and return with things for us to inspect.
^ That black crude looking thing is a sea cucumber, which we all had a good feel of. I was intrigued until Cuchi described it as a type of underwater worm, at which point I got a bit grossed out!
^ This beautiful thing is called a sand dollar (as if it needed to be any more charming), and can be found along the sea floor.
We saw loads of huge starfish, which I adore, although you wouldn't know by the fact that I think Michael and I might have murdered one!
I promise it wasn't on purpose! Cuchi brought one up to the surface for us to look at more closely, which Michael raised out of the water to get a better look at, to which Cuchi hurriedly told him to put back in the sea, seeing as it's alive! I then copped a feel and, not knowing what to do with it once I was done, thought Michael told me to "let go of it"... so I did. Cuchi shot off in a failed attempt to rescue the downward floating starfish before it reached the sand, as apparently you have to place them back the right way up. (I still reckon Michael did say that and just wanted to cover up his own killing). With a guilty conscience (sorry Mr Starfish!) and a lot of laughs at my expense, we hit our next snorkelling site.
The water was deeper at the second reef, at around 30m, which meant the water was a darker blue. Cuchi warned us before we hopped off the boat that we would be surrounded by fish when we got in the water; he wasn't joking, they literally swam all around you, constantly within reaching distance but never quite allowing you to touch them.
We saw different sea life at this reef, including humungous lobsters, barracudas and a shark!!! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you are), we only saw the shark in the distance, but that is definitely going to be my claim to fame from now on!
The corals were slightly more colourful than at the Nursery, with other types of fish popping out from within.
Cuchi became our very own underwater magician when he swam to the bottom, collected 2 huge shells and blew a bubble on his way up, which he then proceeded to swim through!
We hopped back on the boat to go to the third reef, at which point I felt it opportune for Michael and I to re-do our snorkelling selfie from Thailand 2 Christmas' ago.
The old:
The new:
Same same but different!
The third reef we snorkelled at was 80m deep, with less fish but plenty of coral formations to see.
^ Look at the size of that lobster! I wouldn't mind him for dinner.
By far the best part of our last trip though was seeing Cuchi swim all the way to the bottom and touching a large chest before coming back up; I find it amazing what humans can do!
After swallowing half of the ocean and having been in the water for just under 2 hours in total, it was time to get back to land and WARMTH! But not before getting the Pulitzer photo of the day:
It was definitely the best snorkelling that I have ever done, as I loved that we got to explore different reefs and sea depths, and all the life that hides within them. It was also great being such a small group rather than doing a standard commercialised tour, as Cuchi really explained things to us and his love for the ocean really transmitted, making it so much more enjoyable.
It's fair to say that we were a little tired after all that kicking, so thought we would reward ourselves in the most fitting manner by eating all of the wonderful things that we had seen that day (sorry fishies!). It was sushi time.
^ Unfortunately not champagne before you think I am livin' it large; just a very undrinkable glass of white wine served in a champagne glass?! The sushi, on the other hand, was pretty decent.
However, it turned out that we'd over ordered like mad and for the first time in god knows how long (bar when I was ill), I couldn't finish my food. I could barely finish half of it. I felt like I'd swallowed a brick. For whatever reason, Michael was in the same boat, so... we got a doggie bag!!! (I can feel you cringing mum, hahaha). So half our dinner was put on hold to be enjoyed tomorrow.
Of course, everyone knows that humans have 2 stomachs; one for savoury and one for sweet, so we couldn't possibly resist the ice-cream shop when we saw the most generous gigantic scoops of ice-cream that I have ever seen being given in my life! 1 scoop was literally 3. It was heavenly.
We sauntered down to the harbour and ate them whilst looking out at the boats and listening to the waves crash at our feet. You can't ask for much more!
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