Cozumel

Friday, June 18th – Cozumel

  

The Paradise wasn’t scheduled to dock in Cozumel until 1:00 so we could sleep late!! Bob and I went for breakfast in the buffet and Kent showed up a little later and joined us. The guys decided to spend the morning working out in the weight room. Laurel and I looked through the shops and then went to a talk on diamonds and gemstones in the Normandie Lounge. Laurel was interested in getting a tanzanite ring and just wanted to find out more information before she shopped in Cozumel.

Lunch for us was a buffet set up in the Elation Dining Room. Since we were scheduled to dock around 1:00 I guess it works out better to do a buffet rather than have menu orders. The food on the buffet was nothing special…I think we would have done just as well to go to the buffet on the Lido Deck instead. There was open seating and once again we found ourselves at a table with others we didn’t know. I like the idea of having assigned seating most of the time, but it was fun to meet and talk to others in situations like this. While we were eating we realized the ship wasn’t moving anymore. It was only around noon so we just assumed that we had stopped for some reason before heading to the dock in Cozumel. We were in the middle of the dining room and not by a window so didn’t realize until we heard the announcement from the cruise director that WE WERE DOCKED!! None of us could believe it so we all had to jump up and run to the window just to make sure!! Also at the dock was the Carnival Conquest which towered over the Paradise!

While Bob and Kent were gathering their scuba gear, I ran up to the Sports Deck to get a picture of the two ships side by side…it sort of gives you the feeling of being in a city with tall skyscrapers around you!

The Paradise was docked at the Puerta Maya pier and wow…has it changed since we were there in 2002. The duty free shops were still about the same right on the dock, but just past the dock was a large shopping area with lots of brand new stores!! The stores were built around beautiful open air courtyards with cobblestone walkways. We meandered through this shopping area till we found an exit to where there were taxis waiting.

Shopping area at Puerta Maya pier.

The four of us climbed in a cab and headed to Chankanaab Park. Cab fare was $10 for the trip for all of us…not individually. The entry fee at Chankanaab had just been raised shortly before our cruise and is now $12 per person. The guys wanted to do a shore dive at the park so we headed directly to the beach and set up camp in front of the dive shops (there were three.) As the guys were getting their dives arranged, Laurel rented some snorkel gear and we went into the water. Although there is a sandy area with lots of chairs and palapas at Chankanaab, the entry into the water is by rocky steps with a very rustic wooden handrail.

  

Laurel was trying to get her mask adjusted so I put my head in the water and floated off enjoying watching the fish underwater. After a few minutes I went back to see how she was doing, but she was no where around. I just assumed she had gotten frustrated trying to get used to the snorkel equipment and had gone back to the beach chairs. I got out of the water to check on her but didn’t see her on the beach. I did see Kent and Bob all suited up getting ready to start their dive. I grabbed my water camera and followed them into the water taking pictures of them diving below as I snorkeled on the surface above.

I had heard some people on the beach talking about a statue of Christ that was submerged in the water. I started snorkeling in the direction they indicated but never did find the statue. The water at Chankanaab is strange in that there are fresh water streams flowing into the salt water. The fresh water is much colder and it was very obvious when you swam through it. Besides being cold, the water was “blurry”…not cloudy or dirty, just blurry. It made me feel like I had Vaseline smeared on my mask when I would hit a patch of the fresh water!

After 15 or 20 minutes I started to get worried about Laurel. I still hadn’t seen her and I was beginning to wonder what was going on. I got out of the water and started walking up the beach. As I was walking I saw a group of people quite a ways out from the shore and there was Laurel right in the middle waving frantically at me! I stood and watched for awhile as the group would swim together stopping off and on to talk.

I assumed she must be OK so I retreated to my beach chair. The chairs at Chankanaab are hard plastic “recliners” that sit right on the sand…they are a curved shape and have no legs. Getting into and out of the chairs is not something that can be done gracefully…at least not by me! Once in the chair I just sat enjoying the view…trying to imbed the scene into my memory so that I could recall it in January when it is below zero and Minnesota is knee deep in snow!

I dozed a bit and when I woke up Laurel still wasn’t back! I rolled out of the chair and started walking down the beach toward the restaurant. On the way I met Laurel running towards me! She was so excited she could hardly talk! Somehow she had gotten right in the middle of a guided snorkeling group and they invited her to join them. As fast as she could talk, she was telling me about all of the fish that she had seen! She had also found the statue that I had looked for! She had actually been snorkeling for over an hour and was ready for her beach break!

  

While we were by the restaurant I checked out the list of drinks. I had considered getting one of the drinks served in a fresh pineapple, but settled for a piña colada instead which tasted wonderful! Back at the chairs, I sipped my drink while Laurel gave me the full report on her snorkeling adventure. Hearing Laurel talk about what a great time she had snorkeling was sort of funny. When I was making plans for our day at Cozumel, I had considered booking a tour with Eagle Ray Divers. The guys would have been able to do a boat dive while Laurel and I snorkeled. When I asked Laurel about this, she insisted that she didn’t want to do any snorkeling…so going to Chankanaab became “Plan B”. Laurel and I could have beach time while the guys did a shore dive. Now Laurel was the one enjoying the snorkeling the most!!

Unfortunately the guys weren’t thrilled with the shore dive at Chankanaab. Compared to Roatan, there just wasn’t much to see. A boat dive would have been much better for them, but maybe next time… Laurel was still anxious to show us what all she had discovered on her snorkeling tour so Kent and I joined her in the water. Being a Midwesterner, it still amazes me how buoyant I am in salt water. We were snorkeling in 20’ waters and never once did I feel the need to wear a life jacket!

The three of us made it out to see the statue of Christ and on the way came across the guide that had been showing Laurel around before. He was carrying bait and had a huge bunch of fish swarming him.  

I wished we could have spent a whole day at Chankanaab…there was so much more that we never had a chance to see or do. The park has a botanical garden and Mayan ruins (reproductions); a place to swim with the dolphins or sea lions, etc. We pretty much just stuck to one area of the beach and didn’t venture out to other areas of the park. The Conquest passengers had long since left the beach since they were sailing much earlier so by the time we left around 5 p.m. we had most of the park to ourselves.

On the way out of the park we saw an iguana running across the path…the guys were pretty excited since they hadn’t seen the iguana farm like Laurel and I had in Roatan. There were plenty of cabs waiting when we reached the exit and it was about a 5 to 10 minute ride back to the dock. I would have liked to walk leisurely through some of the shops on the way back to the ship, but once again Bob was carrying a load of wet scuba gear so he didn’t want to lollygag around.

We were back on the ship early enough that we could have made it to our 6:15 dinner seating, but instead we chose to eat at the Paris buffet instead. We knew it would be quicker that way and we wanted to save time for shopping on the dock. Later I saw the menu for the dining room and it looked like some great choices that we missed that night!! Kent, Laurel and Bob all decided they would make an ice cream cone “to go” and eat it as we walked around the shops. Oops…bad idea! They were not allowed to get off the ship with the cones so we waited while they quickly stuffed the last few bites into their mouths!

Laurel was in search of a tanzanite ring so when we got to the shops, we (Bob and I) just went our separate way. There wasn’t anything in particular that I wanted to buy and we just strolled in and out of the shops. All of a sudden right at sunset, mosquitoes came out in full force! The people in the shopping area could hardly walk as they tried to slap and swing at the mosquitoes! Since Bob and I weren’t really looking for anything special we decided to head back to the ship. Kent and Laurel said they bought the last of the insect repellent that was for sale in a drug store and by using it were able to stick around and do some more shopping.

Bob and I left a sticky-note on Kent and Laurel’s door telling them that we would be on the Lido deck. We had brought along large insulated mugs that we filled with ice tea and sat at a table outside the Paris restaurant watching the lights on the shore at Cozumel. Luckily we weren’t bothered by the mosquitoes there!! Some of the folks from Cruise Critic who had been on our tour in Belize wandered by and stopped to talk for a bit. It was fun cruising with people that I had “met” online…although we didn’t do anything together we seemed to run into each other fairly often on the ship.

Kent and Laurel met up with us a little after 10 p.m…she never did find a ring, but they had bought a few other souvenirs while shopping. The Paradise was scheduled to sail at 11 p.m. so we went around to the other side of the ship and watched as the last minute stragglers made their way back to the ship. Many were so drunk they had to have help just to walk down the dock! We watched as one guy did a “tight-rope walk” along the edge of the pier…we just knew he was going into the water, but he made it! I assume everyone made it back…we didn’t hear of anyone getting left.

As the last few passengers were getting onboard, we saw the Mexican folk band getting off. They get on the ship in Cozumel just long enough to do the evening show in the Normandie Lounge. 

We were amazed at how clear the water was next to the dock. Even at night from 10 decks up, we could spot large fish swimming by. Slowly the Paradise pulled away from the dock and headed out. Our first cruise two years ago had been during a full moon and I loved seeing the moonlight reflect on the ocean at night. This time there was no moon and the night was very dark.

The Mexican buffet was just getting started when we went back inside the ship. We sampled a few of the offerings and then headed down to our cabin to call it a night. Since tomorrow would be our last day, we made plans with Kent and Laurel to go to breakfast in the dining room rather than eat at the buffet. The nightly towel animal was waiting for us in the cabin when we returned along with chocolates on the turned-down beds. 

Bob and I were just drifting off to sleep when the phone rang in the cabin. It was Kent calling to remind us that we had to turn our clocks ahead one hour. Ugh! Losing an hour of sleep was not something I wanted to do and we debated about changing the plans for breakfast and just sleeping in. I decided we could sleep at home so we re-set our clock and decided to stick with the dining room breakfast idea.