Cozumel Day 12 - Last Day

Woke to sunny skies and strong winds, so strong that the port was closed.  It wasn't hard to choose how to spend our last hundred pesos - an apple cinnamon burrito, Americanos at our favorite coffee shop and a couple coconut cookies for the road. Back to the hotel for our last morning on the balcony where we enjoyed watching the 3 resident pelicans playing in the wind. Packed up the last of our gear and checked out of our wonderful sea view room around 11. We headed to the airport early to drop off our bags  and planned to spend our last few hours having a leisurely lunch and tour south. On a typical day, the tourists are spread between land and sea but with the port closed, it seemed everyone had a rental car for the day. The added traffic turned our last tour into a bit of a scramble, with our departure time approaching, we had to opt out of lunch for a gas station search and leave enough time to return the rental car. Quick snack at the airport and an uneventful journey back to Vancouver with one last sunset in Dallas.

Link to all Pictures

Cozumel Day 11 - Breathing Blowholes

First stop today was Gordito's Burritos for breakfast, the apple cinnamon burrito is listed as dessert but V called it breakfast. G grabbed a couple snacks at Zermatt Bakery and we headed out for our island tour. We made several scenic stops and one wildlife stop along the way. The most interesting stop what we called the 'breathing blowholes'. We've seen several blowholes in all our coastal explorations but never actually heard them breathe quite like this (check out the video). We arrived at El Mirador at the same time as a couple tour buses but waited them out and got some nice pics of the natural arch. Made our way back to San Miguel for lunch at Diego's. Earlier in the week, a local recommended we go there and try the fish tacos, they were delicious. G spent a couple hours putting the dive gear back together and packing up while V hit the streets. Back to Rock n Java for dinner and this time we saved room for dessert.:)

Link to all Pictures

Cozumel Day 10 - King Crab (on a plate)

We headed down to the Secrets Aura / Sunscape Sabor resort this morning for our breakfast and presentation. It was your standard all-inclusive spread with eggs made to order, plus all the breakfast foods you could think of. The resort offered both an adults only (Secrets) and a family (Sunscape) option. Its one of the few resorts with a sandy beach and has fantastic snorkeling right out front (M this is your Cozumel destination). We picked up the rental car in the afternoon to do some touring for the remainder of the trip. Fair amount of rain today so didn't explore much more than new food options. Highlight of the day was a great king crab dinner. Slightly different picture of the crab this week from last. Hoping for better weather for an island tour tomorrow.

Link to all Pictures

Cozumel Day 09 - Vista del Mar

The Disney Wonder pulled into port around 6:45 followed by another two cruise ships. We had our breakfast delivered at 7:00 and enjoyed watching the town wake up. People started to trickle off the ships around 8:00. After logging a couple hours of people watching, it was time for V to venture out, funny how you can just happen upon the local bakery :). We had lunch at Burritos Gorditos, #1 on Trip Advisor and justifiably so, the burritos were huge and delicious.Wandered through a few shops on the way back to the hotel, then more time on the balcony. Nice dinner out at Ohana Cafe, which had the best Coconut shrimp G has every had. Leisurely walk back along the ocean front and a relaxing evening on out balcony to complete the day.

Link to all Pictures

Cozumel Day 08 - Last Dive Day

Julio - Our amazing guide

Mid afternoon yesterday we realized that 4 days of no activity was waaaaay too long and signed up for another day with Julio. For our second dive he suggested Chankanaab Shallows to look for the seahorse. We were not disappointed, two seahorses - a great way to finish our diving! We arrived back at SCC just in time to shower and bundle all the soggy, salty gear for our 1:30 checkout. Short taxi ride and we checked into our purple accented room at the Vista Del Mar, which has a fantastic view to enjoy for the rest of our holiday. G spent a couple hours taking apart the gear and giving it a good rinse and V went out to scope the local eats (priorities). After enjoying a week of mainly Mexican fare we Googled 'best burger Cozumel' and discovered Rock n Java for dinner. Seriously awesome burgers!!! Unfortunately, we were so full the amazing selection of desserts will have to wait until the next visit. Even Vicky could not find room for the chocolate cheesecake!

Link to all Pictures

Cozumel Day 07 - Flying Gurnard and Remora

Woke to the dark today, we set the clocks back an hour last night so it was hard to get motivated this morning. We were on the smaller boat again with Julio and another great crew. Two more fantastic boat dives, Paso de Cedral and one of our favorites from last time, Paradise Reef. G spotted his own Splendid toadfish during the first and we saw the resident on the second. Several turtles, a tucked away nurse shark and large Green Moray at Cedral. Cruising the sand between reefs at Paradise we saw a Remora fish and our first Flying Gurnard walking on the sandy bottom . The Gurnard is extremely rare, Julio has only seen 2 in ten years of diving in Cozumel. Right at the end of the dive, Julio challenged G to push the limits of his macro skill and capture what was maybe a centimeter long Sea Slug in the sand. Good thing V did well on air today because he was able to accept the challenge but did have to push the limits on available air (good to keep that buddy breathing skill fresh).
Spent the afternoon taking a few photos around Scuba Club and lounging in the hammocks. Enjoyed an amazing sunset over dinner and headed out for a later night dive. We saw the tiniest octopus, a juvenile drum and a good variety of the typical night life. Amazing day of diving.

Link to all Pictures