Cozumel is world-famous for its sea life. People fly here from all over to scuba dive and snorkel along Cozumel's amazing reefs. I thought it would be a shame not to see some of these reefs while we were there! I even considered taking scuba diving lessons at the U. of I., if you can believe it, but in the end I decided that was just too expensive.
I had read that the best reefs can only be accessed by boat, so most people recommended taking a snorkeling cruise with some boat company. I discovered that there was a company that would pick up snorkeling passengers from the pier at the El Cozumeleno hotel, which was very near to our Villa.
I tried to convince my family to go on this snorkeling trip, but most opted not to. In the end, I could only muster four of us--Matthew, me, Kevin, and my dad (who is crazy about snorkeling). I reserved our spots on the boat with a credit card in advance, but I was supposed to show up in person early and pay the balance in cash. In order to avoid having to go early in the morning, I decided to drop by Saturday afternoon since we had to walk down there to pick up a taxi anyways.
I didn't know where the dive shop was, so I marched into the hotel lobby and asked the lady at the front desk. They made kind a big fuss over it, but eventually showed me to the dive shop. I guess they don't like non-guests to come into the lobby. (El Cozumeleno is a VERY fancy all-inclusive resort.) I was supposed to have walked up from the beach rather than go through the lobby--oops! No one told me that! Michael and I learned what it felt like to be basically thrown out of a fancy, expensive hotel. I guess they could tell we didn't fit in with that crowd. ;)
Anyways, on Monday morning we headed down to the pier (and were careful to NOT go through the lobby, of course.) The boat picked us up, then traveled a ways down the island and picked up two more passengers and the dive master. I was excited to only have six people on the snorkeling tour--it was virtually a private tour! They took us to three separate locations. Sadly, I have no pictures at all--we don't have a waterproof camera, and decided not to risk ruining our normal cameras for the above-water shots, so we didn't bring one at all (the shots of Kevin in snorkeling gear were taken at the beach near the villa).
The sea was so, so clear--perfectly blue and green. We even saw a dolphin jump out of the water as we were riding along!
First we snorkeled around the "Little Sky", which is an area with tons of HUGE starfish and a few coral heads with colorful fish. It was pretty shallow, but had a strong current. I was totally enthralled, and only noticed we'd lost Dad when the dive master called for us to come up at the end. He had gotten a bit disoriented (he has bad eyesight, and had put a couple of old glasses lenses in his snorkel mask, but still couldn't see great) and lost the group (the current was pretty strong, like I said), so he had waved to the boat to come pick him up early. After that, Matthew told Dad he would make sure to stick with him so he didn't get lost.
Next we went to Palancar and Colombia reefs, which were both amazing. Besides the fascinating coral formations with purple sea fans and several types of coral, we son TONS of fish. Some of them would swim right up to you and along side of you. Matthew said a barracuda swam right in front of his face. We saw three different sea turtles, huge grouper fish, a nurse shark, and lots of other colorful fish. It was totally mesmerizing. We were snorkeling for like 2 or 3 hours total, but it went by really fast!
On the last dive, though, we had a bit of excitement when the boat pulled up. The current was very strong and pulling us into the boat. My dad ended up *under* the front of the boat for a moment--which was scary for him and for me! I saw him go under and reached out to grab him, but my swimming is really not good enough to pull up someone else, so soon I was under the surface too. I was fine, although I swallowed a lot of sea water. My dad couldn't get a good grip on the side of the boat and ended up drifting to the other side of the boat, with the current pulling him away. The captain had us hurry and get in and then turned the boat around to pick up Dad. He was tired and flustered by now, and ended up slipping and falling off the ladder as he was climbing up. Poor Dad! Unfortunately, he lost the lenses in his snorkel mask when that happened, which meant that was the last snorkeling he could do on this trip. (Which is kind of funny, incidentally, because a few years back my Dad was in Cancun and lost his glasses to the bottom of the ocean on a sailing trip. I guess it's just tradition now that every time my dad is in that area, he has to leave a glasses "offering" to the sea gods.) But he did make it back into the boat all in one piece, which we were very glad of! He said he really enjoyed the snorkeling, but next time would rather take a "tamer" tour on a bigger boat with steps instead of a ladder.
They took us to a pier and tied off while we ate some boxed lunches. They had fed us fruit and soft drinks in between each snorkeling dive, and by the time I finished lunch I desperately needed the bathroom. Seeing no alternative, and knowing I could not hold it for the hour long ride back to the other side of the island, I asked if I could get off the boat. Luckily, there was plenty of jungle foliage around to hide me from view!
When we got back to the Villa, we found the rest of the family eating lunch, and ready to head out for some swimming. We played around in the ocean for a bit, and managed to lose my brand new globe beach ball. The wind was really blowing, and despite Kevin's valiant attempts to catch up with it, the breeze took it right out to sea. Ah well--it was fun while it lasted. (Actually, when we got back from Mexico, my mom mailed me a brand NEW globe beach ball because she's so nice. Thanks Mom!)
We then did some more playing in the pool. We discovered that the pool had a strange type of entrance--steps, followed by a VERY steep ramp. Several people slipped on the steep floor the first time they entered and, fueled by lots of silliness and laughter, we decided to try "surfing" down the ramp as a group. My mom took some pictures of us when we asked, but I think she thought we were crazy. We also choreographed some fine synchronized swimming. For some reason, no one wanted to take pictures of that--maybe they were too intimidated by our amazing artistry.
Yes, we were all way too old for this kind of silliness, but it was so fun to just play with my siblings! We get a special kind of silly when we are all together.
Thursday was our last day in Cozumel. We debated going and doing something elsewhere on the island, or back on the mainland--there's all kind of things to see an do around there--but in the end, we decided just to stay put and enjoy or lovely villa and our lovely beach for our last day.
It was loads of fun.
