Relaxation

Once we finally got to Cozumel, it was very relaxing. It's a long haul to get there, however. You fly to Cancun  (which for us was 2.5 hours from Spokane to Phoenix and then 4.5 hours from PHX to Cancun) and then take a shuttle to Playa del Carmen (about 50 minutes) then you board a ferry to get to the island, which is about 30 minutes. When we got there, we had a little over an hour before the ferry so we had time to grab dinner and relax by the ocean, so that was cool. It was dark when we got to Cozumel, so we didn't really get the full view of the beauty until the next day, but let me tell you it's so gorgeous there. Blue water, sunshine, sand, palm trees....

I didn't end up taking a ton of photos because, well, we didn't really do much. Most days were spent sitting on the beach, me reading and Erik snorkeling. I did go snorkel for an hour one day which was awesome. So many pretty fish and the water was so warm and clear. Unfortunately it was rather windy where we were, so I didn't feel super comfortable snorkeling any other days. That's okay, I was perfectly content to sit and read. I think I read something like six books on this trip. I cannot express how wonderful it was to have my kindle instead of six separate books. Wonderful.

Our resort was all-inclusive, which is something we usually stay away from. It's usually expensive and we aren't big drinkers so needing to be able to knock back margarita's all day long isn't really a big perk to us. However, the opportunity to have one with some nachos while sitting on the beach in the afternoon, I'll admit, was really nice. Anyway, this one was fairly reasonable and we couldn't find any resorts on Cozumel that weren't all inclusive. The buffet was surprisingly really good. The food was excellent and had such a variety of choices that there was always something you liked. They had two fancy restaurants that you had to make reservations for, which we did two nights. and those were excellent too.

Because we had a great beach with awesome snorkeling, along with great food, we really had no need to leave our resort. We did, but only twice. One day we decided to do some walking and shopping, we made it not too far out of our resort, found what we needed and decided it was too hot and we wanted to go back to the beach, so we did. There is some great shopping in downtown Cozumel and also Playa del Carmen, but we didn't ever make it there! Erik hates shopping and we've been to Mexico enough times already that we really don't need anything from there.

The other day we left the resort was because we'd honestly had enough of just sitting around. Yeah, I'm almost embarrassed to admit that by this time in the trip, I was ready to come home. Not necessarily ready for the cold again, but ready to see my girls and get back into my normal life. I shouldn't be embarrassed, though, it just means we have a good life if I'm ready to leave vacation to get back to it.  But anyways, we decided to rent a scooter/moped and drive around the island to see some different beaches. It was really fun. Erik drove and I rode behind him, we got to wear the goofy scooter helmets and dodge traffic on our way out of the busier "town" traffic. Once out of town, it was like this scenic byway road that ran along the beach for quite aways. The water was so beautiful and the beaches were cool--they had lots of rock formations that reminded me of hardened lava and some great succulent plants. Unfortunately there were some areas with lots of trash, too, which was rather disappointing. We tooled around most of the day, stopping at a beach side restaurant for a lunch of shrimp fajitas before heading back. It was a great break from our beach sitting.

Our second night, we went down to the beach to watch the sunset. The cruise ships dock right in front, which was cool except for the fact that they blocked a better view of the sunset. Oh well. And yes, it's windy, I didn't style my hair like that.



Sunset.





A little more sunset

Before dinner at the fancy Mexican place

A beach we saw on our scooter day

More beach

some of the cool succulent plants we saw

Despite the clouds, it was still warm, not too hot, actually perfect. I ended up getting sunburned on this day.

the cool rocks

waves crashing into cool rocks

more waves

Erik in front of waves

Me on this cool rock formation we climbed up on. There were blow holes and little craters all along it, you had to be careful not to fall in one or twist your ankle! It was pretty cool, though.

Overall, we had a great time. It was soo good to get away from the normal hustle and bustle pace of life and just relax together.