We arrived in Cozumel at 9:30am. We were at the Windjammer buffet for breakfast again when the captain announced we were cleared to leave the ship. We didn’t have anything formal planned so we took our time finishing our meals then gathered our things from the room for the day.
It was sunny and humid and getting hotter. We wandered around the port shops near our ship which consisted of lots of tourist trinkets, clothes, booze, pharmacies and restaurants. We ended up grabbing a taxi to the downtown area for $8 and decided on-the-fly to hop on the ferry to Playa del Carmen. The ferry cost $13 each person, one way and took 45 min. The seas were pretty rough so there was lots of movement side to side and up and down but no seasickness for either of us.
After getting into the town, we bought some water and started walking down the main street, which was a very, very long tourist street. Eduardo spent some time working the shop keepers for a discount but none were having it. We definitely found that things were not cheap, at least the things he was looking at.
About halfway down, we stopped at a restaurant for over priced margaritas. I had a strawberry margarita and Eduardo had a margarita too with a beer bottle dumped inside it. The name escapes me but for him, it was more for the photo than anything else.
We spent the next hour or two walking almost to the end of the street. We popped into an H&M store to check out a cool shirt I saw in the window and stopped outside the Coco Bongo nightclub (a famous multi floor club) for a photo along the way. I ended up getting the shirt.
Somewhere on the street, we popped into an alley that had some artwork on display. We discovered after that fact that we weren’t supposed to take photos.
Near our return to the ferry we veered off the main strip and went for a stroll on the beach. The beaches were filled with seaweed that washed up on shore, piles and piles of it. So much that people were raking it into huge piles for tractors to remove it. Apparently, this happens at least once a year and only lasts for a week or two. Excellent timing on our part.
These are a couple photos right beside the ferry terminal.
On the ferry ride back to Cozumel, the seas were much calmer so we both dozed off for a 30min nap. Back on the Cozumel side, did a quick circuit of the shops downtown to compare prices, which still weren’t cheap enough for Eduardo to make a purchase. Since our time in Mexico was nearing an end, we went back to ship by taxi.
The timing worked out well as we had just under an hour before dinner time at the main dining room. Tonight, Eduardo had the pork chop and I had the lasagna.
We didn’t have any entertainment scheduled for tonight so we went for our first hot tub of the trip. We started off in one of the tubs near the main pool, but it wasn’t very hot. It ended up closing at 7pm so we headed over to the cantilevered ones near the solarium, which was a much better temperature. We spent about an hour soaking and watching Cozumel disappear as we set sail for our next stop.
Still looking for something to do, we decided to got watch the aqua show again. We managed to find seats right near the stage just outside the “splash zone”. While we were waiting for the show to begin, the ship was rocking quite a bit. So much so that the water was sloshing out of the theatre pool. 5 minutes before the show was to begin, they cancelled it. So, we headed to the promenade for a snack and browse our phones for a bit. The seas remained rough and the side-to-side movement could be felt a lot. At 10pm we went to the Amber Theatre, which is the main Broadway-style theater, to watch the Love and Marriage show. Three couples competed: newlyweds, 25 years married and 54 years married. All the couples were pretty funny, depending on the question.
After the show we went to bed. The seas continued to be really rough. We felt the ship move all night which didn’t bother me as I like the rocking motion…it helps me sleep. At times the waves would crash into the hull and it felt like airplane turbulence. In the morning when the captain made his usual morning announcement that we were free to go ashore, he mentioned the Norwegian Cruise Line ship that had followed us from Cozumel decided it was too rough to dock so they skipped Roatan and had an extra sea day.
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