Well, it's not the Ritz

January 8, 2019 to January 9, 2019

More like a Ritz cracker

Ok, so it's definitely not the Ritz, but it was quiet and surprisingly not so bad at our little Airbnb last night. We managed to sleep in until 8:00 this morning and awoke refreshed and ready to see what the big deal about Cozumel is. First things first, we rode into town to find a Starbucks, thinking that their wifi would surely be better than what we found at our place. I was hoping to get the pictures from yesterday up while we had coffee and muffins. Well, we had coffee and muffins, but the wifi was terrible! Possibly it had to do with the many many Americans who had just gotten off a cruise ship who were standing around sipping their morning brew and using it all up! Oh well. We finished up and headed out to check out the malecon. We found an interesting scuba sculpture and also the Cozumel letters so we were able to get that out of the way.

We were looking for a place to lock up the bikes while we checked out dive shops, but there didn't seem to be anywhere to put them. I asked a police officer and he pointed us to around the back of a building, but when we got there we couldn't find anywhere to safely lock them, so ended up walking with them - not the most fun. By this time (10:30) it was getting pretty warm so we were both feeling a touch cranky. Thankfully, we found a shop and spend a fair bit of time checking out snorkel masks. I was looking for a full faced one, but unfortunately my small face made it a no go. However, we both found masks that fit well. They didn't have any good snorkels or cases for the phone, but just down the street was another shop where we found both. They also pointed out a good spot that we could go to easily to work on our beginning snorkelling skills.

Happy with our purchases, we rode back to our place and had a quick lunch before packing up our swim things and heading the short 4 kms to the beach area.

It was a rocky entry and the waves were really pushing us around, but once we got into the water with our faces down, we were amazed at the fish we could see. Jim was using the GoPro and I had his phone in the case, which worked really well - only problem is I didn't seem to be taking pictures! Oops! I need to work on that part, lol! We did get a nice selfie to prove we were actually in the water!

After our swim, we sat at the bar under an umbrella to dry off and enjoy the view. As we sipped our drinks, we watched the clouds drift by - some of them very dark. Sure enough, the rain started up again and we laughed as we watched it pour down on the water.

Right before the rain started - there's a line of snorkellers heading over to a boat just out of the picture

There was a break in the action and we quickly made our way over to the larger restaurant with a large palapa to order some food and wait out the rain. We enjoyed our time and waited as long as we could unti the rain at least slowed down. We decided it was as good as it was going to get and went out into the wetness to ride back.

What a fun ride! I wish we could have taken out the phone, but it was too wet, but honestly, it was just the most fun ever! The puddles along the way were huge and we rode through the warm water that came up to our pedals many times. The traffic was polite and not a problem so we just laughed and rode through the wet wet roads until we came back to our little place where we stripped off all our wet gear, hopped into the shower and dropped into bed for a late nap. No big plans for tonight, but tomorrow will be another day for snorkelling. We will ride out to another beach we have heard about to work on both our snorkelling and my picture taking skills!

Waking up without the alarm is kind of nice, I gotta say. Before we left on this trip we were becoming the king and queen of sleeping in - getting up a little later each day it seemed. But on tour, in this heat, up early is the only way we can effectively deal with it, so on days like this it's nice to sleep in until 8:00 or so. We decided that we would stop at Oxxo to get some juice and snacks and then ride out for a while before returning to another beach to check out the snorkelling there. It was a perfect morning to ride - not too hot at all and seemingly not windy (oh how easily we are deceived!). We didn't want to do the entire 60km loop around, so just roads out 20 km before turning around to head back. Ah well, that's when it got fun because that "not so windy" part turned out to have been a nice tailwind, which of course, meant a nice headwind all the way back! Thankfully we pulled off at one point to check out a beach that was not privately owned and have our juice and muffins. It was not bad but a bit rocky to try wading in, so we finished our snack and headed to Corona Beach (yes, it's actually called that). They had a nice entry into the water and we enjoyed paddling around and seeing lots of coral but not much fish. I had better success with my mask today (yesterday it leaked) and we both really enjoyed the sensation of just floating there face down and seeing what there was to see. It was a pretty windy day (as we had already found out!) and so the waves were pretty rough as well. Not sure if this was the reason there were not a lot of fish or what, but it was still fun. We finished off by sitting under a palapa and having more nachos and beer before heading back to our place for a nap before dinner. It was a LOT more work getting back, so we were both pretty pooped.

Ya gotta have a Corona at Corona Beach, right?

We could sit and watch this scene for hours on end

Dinner was at a little place just around the corner where the waitress' little 5 month old baby girl was in attendance. We enjoyed oooing and ahhhing over her although I'm not sure she was totally convinced about us. While we ate, we could see dark clouds gathering and we were sure that we would get drenched on the way back, but no. For once the clouds were headed the other way.

Back in our room, we spent some time packing up once again for an early escape tomorrow. We are hoping to be on the 8:00 ferry over to Playa and then make our way the short 40km up to our next destination of Puerto Morelos. There is an English language movie station here so we will find something to watch tonight where we understand the diologue for once - what a treat!

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 924 km (574 miles)

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