Land ho!

It's only our second and last landfall on this 14 day journey. Cozumel, Mexico. Stacey is excited, and gets up at 6am to start getting ready. I wait a bit longer. Neither of us sleep well though. My throat keeps waking me up. Oh well. Gotta deal. We're off to the buffet for breakfast and the ship docks at the Punta Langosta pier, which seems to be downtown. There is another pier further south, and we see a Carnival Cruiseship dock there in the afternoon.

We go and pick up our daypacks from the cabin and head down to deck one aft to scan ourselves off the ship. It's only a couple of minute walk off the pier to the terminal where there is a duty free shop and a bunch of touristy type shops on an upper and lower level that you are forced to walk through to get down to the street level. Every vendor is greeting you and inviting you into their store, claiming some fantastic deal or free charm or cheap something or other. They are polite enough, but still, it kind of makes you uneasy, not quite knowing what to expect. But things were fine, like I said, people were generally polite enough, and not super aggressive and trying to force you to buy anything. I found Cartagena more aggressive, but that could be because we were jammed into a tighter space with them.

The plan today is to do some shopping, Stacey is armed with her shopping map of "approved" stores, and then go to Mr. Sanchos. Mr. Sanchos is not a Disney approved tour or excursion. It's one that I found myself online through research on Trip Advisor. It was generally rated very good, and the pictures looked nice, so we both were really excited to try it. It's an all inclusive beach resort area, free drinks, with or without alcohol, free food, and we had reserved a cabana which included a 30 minute swedish massage for each of us and a rose. We would be assigned a server who would get whatever food or drinks you wanted. Add a swimming pool or two, with a swim up bar, and an ocean play area and white sand beach. Looks like fun.

We decide to walk to the far end of the map and work our way back towards the ship. It's overcast, with some foreboding clouds off in the distance, but it's dry right now and not too hot out, just humid. It doesn't last. About halfway down the main street along the ocean, the sun either peeks out or finds some thinner cloud to radiate through and it begins to heat up. Stacey does better in heat than I do, but me, not so much. My head starts to drip almost immediately. Thanks to the Giguere genes that gave me that trait. We get to where we want to go, but the store Stacey wants to see isn't open yet. We had been told that they would all be open at 8am, but only some are. We decide to wait until 9am for it to open.

It was a long 15 minutes for me in that heat and humidity. It probably wasn't all that hot out, maybe 27 or 28C, but it felt hotter than that. I notice that some of these stores, mainly the diamond jewelers, have security guards at the entrance, whether they are open or not. We see a few policemen around as well, cruising by on motorcycle and in police cars. Feels pretty safe, though I don't know how it is off the main street we are on. Not feeling adventurous enough to go up a side street.

9am rolls around and still, the store isn't opening. I've had enough. I want some shade so it's time to move to the next store. Most of the main shops on Stacey's list have air conditioning. Thank you!!! We make our way down the street, looking at different stores, and getting the odd free item, but nothing really appeals that much to Stacey, or if it does, she doesn't want to pay the price that they are asking.

The jewelry store, which we were told would be quite reasonable and much cheaper than retail back home, still seems pricey to us. Then again, neither of us goes shopping for jewelry ever either, so maybe it is a good deal. Diamonds, Tanzanite, Korite Amolite, Sterling Silver, White and Yellow Gold, brand name watches, it's all here. I like the Korite, kind of an organic rainbow of color gemstone, only mined in Calgary, Alberta, but it doesn't do much for Stacey. The Tanzanite, from Tanzania, of course, is a deep blue color, and is also very nice, but expensive as well. Interesting to see though.

We stop in Cariloha, which sells textiles all made from bamboo. It's supposed to be softer and 3 degrees cooler than cotton. We get a few bamboo necklace with our shoppng coupons that we'd picked up from the ship, and I splurge and get a towel. Not cheap, but so soft and it's huge. It could almost double as a beach blanket. Stacey gets a shirt. Very nice.

Next door is Del Sol. They specialise in color changing stuff. T-shirts that are white, but that add color in the sun. Also hats, sunglasses, nail polish. Very cool. Could paint your hubby's nails with clear while he's sleeping, and have it turn red on him when he goes out in the sun. Haha.

We jump back and forth around the main street a little browsing around, but I can feel myself getting woozy. I think I'm getting dehydrated. I'm brought some water, but I guess I need more. So it's back to the ship to drop off what little we got, top up the water, and head back out to find a taxi.

Hmm, what's that I see behind the ship? Looks like a curtain of rain is coming our way. Well, they did say that showers were possible. We get back to the street and a taxi drivers gaze meets mine. I nod and he jumps out to open our doors for us. It'll be $16 to get to Mr. Sanchos. That's what the price I had seen online would be so I say ok. Right around when I nodded to the taxi driver, the rain curtain catches up to us. And how! The driver quickly gets us into the large 9 passenger van and he doesn't bother to go around to the driver's side door. He hops into the front passenger seat and gets a small towel out to dry himself off. It is REALLY chucking down.

And....we're off. The rain is quickly left behind us. It seems like about a 20 minute ride south, through and outside of town, past some very thick forest/jungle area and finally closer to our destination. The driver tells us that all along here are beaches, with similar resorts or play areas. We finally get to the entrance to Mr. Sanchos and wait for a car or two to pass by so we can make the right turn into the drive. Right at this time, the rain catches up to us. Hard. And the wind has picked up as well. Looks a bit like a tropical storm, with the palm tree leaves blowing in the wind.

The driver throws a jacket over his head and comes and lets us out. We run over to a beach umbrella at the entrance and the driver shows us where the entrance is, at the back along a paved path. We get under the large thatched open air structure for cover and turn to look at the view. It's obscured by heavy rain. The taxi driver waits under the cover too. I don't think he wants to go back out there just yet either. Mr. Sanchos looks very nice. The white sand beach is close by and look inviting, as does the swimming pool. The ocean looks a nice bluish color. Several employees are standing nearby and several guests are in out of the rain eating, I think. We just stand under the cover to see if the rain will pass.

After about 20 minutes, it slows, slightly, but enough for me to walk back along the path we came in at for me to look up and survey the sky. It's not looking good. Stacey and I decide we don't want to spend the next 4 hours in the rain, so we ask our taxi driver to take us back. He has stayed with us since we got there, suspecting that this just might happen. Bummer. The place looked great. I think I'd want to come back just to see if it's as good as reviewed. The first impressions I got were favourable.

The trip back takes a bit longer than the journey there. Partly because our driver slowed a little to point out something for Stacey to take a picture of, partly because he offers to stop at a tequila manufacturer for a free tour and free samples after the tour (we pass) and partly because much of the road back in town is flooded. That was some intense rain. The driver says it should disappear quickly, but wow, a foot of water on some parts of the road.

We get dropped off back on the main area, near the port and after a quick wander, go back to the ship for a meal and a shower. I just want sleep. The heat and dehydration has drained me. Stacey does laundry, as we expect it will be busy today and especially tomorrow for washer/dryer access.

The pre-dinner show is a hypnotist, so we skip that and rest up before going for dinner. Mmm....beef tenderloin....and 4 mango desserts for Stacey. haha.

Not a bad day. We've just had some poor weather this trip at inopportune times. What can you do?

Losing at hour of sleep again tonight for our final time zone change this cruise. One more sea day and then the cruise is over and we're in Port Canaveral. It's gone by too quickly. That was 2 weeks??

WYWH!

Kim =) and Stacey :)