Cozumel 2020 - Part 1 - (Dec 27-30 and Calvin's 13th birthday!)

I feel like jumping right in with a trip to Cozumel isn't fair to my blogger.  I have not kept up as accurately with the blog as I would like.  Here's a quick catch up.  We bought the local CF/Wloo Budget Blinds business in January 2020, our world has gone through (and is still going through) a coronavirus pandemic,  Dave moved the BB office to a new location on 1s street, he moved his office out of the house, Violet and Vanessa have separated (Violet moved into the office bedroom, they redecorated, etc), we replaced our 2008 honda odyssey with a 2015 odyssey last week, we got through Christmas, and we are currently in Cozumel on vacation.  Cozumel is an island a few miles off the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.  This trip checks off a "bucket list" of things we have wanted to do with all our kids at a "younger age" before they all graduate!  We are so thankful it is working out.  Dave had a lot of airline miles to use up, so it was nice that the airline tickets were relatively cheap.  We booked a VRBO condo (Paradise Condominiums) for Dec 28 through Jan 4.

Sunday, Dec 27th and Monday, Dec 28th

Calvin's 13th birthday is also intertwined into this.  We spent almost the whole day traveling, but we managed to surprise him with a few things.  Of course a hershey chocolate bar, a set of sweet Skullcandy headphones (surprise at the gate in the airport!) and had our Cozumel helper Alex do some shopping for us before our trip and he picked up a birthday cake. 

So onto the travels. We planned to leave Sunday the 27th around Noon from CF to get to the Des Moines airport for a 5pm flight.  We checked in no trouble, got through security.  All of us except Violet made the TSA cut (because Dave and I are and kids 12 and under get to go through tsa precheck with us), so I went through regular check with her.  The "waiting" was long but relatively uneventful.  We had enough time to grab dinner before the flight.  Everyone is wearing face masks, including us.  Airports require them, most places require them, and we just comply.

Our first flight (which was the kids first memorable flight), was from Des Moines to Dallas.  It was approx 2 hours, but full of oohs and ahhs and lots of picture taking.  Flying into Dallas is very sparkly.  Lots of lights and lit up downtown holiday buildings.

We got an Uber ride to the hotel (hotel shuttles have been canceled due to the virus), the Homewood Suites.  The first room we checked into smelled bad, so we asked for different rooms and got 2 adjoining rooms which was a fantastic set up.  Everybody got a cozy bed.  We woke up at 4:30 to get to the airport at 6 for a 9 am flight.  The hotel made up "to go" breakfasts for us which was a treat! Yogurt, hard boiled eggs, an orange and a chicken/biscuit sandwich.  We grabbed another Uber to the airport and got through security with no issues.  (Ohhh the passports was quite a story! We applied for them in October and had them expedited and it wasn't until the first week of December they arrived!)

Happy 13th Birthday Calvin!!!  A hershey chocolate bar to start off the day.

The second flight from Dallas to Cozumel was more "entertaining"....bright sunlight, cool views, beach views, oceans, and of course, SEEING the island Cozumel before landing.  It was all very exciting.

waiting at customs after arriving in Cozumel

When we landed, the line was long to go through immigration then customs.  Dave filled out all the right forms and managed our passports like a pro.  His bag was randomly searched, and once he passed his exam, we were all ushered through w/o having to open bags.

We did run into a slight hiccup with our rental vehicle.  We walked a block to Alamo and they had our rental, but not a big enough one for 6 passengers, so we had to cancel that.  For at least a couple months prior to our trip, I had been in contact via text with a person named Alex in Cozumel who was our trip helper/coordinator with our VRBO rental.  He had a reputation for being very helpful with lots of questions I had, so I sent him a message saying we needed help with a rental vehicle.  He immediately texted back saying they had a couple options at prices half what we were planning to pay, and one of their drivers would meet us in about 10 minutes.  Amazing!  So we walked 2 blocks to meet him, and ran into a fantastic looking little street taco restaurant.  It was around 3pm so we were all pretty hungry for lunch by that point with all the waiting around at immigration/customs.  We decided to stop and pull 2 tables together, and have the freshest guac, 3 delicious salsa options with chips, beef tacos, and pop from glass bottles.  We were all smiles.  This place was called Diego's Tacos and the waiter gave us some white board markers to write on a white board wall...hard to explain, but I have pics.

walking 2 blocks to meet our car driver

Diego's Tacos

divide pesos by 20 to get US dollars.  1 dollar = 20 pesos

DEEEEELISHHHHHH

our first rental van...stick shift, felt like cardboard....but fit right in.  Only 2 suitcases fit in the "trunk" area...the others were between people.  The culture here feels relaxed, messy, and fun.

We got to our place and met Alex who let us in and got us acclimated to the place, went over rules, etc.  We paid him for what groceries he had picked up for us.  Overall, very impressed!  Three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, full laundry, roof deck, porch, sitting area, sounds of waves, ahhh.

We immediately went to the beach (and pool).  Everybody was shocked by the saltiness of the water.  The shoreline is sandy and rocky, and we stayed out by the water until the sun went down.  Fabio from the restaurant next door walked over to make an introduction letting us know he's got anything we need. :D  Vanessa and Eli didn't handle the salty water as well as Violet and Calvin.  They were in and out of the water and in and out of the pool.  Violet and Calvin snorkeled as long as they had daylight, we watched the sunset, and then headed back into the condo for one last birthday surprise.  I had Alex pick up a birthday cake, ice cream and candles, so we got to SING happy birthday to Calvin and let him blow out the candles!  He was very surprised and thankful, as today has been a little less festive than a normal birthday.  

our first view of the great blue!

following Alex into our condo

fantastic view 

"

Violet says "why would you swim in a pool when there's an ocean!?"

that's a TINY hermit crab!  I immediately named him Pagoo like the book about hermit crabs we have all read and enjoyed

Some late night pool swimming, PBJs served, and "no official bedtime"....turned into music, checkers, and wind-down time. 

Tuesday, December 30, 2020

It is so late and I have almost no energy to try remember the day.  However, I take pictures, so those lend me the memory of the day.  We experienced our first night last night, heard new sounds, etc.  I like pitch black when I sleep and this was definitely not blackness...we have blue curtains blocking the light from the patio door and a stained glass window on the other side of the room.  Not a big deal, but I popped awake at 3 am and thought it was FOR SURE 8 am...nope.  I tried my best to sleep through the night.  The bed is cozy, the pillows and covers are nice.  I like `em.  The fans run so we sleep, and over it all are the ocean waves 100 feet from our door.  Calvin keeps thinking it is "downpouring rain", instead, it is ocean waves crashing onto the rocks.  Love that.  I'll narrate the photos below to recap the day.  It is strange to see our doorbell camera showing us a snowstorm, while we sit in the heat of the tropics on the sand with our toes in salty ocean water.  We are appreciating and loving every moment.

Dave and I cooked up some breakfast with a potato, green pepper and onion hash, next to bacon and eggs and a 1/3 of a banana each for the whole family.  Dave and I both worked on the meal.  It was hard to find enough outlets for everything, so I had to toast bread in the laundry room. ha!  

just a view from the porch

these two are like fishes...were up and swimming before we knew what was happening

I had to laugh at this.  When we asked our guest services helper, Alex, to do some shopping for us, I asked for "salt/pepper" and got this..."pepper salt"!!!  

first breakfast! Feels HOT and the younger two were in swimsuits

they have recovered from the shock of the salty ocean water

some pretty things I found on the beach - coral and shells

apparently there is an iguana that lives under the sidewalk where we park the car

This day we went to an ATM to get pesos.  We also went to a dive shop and got some snorkeling gear so we could peruse all the amazing beaches this week and check out the ocean  Those two sentences took a few hours.....atm bank and shopping....the culture is just crazy/messy/sloppy/hilarious/relaxed.....finding some places was an adventure.  This all took approx 4 hour and we got some dinner at Alberto's and got back to the ocean by our condo's beach spot around 4:45 which gave us about 45 minutes of daylight to explore.  The sun goes down around 5:30.  It appears to just SINK....visibly fall down below the ocean. 

chicken fajitas! 

a hermit crab! The shell looked too big for him but hey...he was adorable

Our time snorkeling right off the beach by our condo was pretty cool.  A lot of big fish, sand, coral, and clear water awaited us.  We spent every moment we could until the sun sank exploring.  The boys found a sunk dock or something where lots of fish were.  Black and white striped fish (I swear it felt like finding nemo) are everywhere and seem accustomed to people.  They didn't even swim away from us.

After dinner at Alberto's, we snorkeled, then went grocery shopping at Mega.  20 pesos is equal to 1 dollar, so when you see a price of 100, that is 5 dollars.  It's a brain trick to figure out how much things are.  There was a "ramp-conveyor belt" thing...the grocery store was above everything else, so we went up to shop for food.  We got pasta, sauce, snacks, chicken, peppers, fruit, candy, chips, salsa....I don't even know.  I hope we can eat it all before we leave! 2300 pesos later....in my mind I go like this.  2300 pesos, whack off the zero which takes it to 230, then split it in half which is about 115 US dollars.  

The boys found keychains they wanted to buy, accidentally stuck them in their pockets, and we walked out without paying for them.  It wasn't until after we were driving away that Eli found it in his pocket, made a wide "OH NO" face, and told us.  We drove back and paid for them.  I drove the van-car thing back and that was a whole other adventure.  The ability to drive a manual shift car came back to help me.  Dave thought I needed to switch lanes at one point, and I did, and ended up in the sidewalk.  Oh my.  I bet we look like a big american family doing all the wrong things....but it was a funny moment.

Vanessa's grocery store treat pick was a huge "kinder joy" chocolate.

This is our beach at night, and those lights in the distance are 20 miles away, which indicate the mainland of Mexico (yucatan peninsula)

We didn't enforce a bedtime for vacation, so Eli is taking full advantage.  Eli swam in the pool for a couple hours after getting back from grocery shopping and needed to refuel for the night....a little "crema de cacahuate" or "peanut butter" on bread.  He said his tropical outfit felt like pajamas (even though it was missing a button, which I KNOW is on top of the washing machine at home), so he slept in his tropical Caribbean outfit.  I told him we were in the caribbean so he was pretty pumped about that.  OK, that about wraps it up.  Tomorrow is a new day!  We plan to go snorkeling at another public beach.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Just....the view during breakfast

Today was green pepper/onion/potato hashbrowns with breakfast sandwiches (bacon, egg and cheese!).  The plan was to get up and go to a beach and snorkel, so that is what we did.

The food pictures are for Rachel.  (where are the cheeeeps?)

I stop and break up the photos with words here because a lot happened between breakfast and this picture on the dock with the boat.  We had intended on going snorkeling with all our gear.  Getting past breakfast, washing dishes, finding all the swimsuits and gear, smothering sunscreen on all exposed skin, packing everyone and everyTHING up, and GOING is a feat...(I said to Dave "we gotta get outta here before someone gets hungry!)...so around 11ish we got to our vehicle and navigated to Playa Playancar, south of where we are staying a few miles.  Everything here is in meters, kilometers, kilograms, celcius, and pesos.  It's a different world, so I don't know how far we went.  The funniest part of this whole thing is when I am driving the car, somehow I end up on the sidewalks or places only motorbikes can zip around.  It's hard to explain, but our condo is on a one way that shares the road with cars and motorbikes/bikers/runners, so we go around them.  At some point the road broke off a different ways and just cars could go on it and the rest of the trail was for motorbikes.  I kept right on the path meant for bikers only.  We didn't know this until we observed the roads going back home, then connected the dots as to why it all felt strange on the way there.  We got a good laugh out of that!

Playa Playancar was a calendar-perfect beach.  White sand, sea shells, clear turquoise water, clear sky.  We picked a spot, then headed into the water.  We quickly discovered that the water was FULL of little clear jellyfish, about the size of a mandarin orange with 2 little brown spots.  We also quickly discovered that they sting a little.  That was about all it took for Vanessa and Eli to completely avoid the water.  We walked around to different parts of the water but they were just everywhere.  Walking around got very very hot, so we opted to go back to our car and drive back to our own beach area and pool.  

Around 1 pm Dave and I walked over to Tortugas next door (they offer lots of things, restaurant, snorkel tours, etc) and scheduled a private boat to take us out to some famous reefs at 3pm.  Everything is negotiable in this country.  We got a decent deal for the 6 of us to go out for 2 hours and visit three places.  While we waited, kids swam in the pool, and Dave and I waited outside the condo for the housekeeping gal to finish up.  We snacked on last night's leftovers for lunch, then headed for the boat near the dock at 2:50.

Driver (Chippy), photographer Ricardo, and guide Jesus (HEYsoos!) took us around the ocean.  Guide told us he would recommend a place where he thought there wouldn't be as many jellyfish, so we agreed.  It was considerably better!!  A few here and there, but easily avoidable.  The reef was deep, but we all felt like we just floated (sea water is more bouyant) and got to enjoy the fish swimming all over.  Photographer Ricardo had little bits of food and he would squirt the foot in the water right in front of us, the fish would swarm, and then he'd snap some pics.  

We did buy the pics (negotiated of course).  We saw lots of fish, coral, a little stingray, starfish, and later a big turtle from the boat.  The tour ended at a sandbar where we were served drinks, melon, ceviche, and pepsi.  The entire thing was 2.5 hours and the moment we got back to our condo it began to downpour rain!!  

Dave found a (obviously) dead sand dollar and Eli was crazy about that.

The rainy evening turned into a movie night.  We watched "Wonder" on netflix.

The rain ended, so we hung out on the beach and made a big sand...um...mountain. 

Gorgeous, fun day.  So thankful for these times and the memories we are making.  Time for bed!