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Like much of the Yucatan, Cozumel is mostly jungle where uninhabited. Mom had heard about a Jungle Jeep Tour from a friend who had visited the island on a cruise ship some time before, so after a breakfast at, yet again, Palmera’s, the three of us went looking for a taxi driver who knew where to catch the fabled tour. The first driver looked at us like we were crazy, though that’s not altogether uncommon I imagine, but the second knew what we were asking about. Unfortunately, he told us that the tours were available only to people from the cruise ships, as they were prebooked during passage.
Not to be detoured from seeing Cozumel Au Natural, we called up Pedro and rented a Geo Tracker to cruise around the island in. It arrived at our villa complete with no rear-side windows or interior floor coverings, but it did have 4-wheel drive which proved to be handy after parking on sand and spinning a bit.
Cozumel is about 9 miles across from west to east and about 29 miles long from north to south. San Miguel sits near center of the length of the island on the western coast, with a “highway” (aka a slightly wider road) traversing from San Miguel across the island to the eastern coast and then along the southern half of the island around the southern tip and back north to San Miguel. The western side is fairly calm as the water is that between the island and the Mexican coast. In between the coasts is mainly thick jungle, with the occasional home, shack, shanty and Mexican blanket stand.
The eastern coast faces the open Caribbean with beaches composed of extremely sharp rock eaten away by the water forming tide pools. The ocean is much more active on the eastern side, with strong waves which, when combined with the rocky beaches, makes it the less tourist-friendly area of the island as the idea of being buffeted by waves along a jagged line of rock doesn’t come across as kid-friendly to most. There is the occasional beach, roadside sales stand, and bar on the eastern side (often found together in a sort of economic symbiosis), but it is definitely the more natural side of the island. It’s also the most beautiful, with long stretches of road with thick tropical foliage on one side and stunning blue ocean lined with cresting waves on the other.
As we took the road across the center of the island from San Miguel to the eastern side, we stopped at the Mayan ruins of San Gervasio. Cozumel was inhabited by Mayans from 200 AD until the Spanish conquest, and the site of San Gervasio was known as the sanctuary of the goddess X’chel. Modern day San Gervasio is inhabited by tourists, workers watching the tourists to make sure they don’t climb on the ruins for the photo op, and lots and lots of iguanas. The ruins at San Gervasio are the largest set of Mayan ruins on Cozumel, though compared to the ruins at Tulum or Chichen Itzen, they are a fairly small set, mainly composed of a small pyramid, some stone houses, and a few eroded tombs and temples. Despite their size, the age of the buildings coupled with the peaceful setting makes San Gervasio a worthwhile stop. Plus, you know, all the iguanas.
After San Gervasio, we continued along the center highway to the eastern side, where we found a beach with some shops, one of which had a Target sign, though somehow I doubt its authenticity unless Target Corp is working on breaking into the Yucatan market through a series of roadside stands selling blankets, handcarved figures and hash pipes. Just like at most locations in the US, this so-called Target had another store right across the road calling itself the “Mexican K-Mart.”
Taking the road south along the eastern side of the island, we stopped at a few empty beaches so I could get some pictures of the surf hitting the rocks as well as look for pieces of brain coral, sponge, and other things deposited on the shore by the sea. As these beaches were composed mainly of jagged rock shores, not slipping was important as I really didn’t want to be in the medical care of the Mexican doctors, who, while I’m sure are perfectly capable, don’t elicit the same comfort level that their American counterparts do as judged by their surroundings.
To give a further example of what I mean, on our way out of San Miguel that morning we passed by a local fire station, and Shawn, as a volunteer firefighter, wanted to stop by to say hello and see what a Mexican fire station is like. The personnel were all very friendly, shaking hands and posing for pictures. Midway through our visit, the guy who looked to be in charge mentioned off hand to us that there was a house fire going on. Right at that moment. Yet here they were, sitting there, posing for photos with some Norte Americano tourists. Yeah, I didn’t really want my life put into their hands.
That afternoon after a lunch at Palmera’s, we decided to do some shopping downtown. The job of a street merchant is half retailer and half attention-getter. While not actively making a sale, they sit in front of their stores on a lawn chair using various time-honored street vendor tactics to pull people in the door. “Check it out! Almost free!” is a phrase heard often, as is “Everything one dollar” which is followed by “off” once you walk in the door. “Rolex – almost real!”
While there must be several hundred small merchants in San Miguel, 98% of them carry the exact same merchandise. T-shirts ranging from the standard to the bawdy; carved sculptures; ceramics; Mayan statue replicas; pewter and silver wares; earrings, necklaces and assorted other jewelry; Mexican rugs; and of course, hash pipes by the dozen. The biggest differences from one store to the next are location, the people running the shop, and pricing. Along and near the main street along the ocean, things tend to cost more and prices are less negotiable, mainly due to the stream of cruise people always flowing by. If you don’t buy it, someone probably will, so why negotiate? If you go a little further in, the story changes, with prices dropping to merely overpriced rather than rabidly overpriced and with a little work and the right vendor, you can even get the cost down to almost reasonable. For those of you inspired to go to Cozumel by this little travelogue, I recommend going down to the town center by Palmera’s, heading one block east along the north side of the town square, and then taking the north-south street.
In negotiating the price of a painted ceramic plate, I believe that Mom made an enemy out of one shop owner. The woman was asking for $45 for the plate and Mom had bought a similar one in Puerto Vallarta two years prior for $15 along the beach. The lady asked Mom how much she wanted to spend, and Mom said $20 tops. The lady replied with a defiant no way, so Mom and I started to walk off. “Ok, $35.” Nope. “All right, all right, $30.” We continued to walk off. She ran up to us several stores down. “$25 – final offer.” Sorry, but $20 is all we want to spend, besides who wants to carry a big plate around? Finally, as we were leaving the group of stores, she comes up and says, “$22. My cost is $30, so I’d actually be losing $8.” Oh what a kind shop owner, losing money for us poor travelers. But at this point Mom really didn’t want to go any higher than $20, more for the point of it than anything else I’d venture to say, so we passed.
A couple days later we were by the same area and the woman looked at Mom and said “I remember you…”
For dinner that night I suggested a seafood place called Acuario’s. As we read the menu outside, a server came outside practically begging us to come in, offering to even cook enchiladas for Mom (which she was really in the mood for) and finally even offering us 10% off if we came in right then. It turns out that this particular evening most of the cruise ships had earlier departure from the island, so the restaurant was mostly empty with only us and two other parties. Acuario’s is full of large aquariums which contain freshwater fish ironically enough as Cozumel is on a salt water reef after all. Maybe to those living on a reef, freshwater fish seem as exotic as a reef tank does to us Iowans. Despite the type of aquariums, they managed to keep Sebbie and Nate occupied throughout most of the meal as they watched a large black “shark” catfish swim back and forth. After the meal, we were all entertained by the preparation of bananas flambé that Misty ordered.
While in Mexico, there were three things that Sebastian wanted to get. The first was a conch shell, as he had seen a cart vendor selling them outside of Palmera's each morning. The second was a shell necklace, though he ended up getting one with a shark's tooth instead. The third was a pinky ring. I'm not sure where he got the idea for a pinky ring, maybe he thought it would make him look tough like an old Italian or that it would help get his preschool bling-bling going. We ended up finding a ring for him after dinner at Acuario's, complete with a small scorpion on it for a design. Following in his big brother's footsteps, Nate got one too, but the small ring was still way too big to fit on any of his little fingers! Maybe when he gets older, he, too, will be livin' large.
Cozumel Con Queso Table of Contents:
Introduction
Day 1: The Journey to Our Mysterious Southern Neighbor
Day 2: The Ocean: Our Big, Wet and Salty Friend
Day 3: Under the Sea, or On Top of It Anyway
Day 4: To the Briny Deep
Day 5: Break On Through to the Other Side
Day 6: Ancient Cultures on the Mainland
Day 7: The Sun Beach
Day 8: The Return of the Wearied Travelers
Tons of Photos |
