Cozumel 2021
Day 3: Easter Sunday, a beach, sunset try #2 and a Big Surprise!!!
Woke up this morning at 6:30am...I think my body is in shock at this point. I went outside to have my morning...no not coffee...Coca Light! I was greeted by this little guy:
The hubby wasn't far behind me with his "café". It was Easter Sunday and we are ALWAYS on vacation on Easter, but usually we're on a cruise where they have some type of activity planned for the "kids" that day and they have dinner cooked for you and IF you are lucky...you'll run into Mr Rabbit. Now, I'm left to fend for myself in Mexico and it doesn't even feel like Easter.
Sakari is "growing up" and doesn't do the "kiddie" things anymore and this past Christmas Santa left our lives along with the Easter bunny...and Jack Frost if you want to count him as well. But, I still wanted it to be nice for her. I had contemplated bringing some of the hundreds of plastic eggs we have accumulated over the years but I really didn't want to deal with them on vacation. So I had to come up with a plan and do it fast!
EGGS! We bough eggs at MEGA the other day. Let's see what I can whip up! I decided the number nueve was a good odd number to go with and I boiled the 9 eggs. Once they were done and cooled I desperately tried to find a marker or anything that I could write or draw on them. Sakari always brings her markers and pens but they were in her room...with her...which means I wasn't getting ahold of those things. I swear the child has learned to sleep with one eye open and hears any breath you take and is wide awake! (Another reason Santa, the Easter Bunny, oh and Trixie her Elf was evicted from our premises).
Ok, the only option I had was a black ballpoint pen I had brought and its sole purpose was for filling out our customs form on the plane. Well, it was about to get put to use.
For those of you that didn't realize it...you CAN write on boiled eggs and it will stay! GO ME! I'm so brilliant!
So I have 9 eggs to play with...what shall I do? Numero Uno, Dos, and Tres would be the obvious: "Sakari" "Mom" & "Dad". Ok, whew have those covered. Oh numero cuatro has to be "Happy Easter" right? Oh wait, we are in Mexico so numero cinco must say "Felices Pascuas" (Happy Easter in Spanish...or at least I hope that's what it said, but if it didn't then I knew we'd tear off the shells before anyone discovered differently). Ok, I'm running out of ideas. That puts us at seis...My dumba§§ decided I would impress her with a drawing of a bunny...only it turned out looking nothing like a bunny (which will be the right hand bowl, at the very very top of the picture, which she ended up saying it looked more like a dog or wolfe #rollseyes). Numero siete needed to be another bunny picture to redeem myself (and I must say it looks better than the first attempt). Hmmm, I was drawing a blank at what else to do so I went for the traditional wavy lines and dots on the eggs for numero ocho. That brings me to numero nueve...oh §hit, I just dropped the egg. Ok, that settles it, it had a boo boo and I decided it was proper to just say "Oops" on it and circle it. Yep, that was easy enough and I had accomplished my Easter egg decor!
Now time to hide them...even a harder task! Aren't they puuurdy!
The task of hiding these things in our back yard oasis provided to be a little bit challenging. I have to say this was my first experience hiding Easter eggs in palm trees and cacti.
But my favorite of all....the vine crawling on the wall. I just knew I had to put one there...but man o man was it challenging!
Let's see how long it takes her to find that!!!! #biggrin
As we waited for sleeping beauty's arrival from her throne, I'm pretty sure that vine egg that I thought was such a good idea, fell about 4 times. Let's just say it came "pre-cracked" for peeling. ;)
Meanwhile...I get a call from my dog sitter that she had locked herself out of the house and the kids were still inside sleeping and no way to let her in. Mind you, this happened the last time we were on vacation, but she had her oldest there she could call and hang her head in shame, looking like the irresponsible parent as her daughter would come let her in each time it happened. However, her daughter had spent the night with a friend and since my 2 grandsons are still young, they don't have phones yet for her to call. I spent the next hour with her on the phone trying to give suggestions on things to look for in the garage to break into the house...drywall mud spatula, screwdriver,....I'm at a loss since I have never broke into a door before.
Finally, I remembered, my son Kolin and his girlfriend both have keys. I gave them a "text" and she responded. It was a good sign that she responded to the text because that meant she was still up (she works night shift at the hospital). Texting back and forth...then I slowly brought up the "Miranda locked herself out of the house can you go rescue her and let her in?" Then silence. Oh no! But eventually she showed up to let her back into the house without the boys even knowing and all was good.
At 9am, Sakari blessed us with her presence and I was so excited when I told her the Easter bunny had come. Wait, did she just roll her eyes at me??? How could she not believe this story? Like he brought Mexican eggs and all!
Ok, time to find the eggs. (This video is a little long and you are not forced to watch it, but I'm downloading it for my own reasons of showing her some day when she gets older that she still had to endure hunting Easter eggs when she was already 2 1/2" shorter than me!)
The fun was over and what do you do with 9 boiled eggs? You make egg salad sandwiches of course! We could now have breakfast. I was starving...all that decorating and helping Mr Bunny hide eggs made me work up an appetite! Now let me just say, Mexican Bimbo bread is the most amazing bread I have ever tasted. It is the softest of the soft!
After eating, I figured I should do what the doctor ordered and rinse my mouth out with our SAL we purchased yesterday. Well, I heated up a glass of the purified water and dumped some SAL in it and stirred it. Hmmm, this has a funny smell to it. I know that smell. Let me think...oh yea, IT WAS GARLIC SALT! We knew Sal was salt but didn't pay attention to the rest of the writing. Darnit! So, no mouth rinse for me!
Time to get ready for....you guessed it, another beach day! The plans for today was to go to Buccanos. Our neighbors have been there a lot of times and they rave about it's their favorite beach to go to when in Cozumel. They said the snorkeling was good. I made them prove it to me by showing me some of their video's they took while snorkeling there. Now they haven't been to a lot of the places we have been to and don't snorkel quite as much as we do so...I wasn't holding my breath...and for a good reason. They showed me the video and I knew right then, it wasn't going to be the greatest. But, Baccanos was on my bucket list and had been on the radar for awhile now, so we were going whether the snorkeling was good or not.
I also knew that they had parasailing there (for a cheap/good price, which said $60/pp on their website) and I knew that Sakari had such a great time doing parasailing in St Thomas for the first time that I wanted to surprise her with a day of parasailing and this would be the place!
Also, this place is in the opposite direction of the other beach clubs we had been in so many times in the past. I had never been up this way (other than by boat to Passion Island) and it was beautiful. It was a short drive there, well let's be honest, any place you go in Cozumel is a short drive because the island is so small.
There's a sign out front where you turn off at and then you have to go through a guard to get into that area. There was (I believe) 2 houses on the street, well houses are an understatement, more like a mansion, and a run down looking hotel, and then Buccanos.
The cost to get into Buccanos that day was $10 per person. (Website says $20) Now I know over the years there has been a lot of discussion about this $10 cover charge being used toward food and drink purchase. Some on the cruise boards have said it does apply to it and you get your money back by using it that way and others say they don't allow it. Then there was a switch to "if you live on the island" then you could use it toward food and drinks. When you look at their website, it specifically says "Many times the tourists asked for the payment of the 20 dollars applied in the consumption (it is not reimbursable in consumption)" So we knew this going in. However, they gave us $10 vouchers and told us it was good for food and also gave us 3 wrist bands and told us we could come back for free any time after Wednesday to Saturday of the upcoming week. SCORE!
Entrance fee includes use of a nice big pool, wifi, showers, and chairs and umbrellas.
Website
As we entered, they took our temperate and we washed our hands, you know the drill, then I wanted to ask them about parasailing, but I was trying to make it a surprise for Sakari. After paying our entrance fee I started to walk away saying "Let's find us a place to sit"..."Oh, wait a minute, I wanted to ask him something, you guys go ahead". I proceeded to tell the guy of my surprise plans for parasailing and told him it was Sakari's birthday next week. He said he would arrange it with their parasailing people and get back to me.
Entering the lobby of this place was absolutely gorgeous. There was marble and stone and everything was open. Everything was beauitful with chairs and tables everywhere, couches, plush greenery, art and pictures, sculptures, wood beemed ceiling with plenty of ceiling fans and lights that actually looked like huge light bulbs. The grounds were huge and it looked like a real expensive hotel. They had waterfalls that opened up to the ceiling and hallways going everywhere. One place it led to was the hotel next door. I imagine that it used to be a very nice plush hotel with the way these grounds were decorated and still kept up. I wasn't sure if it was something that Buccanos owned or the hotel once owned Buccanos (more on this later in the review). Even the bathroom was super nice with a couch and big old piggys on the sinks. Who doesn't like big pigs right? There were statues everywhere as well. I just loved the way it looked!
It was time to find a seat. There were plenty of seats to chose from, either along the side under the plush palm trees and palapa's or around the pool.
We decided to go along the side under the palm trees.
We were immediately greeted by our server and ordered a round of pop for everyone. Woo hoo, we are getting caffeine wasted from the get-go. That's what you call living it up I tell ya!
Pop there will cost you $2.50 each and I sat down with my refreshing ice cold Coca Light while Sakari talked her padre into doing what he's always done in the past WHEN SHE WAS STILL LITTLE...and that is her put on her mermaid tail and him carry her to the pool and/or ocean and dump her in. I glared at the both of them and was shocked when he said he would do it for old times sake even though it was going to be rough on his old body these days (he said)
Mermaid Morph had started and he actually picked her up with only a few grunts and off they went to the pool. Yea, let's see you do that after we've been here all week and you have that Mexican food dad bod!
Of course the crowd went wild when they knew they had encountered a real mermaid in Mexico. The kids were so amazed and the adults took pictures as they always do.
Buccanos looked like the "happening" place to be. I think we encountered more people here than we did at the Playa Uvas the other day so if that tells you anything........
This would be our view for the day and of course I had to post this beautiful picture of the soft sand and crystal clear Caribbean water to those back home.
Once Sakari was done swimming, we decided to go check out the ocean area. They had a huge sign that I have seen many post pictures under it and I wanted to get a picture now while there was no one over there in the way.
Sakari seen a few guys come along and jump off the deck into the water. She knew that's what she wanted to do now. The water was so crystal clear you could stand up on the dock and see all the fish and the rocks. Of course any time you see rocks in there and the water is so clear, it's really hard to tell just how deep down they really are. They appear to be so much closer to the surface. I sat down on the side of the dock to plop into the water in an area that didn't have a huge rock. Yep, it appeared safe enough to jump so the jumping began....
She must have jumped for an hour straight. Over and over and over again. She was having a blast. Of course she wanted me to take pictures of each jump she did to get that "perfect shot". Let's be honest, even if I obtained the "perfect shot" she wanted to do more.
I got out after awhile and told her I was going back up to the chairs to rest. The water was a bit choppy that day and it was kinda windy out. Momma needed some rest.
When I returned to my chair, the employee approached me to tell me he could set up parasailing for us and it be a BIG surprise for Sakari. He said "For $100 US per person, they will pull the boat right up to the beach and get her and take you out by yourselves for a private trip". Um...no, your website says $60 a person and that's what I was willing to pay. He said "But they pick you up right at the beach and you go by yourself". I honestly don't care if they pick us up at the beach or dock or whatever and it doesn't matter if others are on the boat or not, I'm not paying $100 for something you advertise as $60! He said they were coming from "down the road at another beach". Well, that's not my problem. Also, I wanted to do tandem. In Cozumel, they only have 2 person parachutes, and we are a family of 3. So, my bright idea was to have Sakari and I go up and when she came back down her and daddy go up. She gets to ride twice!!! But not for $100 each person! He also said with the winds, they might not be able to take 2 people up at the same time and that defeats the purpose of going IMO. We don't want to go up alone and I especially didn't want to send Sakari up there by herself. So, I told him "I'll think about it but only if the price came down and only if the wind calmed down and 2 people at a time could go".
I really wanted to snorkel some and see what this place has to offer. I knew I was not going to see much but something is better than nothing. The hubby walked up to see about renting a lifejacket and it was $20 for a vest, mask and fins. We didn't need fins or a mask because we have our own and Sakari has her tail for fins. So we ended up getting 2 vest for the $20 and he said he would take us out and show us around. He had pointed to a place "way down there" that you get in and drift snorkel back. I didn't know just how far it was and I didn't want to get lost so I agreed (which is abnormal for me but with my foot, I felt more comfortable doing it this way and having someone with us).
Before we left, the hubby told him he'd have to walk slow because of my foot and I told him I had an injury. He said ok and ........ took off. Like walking fast. At 2 separate times I couldn't even see him anymore. Geesh! Well sorry bud, you're on "my time" and I'll get there when I get there. The sand here is very very soft and very soft = hard to walk in. I have to walk sideways since I can't bend my foot forward when taking steps.
When we arrived at his spot, it was right at the old run down hotel. There were rocks that were carved into steps that you walk down and onto this platform rock where the water was crashing over it. Can you say danger for a handicapped person?
I slowly tackled the slippery rocks and then sat down to put my fins on. He said "ok, jump". Um no, I won't be jumping with fins on with my leg. That would hurt to have the force of the fins pushing up on my ankle. I showed him my swollen ankle and the scars and he said "ooohhhh you no jump?" I would wait for a wave to go out and I sat down on the ledge and then eased in and off we went.
I immediately spotted a beautiful nice sized angelfish.
As I predicted, there wasn't much to see. A few rocks here and there and some scattered fish. This might have been the happening place to be at the beach club but it was not the happening place to be for snorkeling.
Before long, we were surrounded by fish. Seargent Majors to be exact. They come a dime a dozen and are everywhere in the Caribbean and are like a dog and can smell food a mile away. He must have brought crackers or something with him because he had a clear bottle with him with something in it. It's funny how everyone scorns on feeding the fish but yet this is something you see the locals do all the time.
I honestly would have been happy if he wouldn't have done that because now they were all over the place and in my way of trying to take pictures of fish I would see below.
At one point, I almost ran into someone out there and he had a spear with him. I have no idea what he was hunting. Usually it's Lionfish but I didn't see any around that area and as a matter of fact, I did not see one Lionfish the entire vacation. I just knew that I wanted to get as far away from him as possible with that thing.
A beautiful shell was found. This conch was living the good life in a beautiful penthouse
At this point, our guide was no where to be found. So much for guiding us...
Another angelfish was found and a school of grunts and a huge Bermuda Chub that would follow us all the way back to the dock.
When we finally made it back to the dock, we were coming up to the ladder to get out and I looked down and found a yellow spotted Stingray. Woo Hoo. Score of the day. It was just hanging out below everyone's feet that was in the water at the beach area.
You'll find plenty of the little minnow fish hanging out by the ladder and also our Bermuda Chub followed us all the way back until we got out.
Once we were out of the water and heading back to the chairs, our "guide" came up to us and said "How was it?" It was like you left us is how it was. LOL But he was anxiously awaiting for his tip for this "guided" tour.
I was tired and the hubby was eating food because he worked up an appetite sitting in his chair practicing his Spanish while we were gone so we grabbed a few menus to order something for Sakari and I. Honestly, my menu pictures are not the best quality so you'd probably be better off going to their website and looking if you are interested in pricing.
The hubby had a cheeseburger and fries and it looked really good. So, I decided to order the same thing: Buccanos Burger Royal. I believe Sakari got a cheese quesadilla and fries. It was all really good.
The Mexican singing birds were out in full force. If you dropped anything they were there to scoop it up. We watched the people next to us trying to eat and if they turned their head for one split second, the birds would swoop in and grab food off their plate. At one point they came and stole THEIR FORK!!! And these were real silverware not plastic!
Of course after eating, Sakari wanted to go back to jumping off the dock. She absolutely loved it and I got up enough nerve to try it myself. I did pretty good and it was fun! I jumped with her several times including attempting a few dives here and there. I have to dive standing on one foot because when I lean forward, my foot doesn't bend. But, I think I have this diving thing under control using only 1 foot. LOL
Remember the Bermuda Chub that followed us when snorkeling? We started noticing that when we got out of the water he would swim off out into the deeper part. But, the minute that one of us jumped in, he would come back really fast and be right there with us. We would test this theory over and over and it held true each and every time. We decided he needed a name. So, we came up with the name Mr Pedro San Miguel. We would look for Pedro for hours and play with his emotions on thinking we were gone and then coming back to him. Sakari just loved it.
Daddy showed up for awhile when he seen me jumping and was concerned. But I showed him I was more than capable of doing it and he finally relaxed a bit and scurried off to his lounger in the shade for more Spanish lessons.
When we were done jumping again, we headed back to the chairs and the guy about parasailing came back up to me and said "Ok, he do it for $80 and no less". Ehhh, still not what I had in mind and the winds and waves were still a little strong. I think I'll have to pass or wait until another day.
It was time for a little pool fun. Sakari learned to blow bubble rings back when she was in scuba diving classes and she has gotten really good at it. I tried to capture them as they floated to the surface, but it's hard to do when you are too close.
I decided to get out and sit in the sun for awhile. I needed to soak up some rays and get my tan on. As I was sitting there, I felt something in my mouth. At first I thought I might have gotten food on the wrong side (where I had my teeth pulled) but it felt like a string and it was hanging down. Yep, it was my stitches and they came out. Woo Hoo, I'm healing I suppose. There was another one that came out that night as well and would be the last of them.
We decided to get out of the pool and pack up our things to head back to the house. Sakari wanted to leave early enough that we had time to go somewhere and attempt the sunset again tonight.
But, I seen her walking down the shoreline and the waves were getting even bigger and crashing along the rocks. Yep, good picture opportunity for me! Off I went to follow her.
Sakari told me that earlier there was a lady and her son (maybe Sakari's age) that was walking along the area of the rocks and the dock down this way and the lady's hat blew off. The son immediately jumped into the ocean from the rocky shore to retrieve it. The area that she showed me looked very dangerous and Sakari said she couldn't believe the boy did that. But the hat was saved and returned to his mom.
So I wanted to explore this area next door because we could see zip lines, but they weren't being used. I had no idea what that place was but wanted to check it out.
I believe I remember pictures of the ziplines as a part of Buccanos but it is no longer being used and everything on that side is all run down. There was (is) a pool there filled with green water and a closed up building that looked like a concession stand, along with the zipline. There were people over there laying under the trees and enjoying the peace and quiet all on their own probably for free and not having to worry about an entrance fee.
It's sad to see this entire area going to waste. It looked like it used to be so pretty.
**I did some research and found that this place used to be called Islands Beach Club. It looked beautiful and their post on their fb page states the following back in March 2020:
Dear Friends,
Islands Beach Club is focused on the health of our team and our guests. Due to the Corona Virus we are temporarily closing our doors. We hope to open again by mid April and will post an update as we get closer to that time.
We urge each of you to take the necessary steps to protect the health of your family and our community. This is very challenging but by working together we can reduce the time until our paradise is open again for all to enjoy.
Until we meet again take care & stay safe!
Islands Beach Club
The next and last post by them stated: "Soon, very soon we will meet you at Islands Beach Club" and that was posted May 16, 2020. It's so sad what COVID did to businesses.
Here is a video of what it used to be:
Over at this side is a monument type of rock and I looked it up and found the following:
The monument, made out of concrete, has writing on it saying "Discourse of Cortes" which was a speech that was given to men back in 1519.
One thing we discovered walking along the beach and these rocks was sea glass, which we've been collecting for awhile now. Sakari was excited to find that there was some here so we started hunting. (So much for leaving early to catch the sunset).
We ended up with a nice small collection of glass and then we were finally ready to leave.
One last picture of my scuba girl and then it was time to leave. Our bill was $61 with food and drinks all day so not too bad...but remember those $30 vouchers we had? Yea, well I forgot to use them!!! I guess we will be forced to come back again some time this week. :D
It was definitely a nice day at Buccanos. It's a beautiful place, great jumping dock, good food, and great service. The pool was an added plus when you didn't want to be in the ocean. There are showers here by the pool as well. The grounds and restaurant area is absolutely GORGEOUS! Like I feel like you can['t go wrong here and it's definitely a place we would return to again in the future! Mitsugirly gives it a thumbs up!
Back to mi case to shower and change out of our wet clothes into something that don't rub our thighs when we walk and out the door we went to find a perfect spot to watch the sunset. I decided this time that I wanted to go in the opposite direction of the down town area and hopefully find a nice little non-crowded area WITH parking that you didn't have to fight for.
We decided to park on the street right by the lighthouse and car ferry. We got out and walked down the street and came across a run down beach club (which used to be called Fratelli and was an Italian restaurant I believe). The place was boarded up and graffiti on the walls and trash everywhere. So sad. But, there were tons of locals hanging out in the area so I figured it was a good spot.
We headed down the steps to check out the rest of the area and decided to walk on down to what looked like another possible shut down beach club. I would later find out this was Chac-Kay Grill which was a sea food and steak house. They had really good reviews and seemed like everyone loved them. Again, so sad to see all these businesses closed down.
There were families here with their children, people swimming in the ocean (I don't even know how because it was all rocks but they managed), and families had brought their "boom-boxes" and hammocks and BBQ grills and were partying it up there and a lot of dancing going on. A local woman in a group approached us and ask us if we were having a good time, where were we from, how long we were here, did we want a beer. LOL She was already a little drunk but super nice. Then we said our goodbye's after awhile and she made her way to one of the little pool area's with rocks around it and I hear her go "ahhhhh" and laugh. Everyone knew exactly what she was doing...liquidating some extra fluids in her body so she could fill them back up. LOL
I went around taking pictures of the area and Sakari went around looking at Goby's that had washed up into the little pool areas. We found Chitons everywhere, hundreds of little snails in the water and of course some crabs.
I found the perfect spot to sit down along the wall by the water and I could lean up against the remains of wood left over from a palapa that has been destroyed at some point. I did find an overhead picture of the place, which showed all the little swim area's and it looks like they even had steps going down into the water on down (we didn't walk that far and now I wished we would have).
This picture is not mine but the property of the restaurant Chac-Kay Grill (which also hasn't made a post since March of 2020.
Hubby managed to snap a shot of Sakari and I watching the sunset.
A little short video of the area when we arrived.
The sunset turned out to be a pretty tonight and it was giving us a show. Sakari was really happy with it and I was really happy with our choice to come here instead of going down town again.
We decided to start walking back toward the car but as we walked, the area beside us was filled with people as well. Sakari wanted to go down below and look for sea glass, and she managed to find some, and I decided to just sit on the wall instead of trying to find a way down and then back up again. The car ferry was coming in to unload cars and load up again. We were at Playa Caletitas.
The sun had set and the sky was beautiful and lit up enough to let us get back to the car before it was completely dark.
On the way home, we managed to go a new way. It looked like a brand new road and there wasn't anyone on it. It was so weird. I kept thinking we were going to run into a dead end but it took us right out to the road we needed to be on and closer to our home with allowing us to miss all the downtown traffic. I love when I find neat little things like this. I will be using this route from now on when I'm headed this way.
Once we were home we decided to have a cookout with some Italian sausages.
As we were eating, my sons girlfriend (the one who had to let in the dog-sitter when she was locked out) sent me a snapchat with the following....
My youngest son finally proposed to his girlfriend of, I think, 4 years. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I knew it was coming, but wasn't sure when. They have been through so much over the last year with loosing their son that there is finally a happy moment in their life! He's such a good boy/young man (feels weird to say that about my baby boy who's now 26) and has worked hard his entire life. He's a manager at his job that he's been at since he was 17, bought a house 3 years ago, became a pet parent last year, and now it's time for their next chapter in life. I can't wait to see one of my kids get married. Proud momma here!
She said she was crying, then he was crying and then she sent me a picture of him...the look on his face said it all and my heart melted. He actually got down on one knee and ask her. Since it was Easter, he said he had planned on putting the ring in a special Easter egg and when his daughter was hunting eggs, she would find it and give it to Taylor with her name on it. But plans got changed for the day and they ended up going to her mom's house for Easter and having the hunt. So, he waited until after they returned that day and back home.
The excitement had my heart racing and I think we went to bed a little later than normal. I just couldn't sleep after that news! :D