Cozumel 2021
Day 6: Up, up and away, a repeat day and chainsaws...
So remember yesterday I had made parasailing reservations for the same time that we were doing the Sea Trek that day and Ana helped me get it corrected? Well....it's parasailing day today!
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Our reservations were for noon and we were to meet at Hotel Barracuda, which is the place right next door to Jeanie's so easy to get to and we knew where we were going.
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Mi esposo and myself were up early, see the trend? We were enjoying our Coca Light and Cafe or were we???
We listened to the sounds of the eeeerrrrreeeerrrr kids while Sakari slept in until 10am, which is when I told her to set her alarm for.
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It was time for a little Espanol class and I laughed while the "American pronunciation words" came out of the hubby. "It's Aaahhhh-blow not HAAAA-blow" (Hablo). Come on, let's see a little progression here with this. LOL But he was trying. Now we have noticed if you are trying to use google translate for English to Spanish words, it is not right a majority of the time. Everywhere we went, the hubby would pull out his phone and say something in English to translate it to Spanish, then speak to someone we were around...only to get that confused blank look on their faces. Then they would proceed to tell him the right way, which was never anything remotely close to what he was saying (and we are not talking about pronunciation here either).
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I believe this was the day that Hija made us breakfast, but sadly I didn't get a picture of it. Then we were headed to Hotel Barracuda for our adventure.
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We parked at the MEGA and played frogger across the street to Barracuda. They have a small "beach" in this area, just like Jeanie's and we happened to be the only ones on the beach at noon.
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They took our temps, we washed our hands, then ask where to go for the parasailing.
We were instructed to go under the little palapa to sit at the table where we would find this sweet little old man that was sitting there. We talked to him and he was from the states and comes to Cozumel once a year for about 3-6 months out of the year. He was waiting on "the doctor" to come and give him his "shot" and he's been coming here for years to have this done. He was equipped with his medications. We ask if he was going parasailing and he said "no, just waiting on the doctor to arrive". He was so sweet. No, the below picture is not the little old man despite all the gray hair he's getting recently. ;)
A guy from the scuba shop came over and he was the one arranging for the parasailing as well. He spoke with us about the adventure, but was confused because there were only 3 of us and he had 4 bookings. Well, I explained to him that we had purchased 4 spots because mi hija is going up twice! How exciting is that?? Happy "early" Birthday to her!
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We sat around and talked to the instructor as we waited on the parasailing boat to arrive. We talked about diving of course. I inquired how much he charged for Discover Scuba (my mind had been on this since we arrived and the hubby told me yesterday at Jeanie's that watching the scuba divers with us taking pictures and walking us around on the ocean floor made him really miss it and wanting to dive). He told me some outrageous price like $140/pp and I think I spit my pop out at that point! Wow, that's the highest price I have received during all my searching prior to leaving home. I let that conversation go after I heard that.
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Now the place here was called "Scuba Juan", so now that I'm doing this review, I decided to look this place up. I found their website and low and behold...it says DSD are only $79/pp! What the heck? Were they trying to get one over on us?
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I also noticed they listed the parasailing on their website. They must use this company exclusively because they name listed on their website was the same company that pulled up to get us (Albatross). Now the other thing I find funny is that the website says you can fly up to 3 people tandem. This is the first I have heard of this and everyone we spoke to had said only 2 people at a time and they don't do 3 people. However, their website does specify up to 350 pounds, so that would eliminate that. I'm guessing I need to put Hija on a diet at this point. ;) The price they have listed on their website for parasailing is $65 per person.
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Now if you want to know where I booked our "flight" at, for $58.50, here's the website (I won't be using the companies logo since they mention it is copyrighted)
Website
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The company that I used is called "Cozumel Tours" by Johann & Sandra. Now I know that I have seen people mention this couple and their tours before, so I felt comfortable booking it from the good experiences I had heard others mention. However, do know that I believe they are just a booking company that offers various excursions around the island with different vendors. Their website has a little history about them on there if you are interested. Your booking also comes with a "discount card" that gives you complimentary drinks or discounts at various restaurants around the island if you want to use it. We did not.
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So the parasailing boat was pulling up and preparing for our flight and the dive instructor told us that he would take our pictures prior to take off...
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Now getting in the boat was tricky for me, as it always is, because of my leg. Stepping down onto a moving object, while not having many places to hold on to is just scary.
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I had a big bag with our things in it and I found it odd that the 2 guys on the boat didn't even bother to take it from me as I stepped down onto the boat. Hmmm, I don't think I have ever had that happen before.
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But, I safely made it in there without any mishaps and I quickly scurried over to a stable place to sit.
Before long, we were heading out...goodbye Hotel Barracuda.
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EeeeHaaaa, Hija, was having one of her funky bad hair days from going to bed with a wet head and now the wind blowing it everywhere. So, she decided to pull it up her lioness mane so that she could see during the flight. I was the next to get strapped in and again, kinda tricky for me to stand up on a moving boat and trying to step into things and put things on, but I managed.
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We were ready! Hija and I were going up first!
It was a quick ride out and before long we were putting on our gear. The guys didn't speak too much for us and it was a different experience that we had the last time were the guides were talking to us and joking around to make us laugh.
The hubby was armed with a camera to take pictures of us and I was armed with the other camera to take pictures up there of him.
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We watched these guys mess with a §hit ton of different colored ropes. Man they were everywhere! It made me super nervous to watch them take different colors and put them together and tie knots and just wow! What if they tied the wrong colors together? What if their knots slipped and came apart? It just really made me nervous. I never noticed any of this going on the last time we did parasailing. I guess the hubby was noticing too because he also took pictures of it.
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Out went Mr Smiley! He was ready to put a smile on our face. Notice the camera strap in the hubby's picture. He's such a pro at this! lol
The guy motioned for us to come over, pointed to the back of the boat platform, and told us sit down. Of course I'm messing with my camera and trying to get it on the right setting as we were ready for take off (below). There wasn't much instruction on what was about to happen or what we were to do. The one thing they did tell us was if we wanted to come down for any reason, wave our feet/legs back and forth. Um, don't you do that when they are dangling anyhow? Don't you do that when you are excited? Oh my gosh Hija! Don't swing your feet back and forth for any reason! Nothing like the experience we had before.
Then up we went!
We were flying high like a bird. It was a little windy out but we were having fun and shark hunting...or at least I was. It would just be so cool to see SOMETHING in the water. Too bad we were not here during whale shark season (which starts the following month).
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Sakari was laughing and having a good time, just like the last time we did this in St Thomas. Now we had asked the guides about being dipped before they attached us to the chute. I needed to know if I should take my socks off or not. They said "Do you want to be dipped?" We were like "sure!" So every so often the parachute would start to go down and Sakari would lift her legs up and squeal. Then it wouldn't happen.
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The disappointed look on her face each time..
We would start to go down again and get really close, then nothing. We would go back up again. What the heck was going on???
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Then toward the end, this was the face I was getting...
The only video that I would get of Hija and I parasailing would be the following clip from the hubby. I want to see if you notice anything about it?
Do you all remember the trip we took where the hubby is taking pictures and almost every single picture he takes has his finger in it? Yea, that's still going on! Even in videos! Not only did he have his finger in the video but some how he managed to make this picture in slow motion! I don't even know how to do that.
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The last little "dip" session told us that we were actually coming in and not dipping. Maybe they misunderstood us? Sakari screamed for me to tuck my feet under and I couldn't understand why if we were coming in. Wouldn't we want our feet straight out to land our butt on the boat platform? I tucked my feet under like she told me and we drifted in and I tried to sit down and the guy yells at me to stand up! Wait, what? Why am I standing??? This was so odd. That's not how we did this before.
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We stood up and held onto the long bar and then he sat Hija down on the platform and told me to go sit down.
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The hubby was sitting and the guy gave the hubby the "come here" demand and he quickly scurried over to the platform only to notice that he still had his hat on and rushed back to hand it to me. Well that pissed off the guy you could tell. He looked at the other guy driving the boat and shook his head.
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Then the hubby and hija was up, up and away!
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The dangling straight feet photography was going on...but DO NOT sway them back and forth!
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Hubby got a great picture of him and Sakari...I wished I could have pulled that off but when I try it, I only get pictures of me and my triple chin friends these days.
At this point, Hija was over the parasailing. As a matter of fact she was sick of parasailing and by sick I mean actually sick! She was feeling like she was going to throw up type of sick. I've never seen this happen before. She doesn't get motion sickness in a car, while cruising (even those times we have been rocking and rolling on the ship), not on a plane during turbulence, not on rollercoasters or rides that swing you in circles, not any time! So, this was extremely weird for her. But, she was trying to hold it in and still give somewhat of a smile to papi.
Of course they didn't get to dip either and they both knew how to land after seeing me struggle with trying to "sit" like before and that wasn't how this one was done. The hubby would later tell me it was too windy to dip us.
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Back on the boat, Sakari was being quiet and looking away most of the trip. I think she was really trying to hold it in at this point. I felt so bad for her. She said one time would have been enough and thought that it was just because of the wind up there and being up there so long (which for her, I still can't imagine that being a problem).
We were pulling back in and hija couldn't wait to get off the boat and head to the bano's.
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Here is a video of our parasailing trip...
The minute that we docked, hija was off and running to the bathroom. She even managed to pass up the swimming pool there at the hotel and didn't ask questions about whether or not we could swim here. That speaks volumes!
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She spent a little time in the bano's and when she emerged, she was somewhat better she said. She sat down outside with us and was quiet for awhile while we tried to decide what we should do after this.
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Well, it was Wednesday and that meant that our free entry to Buccano's was now effective and we were hungry so why not head there and eat, use our $30 food coupons, and maybe hang out for awhile?
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We gathered our things and headed for MEGA to the car.
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Along the ride there is an area that has a church and statues in the middle area of the street. It's really pretty here and the last time we passed by I had said "we need to stop here and walk around" but no matter how many times we passed it, there was never any place to park and it was always pretty crowded. So, we never did actually get to stop like I wanted to.
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The church is Capillo Santa Cruz and from what I'm reading, it was built on the site that used to be the first catholic mass in Mexico. There is a statue of Juan Diaz, which is supposed to be the one that conducted the first mass in 1518.
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This place is right before you get to the airplanes. There are a few bars there and that might contribute to the reason this area is always so crowded with no place to park. Since we didn't get to park and walk around, you'll have to settle for drive-by photography. lol
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This side of the airport is really cool and I slammed on the brakes and had to pull in to take some pictures.
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When we arrived at Buccanos we handed the lady at the check in our free entrance wrist bands. I was really hoping that they wouldn't make us wear these all day and they didn't. Whew! I had already devised a plan to remove them discretely and if any questions come up, I would tell them I want no tan lines!
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We found a place this time under a palapa and claimed our real estate spot, ordered our drinks, and this would be our view for the day which shows where we sat the last time we were here:
We told the waiter to bring us a menu. Tengo hambre! (I'm hungry) Now remember last time we were here the family beside us was eating (were the birds stole their fork) and the teen had an order of sushi. Well, Sakari has recently tried sushi and loved it. So, she was determined to order sushi. I thought it sounded pretty good myself so I was contemplating it.
I ended up ordering the Cosmo Roll to play it safe (not really into the "fish" kind) and Sakari went bold and ordered the Sexy Spider. I made her aware that this had crab (which she loves) and had tuna (the real kind and not the canned) in it and she agreed that she would try it. No girlfriend, you'll eat it because this is your lunch so be sure.
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I decided to walk around and take a few pictures. It was such a beautiful day out and this time the waves were calm.
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Our food was there in no time and it was time to chow down.
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The hubby took a "jealousy" picture to post for those back home and it reminds me of something you would find on some fine-dining website displaying their food. Where did these skills just come from esposo???
Of course my pictures came out the usual snap, ok you have proof, and dig in type of pictures.
Remember all the issues and tricks Cozumel has played on me with the hot sauces? I swore I would not fall for it again! But there was this little squishy green thing on my plate and I just had to try it. OUCH! HOT! I couldn't believe someone slipped that in on me again! Hija was laughing and I told her it was yummy and she should try it. She didn't believe me.
The food really hit the spot and I tried Sakari's too. She just couldn't get down that last piece. I have to say I'm going to continue to stick with the kind that don't have the fish or seafood in it. It just taste a little too "fishy" for my liking.
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After eating Hija wanted to head to the dock and see if Mr Sir Pedro San Miguel was still in the water so her and I headed out while the hubby stayed back and practiced his Espanol on his phone, attempted to talk to the waiter, and continued to learn "that's not the way we say it".
She immediately went running for the dock and jumped in. Guess who come swimming over...yep, it was Sir Pedro San Miguel. He was there to welcome us back!
Hija continued to run and jump in the water from the dock and I decided I would snorkel around the rocky area beside dock. The other day when we were here, the waves were a bit too much to get close to this area, but today was a calm day and I knew I would be able to get close enough to the shore area without getting thrown up against something or harming anything around there accidentally.
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The next collection of photo's is pretty much how the next hour of our time was spent. I would pop up every so often to see if she was still jumping and try to snap a picture of her as she screamed "mom, take a picture". Some things never change with her whether she's in a 3 year old body or a 5' 3 1/2" almost teen body.
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I spotted a few interesting fish in the area... like this beautiful French Angel fish. It was on the smaller side and usually when I see them they are much bigger.
Then I found a large school of Bar Jack Fish.
Banded butterfly fish...and of course Sir Pedro San Miguel
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Found a stoplight parrot fish. I have to say we really didn't see many parrot fishes on this trip, which is really strange to me. There's usually so many!
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Now one thing I did notice this trip is that there are A LOT of barracuda's here! Like everywhere we went I would see them. Both young and older ones.
Sir Pedro San Miguel just hasn't learned what personal space is!
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Of course Sir Pedro San Miguel was following me and then would race over to hija when she jumped in and then back to me again. He was everywhere we were. Such a friendly species (Bermuda Chub).
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After about an hour, we got out to rest and sat around at the palapa. Then the hubby said something about going snorkeling. Wait what? You are going to come snorkeling and move from your sun blocked seat? Amazing!
We gathered our things and Hija led the way. We went S L O W L Y to where we had gotten in the water with the guide the other day, over at the old hotel, and I then discovered (this time) a ramp to go down instead of using the steps. Hija pointed it out to me.
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As we were getting in, we seen this really huge crab on the side of the rocks. Every time the water came in it would push him around and then when the water went out, he would move across the rocks to get to where he was going. It was funny to watch.
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Mi Esposo decided he was going to snorkel without fins and just use his mask instead of renting them again. The bad part is, I didn't bring his snorkel and only brought his mask because he really don't get in there often with us and it's just something to add space to our luggage so I've stopped bringing his fins and snorkel. The mask is just for scuba diving at this point. But, he was a trooper and held his breath during snorkeling this time around. Of course Sakari goes without anything but her mask and I had to talk her into wearing it this vacation because she normally just wears regular goggles. But, last year I went and bought her a prescription mask and she's loving it. Seeing things she has never been able to see clear before.
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I found a blue parrot fish! Interesting fact about parrotfish, They change colors during their life from juvenile to adulthood. However, the blue parrotfish is the only one that never changed colors and remains blue when adults.
Now this is one of my favorite fish. A Trigger fish (file fish) I get so excited when I see them. I think it's just the way they swim, which is more like a flutter, with their fins on the top and bottom toward their back fin. So fricken cute! I had one and it was my favorite fish. They do come in different colors and some are very beautiful.
Then all of a sudden another one appeared. Double excitement!
A couple four eyed butterfly fish
Ok, snorkeling time was over and was a success with several fish that we hadn't seen before. It's still not a terrific spot, but at least there's a few things to see here and there.
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Here's a video from today's "ocean" activity
When we got back to our real estate, we decided to sell and move to a new location...the pool area. We knew we were done with swimming in the ocean for the day and fresh water time was in store for us.
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I jumped in for a little bit, but decided I would rather bask my skin in sun and heat until it wrinkled like a prune. Daddy and Hija stayed in for quite some time. Again, sorta odd for papi.
My spot for most of the rest of the day, other than to cool off.
Sakari being goofy...if you can't tell what she's doing here, the video below it will show you. This child I swear...
Lately my little hija has been on this french fries with cheese kick. I'm not sure what brought that on, but she wants it non-stop. Today would be no different. We ordered her an entire plate of fries and cheese dip. She was a little leery about the cheese dip because she knows that everything I have tried that looked like cheese dip was in fact not cheese dip of any size, shape or form! I've been tricked every time. Of course she would volunteer me to do the taste test and I nicely declined!
That was the face of a happy child with her fries, cheese and ketchup. I was happy with getting Coca Light wasted.
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It didn't take long before she had an audience. I guess the singing Mexican birds thought cheese fries were good too. They called in all their friends for back up!
Our waiter, Carlos, came around and told us that the restaurant and bar would be closing shortly and we told him "La Cuenta por favor" and handed him our $30 coupons.
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I had went to go take more pictures of the area and when I returned the hubby told me that he came back and told us that we had to have used those coupons the first day we were here. Well that's some crap. We didn't know that. They had handed us the coupons and the free entry wrist bands at the same time and we didn't realize that they needed to be used that day. But, since there was a misunderstanding, they did offer us 10% off our bill and free drinks on the house.
There were still some couples and families there, even though it was getting late and they were closing. We asked Carlos if it would be ok to stay and watch the sunset. He said "I don't see why not". They had already taken up all the cushions and removed the trash so we made sure that when we left our spot, we disposed of all trash and picked the cushions up and put them on the stack in the building so they didn't have to.
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Now I'll show you around the area a little more than what I did the first day we were here. It is just so beautiful here.
The sun was slowly going down still
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It really is ashamed that the hotel next door is in ruins. Honestly, I probably would have stayed there next time if it was fixed up. We did ask our waiter about it and it used to be called Hotel Cozumel Carib. He said that the hurricane wiped it out and that is what's left. Something about the owners left the building and fled to either the mainland or "back home" wherever that is". I heard multiple stories like this while we were here that owners just abandoned buildings after hurricanes (so I could possibly be getting this mixed up with other places). They now have a few people staying in it with people bringing "stuff" to the island. Hmmm, what kinda "stuff" where they talking about? He didn't elaborate but there were a few rooms on the bottom floors that did appear to be in use with things hanging out on the balconies and plants.
Now they had 2 of these large palapa's on the side of the building, out right by the ocean, and they were pretty secluded since they didn't have beach loungers along this side since COVID. They had big cushions on them. We walked past them on our way down the "beach" to go to the snorkeling area and I just assumed that you would have to rent them or something. However, a lady that we spoke to the first day we came here said she had ask and was going to go take a nap on them and they said anyone could use them.
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The sun was slowly starting to set, but it was pretty cloudy out and I just knew that it wasn't going to be the sunset we had hoped for.
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There were people coming in to dine at the restaurant upstairs and I really felt out of place sitting on the beach by the wall in front of them. They were all upstairs, but still it was weird having them watch us. The guy went around and started lighting the torches they have along the wall. I bet it was really pretty once it got dark. We looked at the menu and thought about maybe going home and showering and coming back for dinner, but the menu didn't really appeal to us for some reason.
The sun was going down and we wondered if the mainland of Mexico was actually having the best view or if it was blocked by the clouds like it was in Cozumel.
One small glimmer of the sunset before it fell into the ocean and the flame was extinguished.
And that was that. Not the sunset we had hoped for at all, but it was still pretty.
We packed our things and headed to the car and talked about where we would like to eat dinner tonight after we showered and got some clean dry clothes on. It had been another successful day at Buccano's and that's saying a lot because I usually don't like to return to places a second time around (only because we like to experience new places each time) unless it's just a "must do twice" type of place. This was one of those places from the atmosphere to us just having so much fun and Sakari loving the dock to jump from. If I come back to Cozumel, we probably would try to come back here again.
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Of course on the way home there would be this awesome sky lit up with pink and orange and beautiful pastels that I had now wished that we would have stayed just a little longer to witness that. I desperately tried to get a picture of it along the ride home, but there were just too many buildings in the way that it wasn't happening. #insertsadfacehere
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So I had seen a lot of talk on the Cozumel groups about going to a place to eat called "Otates" in San Miguel. English hubby pronunciation is O-tates, but of course Spanish pronunciation is O-tat-eees. I did know that they had a recent name change and from what I have read online, it's because there was another restaurant on the mainland with the same name and they were sued for using the name so had to change it. But, everyone still calls this place Otates. The new name is Los Tacotales. I had looked it up prior to coming and pinpointed it on my Maps Me app. It was pretty close to home. I was in the mood for some real Mexican food, especially after ordering sushi at buccano's earlier and seeing the hubby's food. I figured why not try it out tonight.
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We jumped in the car and off we went, only a few blocks, and then circling the street a few times to try to find a parking spot. We ended up parking down the street and around the corner and walked the rest of the way. The restaurant was open air but yet under a roof. There wasn't a lot of people here either.
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Sakari brought her sketch book with her, because she never goes anywhere without it...including the beach! Any time there's a "down" moment, she's drawing.
Looking at the menu, I inquired about the tacos and the burritos. I found that the chicken taco's were just that...chicken on a soft taco shell. I guess I'm not understanding this true Mexican food. Where's the sour cream, lettuce and cheese and all the fixins'? Is this really how true Mexican food is? Just plain? I don't remember the food being like this any time I have ever been to Cozumel by ship and at a beach club and ordered food. Also, no Mexican pizza here either. ;)
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Well, the burrito came with a little more (lettuce, rice and cheese), so I decided I would order that. Sakari got the chicken quesadilla and the hubby decided to try something different. He went with a Tortas, which is a Mexican Sandwich with meat, onions, lettuce and cheese on it.
All of a sudden this happened.......
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What the heck??? Does every kid in Cozumel have a clown horn? Or did they just follow us here to drive us insane? Mi esposo decided to ask the waitress if she knew about the horns in the area. She gave us a really funny look like horns? We told her about our story since being here and some kinda horn that is constantly in the neighborhood blowing from early morning to late night and we have yet discovered what it was. She looked puzzled. She even asked some coworkers and they couldn't figure it out. The hubby likes to be embarrassing at times, and he is really proud of his eeeerrrrreeerrr skills in mocking this horn (has been since we rode on one of the transportation 3 wheeled bikes at the port where he would continue to "eeerrrr" at everyone as we went by) and she laughed but was still puzzled.
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Then all of a sudden...we heard it again and it was getting closer. THERE! THAT'S THE SOUND! She started laughing and said "That's the pan man" The what??? She said "bread, he sells bread". So now we had just learned a new word and it's one that we will NEVER forget. The pan man. Ahhhhh, mystery solved. She explained that they just rode around the streets selling bread. I wished we would have gotten a little bit more about this pan man, like was he the Wonder Bread man that sold to the restaurants and small stores or did he sell to people in the neighborhood? How is this even a job? There's several large grocery stores and even small corner lot/intersection stores to buy bread. Why did they need someone riding a bike in the neighborhood with the most annoying horn blowing at all hours of the day selling more? I'm not getting it. If anyone knows the story behind this, please leave a comment. I would love to know the history and story behind it.
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Now if you want to see something interesting, they brought out our food and this bowl they stole from their kitchen cabinet at home and somewhere in Cozumel, a small child is crying because they can't find their favorite cereal bowl
We were served limes in it. I'm not sure if this was considered an appetizer in Cozumel or what? :)
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Our authentic dinner was served.
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I have to admit, the hubbys Mexican sandwhich looked pretty good and the moaning sounds coming from his direction made me wish I would have ordered one as well.
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But, my burrito was pretty good as well. I don't know that I would say you just HAVE to eat here. There's a lot of rave about this place having the best food. I mean, it was ok but I wouldn't say I HAVE to come back for the taste of the food because for some reason I found it a little more bland than I had expected, but it was dinner.
Now the ambience here was definitely something to die for...like literally. Hubby was having issues trying to impress the waitress with his Spanish skills he has just translated from google translate during this annoying sound we were experiencing during our meal. Like this is fine dining evening time, what was going on???
We finished up our meal and received the check. Wait, that's it??? Ok, maybe that's the reason everyone comes here all the time. People have mentioned they come here multiple times during their visits. It has to be the awesome cheap prices they charge. So with that in mind, I guess I would eat here again if staying in Cozumel. You just can't beat that price for the food ($14.05 for 3 people to eat dinner with a drink).
As we headed home, we noticed we were on the back side of the shopping area we had visited when we first came. Now we knew this little tid-bit of information and we'd look for a parking space on the street instead of the main road when we returned.
A little Spanish lesson and then off to bed we went...satisfied that we now knew what this horn sound was at home. We had accomplished something today!