Cozumel: Day 2

By
Saint Greg

June 4, 2021

Good morning! I know this is my first morning here but since this is such a short trip, I have to get my COVID-19 test today. They were going to schedule us for tomorrow but we have the Cozumel Barhop. That will pretty much take up the whole day so we wanted to get it scheduled for today.

So much time last night was spent discussing how to handle today. We want to go downtown and my friend wants to stop at some pharmacy on the way. We can’t get our COVID test at the hotel until 10am. I think the plan is breakfast, maybe a bloody mary or two, COVID test, pharmacy, downtown, and lunch somewhere downtown. That’s as much as I know at this point.

I have a coffee maker and a coffee packet in the room here. It looks like I’m going to try a local coffee called Or Magico

I got up at 6:45. At 6:50 my friend calls. He’s been up for an hour and a half. He says he’s ready to eat breakfast at 7 which is right when the restaurant opens. I tell him I want to drink coffee and shower first. He tells me how his coffee maker just made a mess so I’d be better getting coffee at the restaurant and I should wait until before we go downtown to shower and all that.

This is one of the reasons I like traveling solo. I can do whatever I want, whenever I want without someone trying to get me to do everything on their schedule.

I’m going to drink this coffee, take a shower, and then I’ll head down for breakfast.

When I got down to the restaurant my friend was still there but had already eaten. Breakfast is included for both of us. I started with another cup of coffee and a fruit cup.

We had options of french toast, pancakes, or an omelet with a certain number of ingredients. I got the omelet with ham, cheese, and mushrooms.

After breakfast we each got a bloody mary. It’s a good thing we had Tabasco on the table because these weren’t anywhere near as spicy as we like them.

Mr. Coffee only made half of the pot and then clogged up. I’m guessing the filters aren’t good. That was a mess to clean up after breakfast.

The tissues here are all attached. I feel like I’m a clown or a magician.

It’s time for our COVID test. What they do here at the hotel is get someone to come in and setup in the spa area. The spa is through those doors. That’s where they tested us. It was $35 cash for the test.

After the test we headed out. They always have two taxi cabs out front. We got in one and headed downtown.

On the way into town we pass the “cross breeding monument” which depicts an Aztec warrior with Mayan women and children after conquering the Mayans.

While my friend is looking for his pharmacy, I’m going to stop in this bar and grab a beer.

It turns out that bar doesn’t open for another 30 minutes. I noticed I’m about three blocks from the Mega store. I’m going to head over there and see if I can get some coffee and filters.

I got a bag of dark roast and some filters.

Across the street from the Mega store I found a bar.

I’m on my second beer. I’m trying to contact my friend to let him know where I am, but his T-Mobile service isn’t as good in Mexico as my AT&T service.

You don’t want to get caught stealing here.

I’m on my third beer here. I did get in touch with my friend. He said he would be here in 15 minutes. That was 25 minutes ago. I know he was heading in the wrong direction when I talked to him but I’m pretty sure I gave him good directions.

I should’ve had him download the maps.me app before we left. I didn’t realize his T-Mobile Mexico plan wasn’t going to work. Maps.me is a good offline map app. You just have to remember to download the maps you’re going to need before you go offline. I usually download them before each of my trips. This is the first year I’ve had a plan with unlimited talk, text, and data in Mexico.

My friend finally made it. It looks like he got what he needed.

We are off to find lunch.

This explains why Senor Frogs is no longer the meeting point for the Cozumel Barhop.

Many of the popular tourist places are closed.

We were looking for a specific taco place but that too is closed. We asked a guy on the street selling tours for a good fish taco recommendation.

He walked us to La Mission.

We started out with margaritas.

Chicken tortilla soup.

The tacos came pretty plain. We had to request fixins.

A tequila tasting is happening in the back. We’ll check it out after lunch.

Nice scenery on the way to the bathroom.

Yes, I tried all of them.

We are heading out to find a cab back to the hotel. My friend said all he wants to do is go back and swim.

This is where you can do the Jean Laffite Pirate Cruise.

These are the ferry boats that will take you over to Playa Del Carmen. I’ll be in that general area soon after this trip.

This is the Coral Reefs Monument.

This statue is of General Rafael Melgar who also served as governor from 1935-1940.

When we arrived back at the hotel the front desk gave us our COVID test results.

We changed into our swim suits and hit the pool. I had a pina colada and my friend had a vodka tonic.

I guess my friend was still hungry. He ordered veggie fajitas.

At 3:30 he said he had to call his grandmother and he’d be back down for dinner at 7pm. I think he really wants to take a nap but doesn’t want to tell me that. I kind of wish I would’ve just stayed downtown.

I took a shower, changed clothes, and decided to head back out. I remembered seeing a micro brewery and a rum tasting room on the map I thought I’d check out.

On the way in we pass the Monument of Two Cultures.

This is Capilla De La Santa Cruz which is a church constructed on the site that is said to be where the first Catholic Mass in Mexico occured.

I arrived at Cerveceria Punta Sur Brewery. All of our cab rides to and from downtown have been $5 each way.

Notice the sanitization mats when you walk in and the sanitizer and temperature gun on the bar. Pretty much every place you go here takes your temperature and sanitizes your hands and shoes. This place was no different. When I walked in, someone hit me with the gun and sanitizer.

This is where the magic happens.

Here is a look at the menu. I see they have lion fish on the food menu. If I weren’t still full from lunch that might be something to try. Lion fish are cool to look at but actually cause problems in the Caribbean. It’s believed they were dumped from aquariums in the 80’s. Since they aren’t native to this area they have very few predators so their population is booming and they end up eating small fish that are important to the reefs and commercial fishing. So I think eating lion fish would be a good thing if you ever see them on the menu.

I started out with the stout.

I noticed they have the machine that rinses the glass immediately before your beer is poured.

Next I tried the white stout.

A lot of places here have the custom masks. I got one from the Cozumel Barhop. My friend bought one from La Mission for $5. They have them here as well.

Next I went with the Amber.

The stout was my favorite as usual. I’m going to make my way down to the Cozumel Rum Company tasting room.

This was just about a two block walk for me so it was pretty convenient to visit both of these places back-to-back.

We made it to the Cozumel Rum Company.

If you want a Cozumel Rum Company shirt or hat, they have all of that there. They also have an online store.

You can purchase rum in one of their hand blown glass bottles or in a regular bottle.

These bottles are made by hand by a master glass blower. I may have to see if I can order one. I don’t have room in my luggage.

They have food and live music at night in the courtyard.

We did a 3-year white rum, a 5-year spiced rum, and a 3-year spiced rum. The white rum and 5-year are aged in Jack Daniels barrels. The regular 3-year spiced is aged in Mexican barrels. I definitely liked the the 3-year spiced the best for sipping.

You can read more about their different types of rum here.

Just a few hours ago I walked right up to the door at Senor Frogs and now I can’t? I asked a construction worker what was going on. He said they were hired to move it to a different location but now they are renovating this location and opening a second location. He couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me where the second location will be.

Hooters is actually open. I guess it just opens later than it did when cruise ships were visiting. This is our barhop meeting point for tomorrow.

Taco Tequila and NY Pizza are still closed.

I’m going to catch a taxi down to Puerta Maya–The Carnival owned port. I want to see what it looks like now. I thought the cab driver might think I was crazy wanting to go to an area that’s likely shut down. Instead of asking him to take me to the port I told him to take me to the Hard Rock which is just a block or two away. We got there he say’s “It’s closed.” I said “that’s okay,” paid him, and got out of the cab. He did look at me like I was crazy.

This is pretty much what I expected. It’s like a ghost town now.

I was hoping the nearby hotels would keep them afloat but I guess not.

I’ll be coming from under there with thousands of others in December and March.

I got a text from my friend asking if we’re still on for dinner at 7pm. It’s 6:45 now. I tell him to push it to 7:30 and I start heading towards the hotel.

I definitely had a cigar and a couple beers here a few years ago.

I had to walk a couple blocks before I came across a taxi.

I made it back to the hotel with time to shower and change for a 7:30 dinner.

Chips and guac

My friend got fish tacos again. I noticed they only put two chips in his guac today. They gave him three yesterday. They aren’t slipping anything by me.

I got beef fajitas.

My friend said he got hungry in the middle of the night last night so tonight he got a dessert to go. This is called chocolate obscene. I believe it’s a lava cake similar to Carnival’s chocolate melting cake.

And I’m in for the night.

They did clean my room today. They replenished my towels but not my coffee or bottled water. It’s a good thing I picked up coffee and filters at the Mega store. I meant to pick up bottled water but I forgot. I ended up getting two waters to go from the restaurant.