If you missed it, our day in Florida and the first two days of the cruise here.
Day three in Jamaica here.
Day four at the beach in Grand Cayman and the second Elegant Night here.
Today is all about our fifth day on the Carnival Breeze. It was our third port day, in Cozumel, Mexico. Dave and I had been to Cozumel together twice before this cruise. The first time we had a fun beach day and the second time we did a sail and snorkel excursion. We had a great time doing both, but any chance we have to go sailing, we usually jump at it. A couple weeks before we went on the cruise, Joanne and I started looking into going sailing in Cozumel. We found a sailboat to go on, and booked it for seven of us. (Us 2, Joanne and Gary, Eric and Kristine and Anna) We were so so excited to go sailing and snorkeling on our own private sailboat!
We didn't arrive in Cozumel until 10:00am, so Dave and I had fun around the ship before our arrival. Swimming, hot tub, walking, breakfast. It almost felt like a full day before we even left the ship.
Just before we got to Cozumel, the cruise director made an announcement that the Mexican authorities had closed the port to all smaller boats, so all excursions on boats under fifty feet were cancelled. There was a strong wind and pretty rough seas. The sailboat we were booked on was 47 feet, so no sailing for us. :(
Luckily, we were still on a gorgeous island with twelve hours of free time, so not going sailing wasn't going to ruin our day.
We walked around the port area with all the shops for awhile, and I found a new sundress. Look how pretty Cozumel is! I just love love love this port and island!
We ended up talking to a taxi driver about local beaches. He recommended going to "the other side" -- the east side of the island, which was more sheltered from the wind. We made a plan with him to take a van over there, have the driver wait there for us for four hours, and bring us back to the port. We were pumped go to the beach!
When we got there, we enjoyed tacos and other good food for lunch in this little sand-floored, straw-roof, no-walls restaurant. We were even serenaded with some "happy music" by some mariachi singers. :)
We started out on the beach by this little cove, sheltered from the wind. There were some surfers out beyond the rocks. Those waves were big!
Next to the beach there were some little rock hills, so Joanne, Anna, Kristine, and I went to check it out.
On the other side of the rocks, there was a small bay with lots of room to lay down our towels. We moved our stuff over so we could swim in the waves and -hello-- body surf!
Nothing beats the blue sky, teal waters, and white sand. I took close to 500 pictures of our view. I'm holding back, only sharing these 30 pictures. Haha :)
After four glorious hours, we headed back to find our taxi driver.
I think we all breathed some sighs of relief to see him and his van still there. We wouldn't have to walk twelve miles back to the port. Whew!
Joanne with our driver, Miguel. He told us the population of Cozumel is 90,000 people and 20,000 scooters. Tourism is the number one industry.
Back at the port, we got a group picture of all of the beach-goers.
I did not want to leave this gorgeous island, so I convinced Dave to chill out on this lawn chair while I walked around some more. I even delivered him an ice cold beverage.... I had to make it worth his time, if the view didn't already do it. ;)
Back on the Breeze, we had a few minutes to shower and get ready for dinner before we went to check out Gary and Joanne's fancy balcony suite. Maybe someday we'll be extra cool like them!
After dinner we sat in the karaoke lounge and tried to convince each other to sign up for a song. No such luck.
Another ship stayed in Cozumel late, so we had this view later that night when we were walking around.
We were supposed to be back on board at 10:00pm and at about 10:15, we heard a paige for four guests. Soon after that, we left the pier and started moving away from Cozumel. Dave and I went up to eleven to watch the lights disappear, and we saw a boat approaching the ship. It kept getting closer, and then it disappeared under the lifeboats. It was linked up with our ship for about ten minutes, then it left. Our guess was those four passengers missed the 10pm back on board time and found a way to get back on the ship.
We were very happy that didn't happen to us!!
There goes the little boat, back to the port.
That was probably my favorite day on our vacation. Our sailing plans fell through but we still had a gorgeous day on a beautiful beach. I want to go back!
Thanks for reading. That was a long post and lots of pictures.
