LAKEWOOD YACHT CLUB
COMMODORE'S CRUISE TO COZUMEL, MEXICO
Aug. 11 - 16, 2002

     Angela and I got up at 4am on Sunday, August 11, to pack our vehicle and drive to LYC for a 5:30am deadline.  The bus taking us to Intercontinental Airport must be slow, we thought, as the flight didn't leave until 9:35.  We were one of the last couples to arrive, so we thought maybe this crowd liked to get up early.  (We joined Lakewood in late-May, 2002, so we didn't know many members at that time.)  The bus pulled out and took the longest route possible to IAH, arriving at 6:45.  We had almost three hours to check in (a snap, at the group desk), eat breakfast, and buy books and last-minute items in the airport.

     The Continental flight took about two hours; isn't jet travel amazing?  We took cabs to our hotel, Casa Mexicana, which was located in the downtown area of San Miguel and right on the harbor.  The hotel was fairly new and very nice.  It had won awards for its stylish appearance.  Everything was open air except the sleeping rooms, which were well air conditioned.

     We were hungry and walked the six or so blocks to Las Palmeras Restaurant, which is right across the street from the ferry landing and on the corner of the town square.  Jim and Roni Hall (our sponsors at Lakewood) joined Angela and I for lunch in this open-air restaurant, where we also had our group banquet on Thursday night.  We missed the free check-out dive on the beach at 1pm, but our hunger was more important to us at the time.


     We spent the afternoon unpacking, getting our bearings, and getting settled in our room.  An escalator brought us up to the Lobby level from the street, and they called that the first floor.  One elevator in a yellow-painted shaft brought guests up from the lobby to the rooms floors.  The breakfast buffet and Happy Hour area was on the second floor, which was open to the sky above.  We could also walk up a set of stairs from the lobby to the second floor.  On the lobby level was a small pool, lounge chairs for swimmers and sunbathers, a sunning area with a great view of the harbor, a wet bar, and comfortable chairs and couches that were under cover but not in air conditioning.

      
     At 6pm the group had Happy Hour on the second floor.  The snacks were so good we didn't need dinner.  I believe there were about 54 of us on that trip.  Only a dozen were divers, but there were opportunities for snorkeling, shopping, and sight-seeing for sure.  See the Go Cozumel website for many facts and good photos about the island, which is rated one of the top three places in the world for scuba diving.

    

     On Monday, August 12, we planned to go diving with the group.  A buffet breakfast was included in our package, and we availed ourselves of that good meal every day.  Then we lugged our dive bag down the street (less than one block) to the Aqua Safari dive shop.  We rented BCs, regulators, and weight belts; we brought with us our own fins, masks, and snorkels.  We went out on the OCEAN III, a 38-foot dive boat.  I forgot my wet suit and left it in the room; so Jim Hall loaned me an extra "skin" he wasn't using.  Angela did without a wetsuit; it was so hot she figured she wouldn't need it.  She was right; I later dived with and without a wetsuit without a problem.

     We returned to the dock and our hotel, showered and changed, and asked the hotel desk for a recommendation for lunch.  Jack and Alice Thomas were two of our hosts for the trip: Marcy Fryday was another.  (Jeff Southard was another.)  Either Alice or Marcy overheard us at the desk and recommended Guido's.  She said she thought the other LYC members had already gone down there.  It was a walk of 12 blocks or so, and it was hot!  We had at least one short rain every day, and that day it occurred between the diving and walking to lunch.


     When we arrived we were shown to a table on the patio, where the chances of a breeze were the greatest.  There were ceiling fans there, too.  The two tables of LYC members finished their lunches shortly after we arrived.  We had a pizza, and then we had another.  Water and a couple of Diet Cokes (Coca Cola Light outside the USA) completed our meal, which cost about $30 US.

     We waited in the lounge area of the lobby for a Sunset Cruise to take place, but it didn't happen.  At least for most of us it didn't happen.  I think they sent a boat that was too small for us, so most of us blew it off.  The Commodore (Sid Kapner), his wife, Jan, and a few others did go out on the boat; and they said they enjoyed it.  The rest of us were told we would get a refund of our money.

     Our friends from Lake Jackson, Don and Monica Chambers, flew in from Houston on Monday and joined us in the lobby lounge.  Their trip was a seven day FunJet trip including a different hotel.  They had chosen to not do the Sunset Cruise with us, so when it was canceled we all had the chance to reconsider our options.  Jim and Roni Hall had been to Cozumel many times, and they suggested we go to Pepe's Grill for dinner.  After we were seated there, we looked around and several of the tables were occupied by LYC members on our cruise.  Pepe's Grill was air conditioned, and it was owned by the owners of our hotel so we got a small discount there.

     On Tuesday, August 13, Don and Monica joined us for the dive trip.  Monica was not certified for scuba diving, but she planned to snorkel while we dived.  Jim Hall brought his underwater camera gear to take some photos of us underwater.  The diving was great; we did two dives each day.  On Tuesday we all had the chance to do some snorkeling in between the two dives.  Angela and I saw the wreck of a jet ski underwater.  Due to the current we were drifting so fast it was easy to miss something if you were looking a different way.  That's the way diving in Cozumel is, and since the boat drifts with you very little swimming is required.

        
        
     After the diving and the short rain, we showered and changed and walked south to a TGI Friday's.  It was air conditioned and had hamburgers, and that's what we wanted at the time.  Lunch was about $28 US.


     We took it easy in the afternoon, and the same six of us met at Casa Mission for dinner that evening.  Don and Monica had been to Cozumel a few weeks earlier and discovered the place, and they wanted us to see it.  It was a large home with dining tables set up on the porches along two sides of the house.  On the grounds were beautiful flowers and some animals, including a cage with two lions inside.  Because it was open-air dining and it was a hot night, I was uncomfortably warm.  We were able to see the interior of the house after dinner, and we briefly saw the lady of the house from a distance.  Jim and Roni and Angela and I went back to our hotel; Don and Monica planned to stay out later that evening.

     On Wednesday, August 14, we got up early, as Don had talked us into catching the 8am ferry to Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun on the Mexican mainland.  We ate breakfast and waited for them, but they didn't show up.  We ran to the ferry and just made it, and 40 minutes later we were in Playa del Carmen (the ferry fee was $18 US per person, round trip).  We wanted to go to Xcaret, a water park south of Cancun we had heard a lot about.  Don and Monica had wanted to rent a car and drive to see the Mayan ruins south and west of Cancun.  So we thought we would have split up there even if we had traveled on the ferry together..


     We wasted some time at Playa del Carmen talking to some people we thought were "official government guides" about how to get to Xcaret.  They, and several others like them, were offering "deals" and discounts on the cost of admission to Xcaret.  They wanted us to go north to Cancun and see a new hotel, listen to a presentation, make reservations for next year or buy a condo, whatever.  We finally realized what was going on and walked over to the street where the taxis waited.  We took a cab to Xcaret, paid our entrance fee (almost $100 US for two), and watched the rain pour down for about 30 minutes.

     The thing we had heard the most about, and what we wanted to do, was to swim or float down an underground or partially underground river.  Being unfamiliar with their system, we couldn't at first figure out how we were going to get back when we reached the end of the river and what to do with our clothes, cameras, etc.  Once we got that sorted out, we had lunch, got a locker, put on life preservers (mandatory), and got into some of the coldest water I had felt in a long time.  There were hundreds of others in the river, and we got used to the temperature after a short while.  The cold water was a relief from the hot, humid atmosphere we had every day of the trip.

     After floating down the underground river, we walked back up to the beginning and got into a second river and floated down that one, too.  We were used to traveling on rivers, so we were right at home on these mini-cruises.  As usual, the scenery was fascinating and ever-changing.  Since it was Mexico, it was certainly very different scenery.  At the end (of each river trip) they gave us a bag with our towels and shoes and shirts inside.  We had filled the bag with these essentials and padlocked it at the beginning of the river.  A truck brought the padlocked bags to the end of the river; we kept our key to unlock the padlock.  The valuable and fragile items we left in a locker near the entrance.

     We walked and looked at the park, seeing many beautiful animals, plants, and interesting sites, such as Mayan ruins.  They had a marina for a few boats right at the ocean, and they had an area for a dolphin show and for swimming with the dolphins.  We really could not begin to see it all in one day.  We ate dinner and went to the "Show" at 7pm.  It was in a very modern, open-air, domed stadium; and the show was excellent.  Our choices for a return ferry were 9pm or 11pm, so we left a little early, got a taxi, and caught the 9pm ferry back to Cozumel.

     On Thursday, August 15, we called Don and Monica and left a message.  When Monica called back a few hours later, she confirmed our suspicions they had overslept the preceding morning.  After breakfast we sat in the lobby lounge area and watched it rain.  A new cruise ship was in port, and it was easy to see it from the sunbathing area at the front of our hotel.  After the rain we took some pictures.  Then we went back to the room for a little reading in the air conditioning.

       

     The Mexican people were usually warm and friendly, respectful and helpful.  The housekeeping staff made up our towels into different animal shapes each day, using various objects like buttons or bottle tops to make eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc.  We saw a swan, a turtle, an elephant, etc.  It was always a pleasant surprise to come into the room and see what they had left for us.  The rooms were nice, too; but the beds were very hard, probably a mattress on a concrete slab.  The photo of a room was not our room but one with an ocean view from their website.  

      
     Getting extra towels, soap, etc. was never a problem; and they had an ice machine and drink machine at the end of the hall on our floor.  We were on the fourth floor, not right on the water (I think that's where the Commodore and the hosts were); but we could see the water off to the south.  The next two photos were taken from our balcony.

              

     For lunch we decided to return to Guido's, where we had a repeat of our previous meal.  Then we went to the Museum of Cozumel Island.  It was very interesting.  I especially liked the scale models showing the island and the underwater topography around the island, including the reefs and the shallow areas.  Then we did our tourist shopping,  getting a few shirts, a few gifts, a couple of picture frames with dolphins and fish on the sides, and some other items we couldn't live without.  The shops were usually air conditioned, so shopping inside the store was cooler than walking the streets.  We saw a new cruise ship on the way back to the hotel.  We were told they have 43,000 visitors each week from the cruise ships, which must number about 20 - 25 per week.  The photo on the left, of the main street along the harbor, was made on our walk back to the hotel.

     Happy Hour was at the hotel at 6pm, followed by dinner at Las Palmeras.  We were getting to know more of the LYC members by then, having eaten breakfast with a few of them, and having met some of the members at other group functions.  The members were multi-talented; we met several with hundreds of dives in their log books, from many interesting and exotic places.  There were several past Commodores there, and some members had joined the Club 20 and 30 years ago.  Some of the sailors there had been in one of the annual cruises (races) to Veracruz, Mexico, which is south of Galveston over 600 miles one way across the Gulf of Mexico.

     At Las Palmeras we were seated at several tables, but there was no roof over one or two of the tables; and rain was predicted.  We actually didn't get much in the way of rain, but it did sprinkle a little while we were there.  The meal was good, and we got to meet some more of the members.  Afterwards we walked around the Plaza, watching the local artisans painting and creating their crafts and handiwork which they offered for sale there.  We went back to the hotel and finished our packing for the return flight.

     Our last day was Friday, August 16.  We had breakfast as usual, and the taxis came for us at 9:30am.  The flight was at 12:30pm, so we had plenty of time to have a drink and buy some more valuable gifts to take home.  We landed an hour late due to bad weather in Houston, and the buses took us to Lakewood Yacht Club by 4:30pm.  The hosts did a great job with all the arrangements.  We had enjoyed the trip, the company (both old and new friends), the diving, the food, and the beautiful water.

Farewell to Don