I was so happy this morning when I returned to the bedroom we were sharing with the kids and saw Magnus on the bed in his fart pose – on forearms and knees with arse sticking straight up in the air, enabling maximum release of wind. Stella was standing there and I screamed at her to run but she was paralyzed by fear. As expected his butt exploded and the horrible smell penetrated the bedding, the pillows, the plaster, us, and the floor tiles and he laughed diabolically seeing the destruction he had caused. It was good to have him back to his regular self.
We hopped a bus with Don, Donna and Mom and headed downtown. Our goal today was to take the ferry over to Cozumel, and it was a perfect day for walking as the temperature had really dropped with the storm the night before. Ana and I have always called Latin America the Land of the Lost Radio Songs and we were not surprised this morning when the bus radio blasted out a painful Laura Branigan ballad and then a series of terrible Abba songs. I just bobbed my head and enjoyed wearing a tank top in January.
We arrived at the ferry terminal just in time to pay our 100 pesos round trip fare and get on the boat that was just about to leave. The ride started out smooth but once we escaped the shadow of the mainland the seas got big and choppy and started tossing the ferry around. One young Guatemalan man, let’s call him Mr. Barfy, ran up to the garbage can and lost his breakfast. Several others turned various shades of green, but managed to hold it in. It took about 40 minutes to reach Cozumel and by then the wind was truly howling, but perhaps that’s business as usual here because the ferry captain and crew had no trouble getting us docked and everybody off safely.
The ferry terminal is right in the centre of the main tourist area of Cozumel so we went for a lengthy walk, exploring shops and poking around. It was nice, but very cruise shippy, as opposed to Isla Mujeres which had more of a scuzzy, backpacker vibe. Magnus found a switchblade he was interested in and did some hard bargaining with the owner but she would not let it go for less than 30 bucks, which was a rip-off considering the questionable quality of said, illegal in Canda weapon. The ladies found a shoe store and spent what seemed like a very, very long time in there trying on shoes, but in the end they were successful and each walked out with at least one pair. I found one shop that had more pigeons inside than people, although I imagine this changes when the cruise ships are in town, which they were thankfully not today.
We chose a restaurant that was just off the main square and had a decent meal of tacos, burritos, fajitas and seafood soup. Don and I enjoyed some beers and were threatening to hit the tequila shots, but then we remembered that we had to cross back to Playa on that rough ocean and thought better of exposing our stomachs to unnecessary irritants. There was some fine, traditional Mexican music coming from giant speakers in the square, but then the restaurant next to us started blaring that same stupid Laura Branigan song we heard on the bus in the morning. Euww.
We caught the 3pm ferry and had an equally rough ride back to Playa, but this time the waves were such that we got a blast of seawater in the face every once in a while. Ana was right beside me, all snuggled up, so I got a towel out of our beach bag and put it over top of us which worked well. At one point I was looking out at the sea and saw half a dozen flying fish launch themselves out of the crest of a wave and skitter across the surface for several seconds.
Back on solid ground we made a half-hearted attempt to find a barber shop that was open because I wanted to try out one of the 30 peso (two bucks Canadian) haircuts, but many business were closed, likely because it was Sunday and late in the afternoon. So instead we bussed back home, and the ride was so comfortable that Magnus fell asleep in his seat and only managed to avoid falling by leaning against a Mexican man who was standing beside him. Stella didn’t seem to notice and she continued her conversation with her sleeping brother all the way to our stop. She is a great listener, but an even better talker.
We returned to our apartment, made a big meal with all the food that was left, and then we went over to Mom’s for a short visit and ended up watching Nacho Libre – perfect movie for Mexico!
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