In June (yes, it was that long ago and I hadn’t written about it yet, as Elizabeth promised… sorry), Elizabeth decided we should take a final trip away before the baby arrives and before she is no longer able to take airplane rides. Our destination, Cozumel, Mexico. Neither of us had ever been there and we both obviously love Mexico. So, she found a good deal on FunJet and booked the trip with the travel agent we used for our honeymoon to Playa del Carmen.

So, on our departure day, we woke up at 4 a.m. to drive out to the airport. Houston traffic is so much better before 6 a.m. Once at the airport, we started our day of ‘waiting in lines’. By the numbers: we spent about 45 minutes in the ‘check-in’ line, 2 hours on the flight, 1 hour and 30 minutes waiting for 3 customs agents to process 3 full flights, another 20 minutes to wait in line to push the fail-safe stoplight button to see if pass or fail for a strip search, a 25 minute ride to the hotel, and finally a 15 minute check-in at the hotel only to be told we would have to wait 4 hours to be able to actually access our rooms. Just in time to miss the breakfast they stopped serving 10 minutes before-hand.

Two tips (literally):

1. Tip the baggage guy at the airport when he asks if you want help with your luggage. Even if you don’t need help, take him up on his offer as he will by-pass the fool-proof strip-search protection designed to save all of Mexico.
2. Tip the guy at the check in desk… even though he’s not supposed to take it. It won’t get you breakfast, but it will get you into your room two hours early… and trust me, that’s worth it if you were dumb enough to dress up on a flight to the tropics in hopes that you had a chance a getting bumped up into 1st class (you won’t).

Our first impressions of Cozumel? Breathtaking. It was everything we’d hoped it would be. I’m easy to please. All I wanted was sun, white sand, and clear water. As an added first bonus, we also got humidity, bad hotel food, worse drinks, and huge mosquitoes (even bigger than the ones here in Texas).

More tips:

1. Take bug spray. Some things you can’t leave at home, like mosquitoes.
2. Don’t stay at an all-inclusive hotel under 5 stars if you are expecting good grub and booze.

The first day we just tried to relax and enjoy the environment at the resort. We took the free charter into the main town, San Miguel, but had to take a taxi home since we stayed late. After making some new friends and gathering tips on the charter from the airport, we took their advice and rented a Jeep [Wrangler] the next day.

After renting the Jeep, we headed south on the main highway to see where it would lead. 30 minutes later, we discovered it went in a big circle (after Googling once I got home, I found this useful map). We made note of a few of the landmarks, including Coconuts, which was one of the few restaurants to eat at on the south side of the island. This place was neat to eat at because it sat on top of a cliff overlooking the sea (it’s also not meant to be a romantic place, so look elsewhere if you’re into that). We tried stopping at an open beach, but the mosquitoes attacked as soon as I stopped driving, so we aborted that idea. Too bad, because the water looked picturesque.

It rained the last two days, so we drove back into town each day to look around at the tourist-targeted shops and attractions. The people were pretty friendly every where we went, but don’t get offended if store employees follow you around… they get a lot of traffic, so they have to look after their investments. We found a few gifts and other items for our house at some of the off-the-path places. Our favorite stop had to be an ice cream shop we found on the first day.

Our goal for the rest of the trip was to find places with more of the local flavor. One place we stopped at for food and air conditioning was showing the soccer game between Mexico and Argentina. It was packed with locals and we weren’t even acknowledged until Mexico lost. After that, we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed the best and most authentic meal of our trip.

We will definitely go back, but we won’t stay at the Allegro again (I heard the El Cozumeleño is nice). We had a great time and it was just the kind of short excursion we needed.

Final tips:

1. Stay close to San Miguel. It might save you from renting a car or relying on taxis.
2. Don’t rent scooters/mopeds unless you’ve ridden motorcycles.
3. Don’t try and take said scooter/moped to the south side of the island. It will take forever.
4. Don’t eat at the main open-air restaurant along the coast in downtown San Miguel. It only looks cool.
5. Don’t laugh at the first guy to tell you, "Hey it’s Mexican air-conditioning". It’s funny until you realize their serious and it will only encourage them.
6. Don’t punch every guy after the first one that says, "Hey it’s Mexican air-conditioning". It’s not their fault they only know one joke.