Parasailing
So the day before today I had made parasailing reservations for the same time that we were doing the Sea Trek that day and Ana (our host for the house we were staying in) helped me get it corrected. Well....it's parasailing day today!
Our reservations were for noon and we were to meet at Hotel Barracuda, which is the place right next door to Jeanie's so easy to get to and we knew where we were going.
We parked at the MEGA and played frogger across the street to Barracuda. They have a small "beach" in this area, just like Jeanie's and we happened to be the only ones on the beach at noon.
They took our temps, we washed our hands, then ask where to go for the parasailing.
We were instructed to go under the little palapa to sit at the table where we would find this sweet little old man that was sitting there. We talked to him and he was from the states and comes to Cozumel once a year for about 3-6 months out of the year. He was waiting on "the doctor" to come and give him his "shot" and he's been coming here for years to have this done. He was equipped with his medications. We ask if he was going parasailing and he said "no, just waiting on the doctor to arrive". He was so sweet. No, the below picture is not the little old man despite all the gray hair he's getting recently. ;)
A guy from the scuba shop came over and he was the one arranging for the parasailing as well. He spoke with us about the adventure, but was confused because there were only 3 of us and he had 4 bookings. Well, I explained to him that we had purchased 4 spots because mi hija is going up twice! How exciting is that?? Happy "early" Birthday to her!
We sat around and talked to the instructor as we waited on the parasailing boat to arrive. We talked about diving of course. I inquired how much he charged for Discover Scuba (my mind had been on this since we arrived and the hubby told me yesterday at Jeanie's that watching the scuba divers with us taking pictures and walking us around on the ocean floor made him really miss it and wanting to dive). He told me some outrageous price like $140/pp and I think I spit my pop out at that point! Wow, that's the highest price I have received during all my searching prior to leaving home. I let that conversation go after I heard that.
Now the place here was called "Scuba Juan", so now that I'm doing this review, I decided to look this place up. I found their website and low and behold...it says DSD are only $79/pp! What the heck? Were they trying to get one over on us?
I also noticed they listed the parasailing on their website. They must use this company exclusively because they name listed on their website was the same company that pulled up to get us (Albatross). Now the other thing I find funny is that the website says you can fly up to 3 people tandem. This is the first I have heard of this and everyone we spoke to had said only 2 people at a time and they don't do 3 people. However, their website does specify up to 350 pounds, so that would eliminate that. I'm guessing I need to put Hija on a diet at this point. ;) The price they have listed on their website for parasailing is $65 per person.
Now if you want to know where I booked our "flight" at, for $58.50, here's the website (I won't be using the companies logo since they mention it is copyrighted)
Website
The company that I used is called "Cozumel Tours" by Johann & Sandra. Now I know that I have seen people mention this couple and their tours before, so I felt comfortable booking it from the good experiences I had heard others mention. However, do know that I believe they are just a booking company that offers various excursions around the island with different vendors. Their website has a little history about them on there if you are interested. Your booking also comes with a "discount card" that gives you complimentary drinks or discounts at various restaurants around the island if you want to use it. We did not.
So the parasailing boat was pulling up and preparing for our flight and the dive instructor told us that he would take our pictures prior to take off...
Now getting in the boat was tricky for me, as it always is, because of my leg. Stepping down onto a moving object, while not having many places to hold on to is just scary.
I had a big bag with our things in it and I found it odd that the 2 guys on the boat didn't even bother to take it from me as I stepped down onto the boat. Hmmm, I don't think I have ever had that happen before.
But, I safely made it in there without any mishaps and I quickly scurried over to a stable place to sit.
Before long, we were heading out...goodbye Hotel Barracuda.
EeeeHaaaa, Hija, was having one of her funky bad hair days from going to bed with a wet head and now the wind blowing it everywhere. So, she decided to pull it up her lioness mane so that she could see during the flight. I was the next to get strapped in and again, kinda tricky for me to stand up on a moving boat and trying to step into things and put things on, but I managed.
We were ready! Hija and I were going up first!
It was a quick ride out and before long we were putting on our gear. The guys didn't speak too much for us and it was a different experience that we had the last time were the guides were talking to us and joking around to make us laugh.
The hubby was armed with a camera to take pictures of us and I was armed with the other camera to take pictures up there of him.
We watched these guys mess with a §hit ton of different colored ropes. Man they were everywhere! It made me super nervous to watch them take different colors and put them together and tie knots and just wow! What if they tied the wrong colors together? What if their knots slipped and came apart? It just really made me nervous. I never noticed any of this going on the last time we did parasailing. I guess the hubby was noticing too because he also took pictures of it.
Out went Mr Smiley! He was ready to put a smile on our face. Notice the camera strap in the hubby's picture. He's such a pro at this! lol
The guy motioned for us to come over, pointed to the back of the boat platform, and told us sit down. Of course I'm messing with my camera and trying to get it on the right setting as we were ready for take off (below). There wasn't much instruction on what was about to happen or what we were to do. The one thing they did tell us was if we wanted to come down for any reason, wave our feet/legs back and forth. Um, don't you do that when they are dangling anyhow? Don't you do that when you are excited? Oh my gosh Hija! Don't swing your feet back and forth for any reason! Nothing like the experience we had before.
Then up we went!
We were flying high like a bird. It was a little windy out but we were having fun and shark hunting...or at least I was. It would just be so cool to see SOMETHING in the water. Too bad we were not here during whale shark season (which starts the following month).
Sakari was laughing and having a good time, just like the last time we did this in St Thomas. Now we had asked the guides about being dipped before they attached us to the chute. I needed to know if I should take my socks off or not. They said "Do you want to be dipped?" We were like "sure!" So every so often the parachute would start to go down and Sakari would lift her legs up and squeal. Then it wouldn't happen.
The disappointed look on her face each time..
We would start to go down again and get really close, then nothing. We would go back up again. What the heck was going on???
Then toward the end, this was the face I was getting...
The only video that I would get of Hija and I parasailing would be the following clip from the hubby. I want to see if you notice anything about it?
Do you all remember the trip we took where the hubby is taking pictures and almost every single picture he takes has his finger in it? Yea, that's still going on! Even in videos! Not only did he have his finger in the video but some how he managed to make this picture in slow motion! I don't even know how to do that.
The last little "dip" session told us that we were actually coming in and not dipping. Maybe they misunderstood us? Sakari screamed for me to tuck my feet under and I couldn't understand why if we were coming in. Wouldn't we want our feet straight out to land our butt on the boat platform? I tucked my feet under like she told me and we drifted in and I tried to sit down and the guy yells at me to stand up! Wait, what? Why am I standing??? This was so odd. That's not how we did this before.
We stood up and held onto the long bar and then he sat Hija down on the platform and told me to go sit down.
The hubby was sitting and the guy gave the hubby the "come here" demand and he quickly scurried over to the platform only to notice that he still had his hat on and rushed back to hand it to me. Well that pissed off the guy you could tell. He looked at the other guy driving the boat and shook his head.
Then the hubby and hija was up, up and away!
The dangling straight feet photography was going on...but DO NOT sway them back and forth!
Hubby got a great picture of him and Sakari...I wished I could have pulled that off but when I try it, I only get pictures of me and my triple chin friends these days.
At this point, Hija was over the parasailing. As a matter of fact she was sick of parasailing and by sick I mean actually sick! She was feeling like she was going to throw up type of sick. I've never seen this happen before. She doesn't get motion sickness in a car, while cruising (even those times we have been rocking and rolling on the ship), not on a plane during turbulence, not on rollercoasters or rides that swing you in circles, not any time! So, this was extremely weird for her. But, she was trying to hold it in and still give somewhat of a smile to papi.
Of course they didn't get to dip either and they both knew how to land after seeing me struggle with trying to "sit" like before and that wasn't how this one was done. The hubby would later tell me it was too windy to dip us.
Back on the boat, Sakari was being quiet and looking away most of the trip. I think she was really trying to hold it in at this point. I felt so bad for her. She said one time would have been enough and thought that it was just because of the wind up there and being up there so long (which for her, I still can't imagine that being a problem).
We were pulling back in and hija couldn't wait to get off the boat and head to the bano's.
Here is a video of our parasailing trip...
The minute that we docked, hija was off and running to the bathroom. She even managed to pass up the swimming pool there at the hotel and didn't ask questions about whether or not we could swim here. That speaks volumes!
She spent a little time in the bano's and when she emerged, she was somewhat better she said. She sat down outside with us and was quiet for awhile while we tried to decide what we should do after this, which ended up being another day spent at Buccanos since we enjoyed it so much the other day.
Final Thoughts:
As you can probably tell, we really did care for the vendor we went with (not with the dive shop who we booked with but the actual parasailing company they use). I just felt like the people were somewhat rude and of course not talkative and gave next to no instructions to us. I just really didn't care for them at all. I definitely would not use them again and would attempt to find another parasailing company if we ever return.