Cozumel 2021
Day 2: Car Rental, groceries, a beach and fighting for parking spaces...
Since we have been getting up early and going to bed early, I was up by 6:30am and wide awake. I guess it was time to roll out of bed and head down to our perch out back by the pool. The hubby downloaded the Duolingo app and was giving it his best shot...then he said it stopped and told him he had to buy it to continue. I'm not sure why because I've had it on my computer for years and it has never ask me to do that. So, he ended up with another app and I downloaded the Duolingo to mine instead.
We practiced our Spanish and I just have to laugh every time his app told him to "repeat after me" because it would take him 5 or 6 tries to get it right. #palminfaceplant Of course he has the straight American reading language going on and can't understand that Spanish pronounces things differently with the letters. All I can say is thank goodness I had my 1 year in high school of Spanish because at least I knew the difference and had a head start on him. :D
Sakari was taking full advantage of sleeping in today. It was getting later in the morning and I was starving. I'm one of those that can get up in the morning and have breakfast immediately. Hubby can't eat when he first gets up and needs hours to build up an appetite. Weird species he is. But, since we didn't have a car, we couldn't grocery shop. Oh wait, we have all the fresh fruit that was left by Ana! I spent some time slicing and dicing and presented everyobne with a plate of fruit for breakfast. Sakari was finally up and we could eat now.
Remember how the person at Hertz said they would call today when people started to return their cars? Yea, well they NEVER did! The day before Ana had told us that ISIS was a wonderful place to rent from (second time I had heard this) and had given us their phone number and directions on how to get there. I decided to look them up online for pricing. I was in luck, they were having an internet "special" and only if you booked online with them. They have some really cheap cars....IF you don't want an automatic and IF you don't want a/c. But, for a car with both of those, you are going to pay $55 a day! If you don't require all of those things, you can snag a car for $35/day. BUT....(Prices are Exclusive to Online Reservations ONLY so Reserve NOW !!)
I really hated the thought of having to pay almost double than what we had originally booked for, but...I didn't see anyone jumping hoops to give us another car. I decided to call ISIS and my first words to them ¿Hablas inglés? I was happy to hear the man on the line say "Yes!" Awesome...."Yo necesito un automovil" Wait, he said he spoke English. I need an automobile por favor! He immediately started telling these cheap prices and I ask if they were auto and with a/c...."oooohhh nooo senorita!" He told me those prices are $55/day. So, I guess booking online will NOT get you a better deal after all.
I told mi familia to get ready, we are going to ISIS for a car. I'm not wasting any more time of this precious day waiting on a call that never did come.
Ana told us that the easiest way to call for a cab is to use their facebook page. You go to "Taxis Cozumel" and put in you need a taxi from _______ then you put in your address. Sounds simple enough right? I did that and got the response "para cuantas personas" um..... ok, I'm guessing personas is people and the hubby shouted out "FOR HOW MANY PEOPLE" like he had just won that game show and wanted a prize now. I answered by saying "Tres". Hey at least I can count in Spanish...up to ten. LOL
If you answer in Spanish, you better be able to talk in Spanish because now you have given off the impression you are Spanish and really you are just flying by the seat of your pants. Their replay was "espere por favor a la 047 es una camioneta de servicios especiales" Um....ok. Time to try to break this down. I got "please" no clue what "047" meant and "services". Hmmm??? So I replied "Yo hablo inglés" and he said "Yo hablo español" Alrighty then.
As we were trying to use a translator to figure this sentence out, we heard someone outside beeping. Like within 2 minutes of starting this conversation. They would continue to beep. I'm like what is that??? Hubby looked and it was the cab. Like were they around the corner when we ask for it? That was fast! I haven't even figured out what that sentence said yet and they were here!
I was happy to hear the driver spoke excellent English, or as he said "perfect Spanglish" and I told him where we wanted to go and off we went. Even though it was a short ride to ISIS, we got in a good conversation with him about how he had been to the US and actually visited Cleveland and went to Niagra Falls in New York and Canada during the winter just to see and experience the snow. He was super nice and we enjoyed the $2.50 ride and tipped him well.
We arrived at ISIS, told him we needed a car with auto and a/c and he replies "Do you have a reservation?" Oh no, don't tell me this...I told him I just spoke with him on the phone and he managed to come up with a car no problemo!
Now of course this is Mexico, so it wasn't a luxury vehicle. There was nothing electrical...roll down windows and you had to lock each door manually...which became such a chore every time. Ugh! But it ran and drove great, good on gas mileage, and got us where we needed to go! Perfecto!
ISIS page for rentals....
Just a little tid-bit of information about driving in Cozumel:
*Streets going to or from the waterfront are called "Calle"
*Streets going parallel to the waterfront are called "Avenida"
*Almost all of the streets are one-way with the exception of the main streets
*Every other street goes the opposite way
*Speed limits in town: 30 km per hour / 18 miles per hour & open road 50 km per hour / 30 miles per hour & the main street heading to the beach clubs (once out of town) did get up to 60-80 km per hour (or around 50mph).
*Do not park anywhere the curbs are painted either red or yellow
Of course the first thing we did was head straight to MEGA for some groceries. As you walked in, there was a station with an attendant that took your temperature and had you wash your hands. Safety first! The grocery store here reminded me of the grocery stores I've been to in other places like Aruba. It's like a mini shopping mall with a clothing store and other things on one level and then upstairs was the grocery store.
The next hour of shopping would consist of struggling to figure out what we were buying in Spanish. Pictures help of course but trying to figure out the meats...that was another story.
Also since I had just had surgery on my mouth earlier that week, I needed to find some SAL (salt) because I was supposed to start doing salt mouth rinses to help with the healing process. It took awhile, but we found SAL and hamburguesa (hamburger). We grabbed some sausages for grilling, eggs for breakfast, bread, buns, and some snacks of course.
Now time to head out and down the escalator,
which I thought was really cool. It was flat and
made just for the grocery carts
Then the hubby would discover that there was some type of magnetic field that also kept the grocery cart from taking off and it would hold itself there. How cool. I guess I hadn't thought of those trying to struggle to hold it from rolling down the escalator prior to him discovering this. The look on his face was like if he just did a magic trick and magic it was!
In the parking garage at the MEGA, we would see our very first iguana...just hanging out in the sun where we parked.
Back to mi casa to put away our food and we ask Sakari "Would you like to hang out here for the day and swim and have a BBQ or go to the beach?" She immediately yelled "BEACH!" So beach it was!
A quick change into our swimsuits, gathered our snorkeling equipment and towels and it was time to experience my driving ability in the streets of Mexico. Hey at least they drive on the right side of the road instead of the left so I should be good right?
I went down my list of "beaches" that I wanted to visit and we decided to go to Playa Uvas. Prior research showed they had a $15 cover charge per person (which I had read online), which included a "welcome drink", snorkel gear and a 30 minute guided shore snorkel tour, 30 minutes of Kayaking and access to all chairs and umbrellas/wifi and hammocks.
They claim to have amazing snorkeling and service that sets them apart from other beach clubs...we are about to find out because everyone knows that's what I'm here for right?
When we entered, they only charged us $10 per person. I was ok with that. They took our temperatures and we washed our hands. Since we had only had a small fruit platter breakfast, we were already hungry! We headed straight to the restaurant and sat down. Edwin would be our waiter for the day. He ask if we spoke Spanish and one thing I remembered from Spanish class was "Un poquito" (a little and by little I meant not much lol but we would use this a lot this trip).
He handed us the menu (click for enlarged version of each page)
This would be our view during lunch:
Sakari and I ordered the chicken taco's which came with rice and beans on the side and the hubby ordered a burrito with rice on the side.
I have to say I was a little shocked with our chicken taco's came out and that was the only thing on it...just chicken on a soft taco. I guess I expected lettuce and cheese and sour cream and all the "fixins" but it was just plain. The hubby ended up giving me his lettuce and some pico and I had ordered a side of fries because Sakari and I were just craving some fries for some reason. LOL