Buccanos

After a day of parasailing, we decided to come back to Buccanos for a second time.

It was Wednesday and that meant that our free entry to Buccano's was now effective and we were hungry so why not head there and eat, use our $30 food coupons, and maybe hang out for awhile?

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We gathered our things and headed for MEGA to the car.

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Along the ride there is an area that has a church and statues in the middle area of the street. It's really pretty here and the last time we passed by I had said "we need to stop here and walk around" but no matter how many times we passed it, there was never any place to park and it was always pretty crowded. So, we never did actually get to stop like I wanted to. 

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The church is Capillo Santa Cruz and from what I'm reading, it was built on the site that used to be the first catholic mass in Mexico. There is a statue of Juan Diaz, which is supposed to be the one that conducted the first mass in 1518. 

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This place is right before you get to the airplanes. There are a few bars there and that might contribute to the reason this area is always so crowded with no place to park. Since we didn't get to park and walk around, you'll have to settle for drive-by photography. lol

This side of the airport is really cool and I slammed on the brakes and had to pull in to take some pictures. 

When we arrived at Buccanos we handed the lady at the check in our free entrance wrist bands. I was really hoping that they wouldn't make us wear these all day and they didn't. Whew! I had already devised a plan to remove them discretely and if any questions come up, I would tell them I want no tan lines!

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We found a place this time under a palapa and claimed our real estate spot, ordered our drinks, and this  would be our view for the day which shows where we sat the last time we were here:

We told the waiter to bring us a menu. Tengo hambre! (I'm hungry) Now remember last time we were here the family beside us was eating (were the birds stole their fork) and the teen had an order of sushi. Well, Sakari has recently tried sushi and loved it. So, she was determined to order sushi. I thought it sounded pretty good myself so I was contemplating it. 

I ended up ordering the Cosmo Roll to play it safe (not really into the "fish" kind) and Sakari went bold and ordered the Sexy Spider. I made her aware that this had crab (which she loves) and had tuna (the real kind and not the canned) in it and she agreed that she would try it. No girlfriend, you'll eat it because this is your lunch so be sure.

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I decided to walk around and take a few pictures. It was such a beautiful day out and this time the waves were calm.

Our food was there in no time and it was time to chow down. 

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The hubby took a "jealousy" picture to post for those back home and it reminds me of something you would find on some fine-dining website displaying their food. Where did these skills just come from esposo???

Of course my pictures came out the usual snap, ok you have proof, and dig in type of pictures.

Remember all the issues and tricks Cozumel has played on me with the hot sauces? I swore I would not fall for it again! But there was this little squishy green thing on my plate and I just had to try it. OUCH! HOT! I couldn't believe someone slipped that in on me again! Hija was laughing and I told her it was yummy and she should try it. She didn't believe me. 

The food really hit the spot and I tried Sakari's too. She just couldn't get down that last piece. I have to say I'm going to continue to stick with the kind that don't have the fish or seafood in it. It just taste a little too "fishy" for my liking. 

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After eating Hija wanted to head to the dock and see if Mr Sir Pedro San Miguel was still in the water so her and I headed out while the hubby stayed back and practiced his Espanol on his phone, attempted to talk to the waiter, and continued to learn "that's not the way we say it". 

She immediately went running for the dock and jumped in. Guess who come swimming over...yep, it was Sir Pedro San Miguel. He was there to welcome us back!

Hija continued to run and jump in the water from the dock and I decided I would snorkel around the rocky area beside dock. The other day when we were here, the waves were a bit too much to get close to this area, but today was a calm day and I knew I would be able to get close enough to the shore area without getting thrown up against something or harming anything around there accidentally. 

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The next collection of photo's is pretty much how the next hour of our time was spent. I would pop up every so often to see if she was still jumping and try to snap a picture of her as she screamed "mom, take a picture". Some things never change with her whether she's in a 3 year old body or a 5' 3 1/2" almost teen body. 

I spotted a few interesting fish in the area... like this beautiful French Angel fish. It was on the smaller side and usually when I see them they are much bigger.  

Then I found a large school of .... whatever these are. I can never figure it out. Are they in the family of grunts? or snapper? I just can't find what they are and they are always around when snorkeling. I even have a Reef Fish identification book and they are not in there. If anyone knows what they are, please let me know. Comment in the box below.

Banded butterfly fish...and of course Sir Pedro San Miguel

 Found a stoplight parrot fish. I have to say we really didn't see many parrot fishes on this trip, which is really strange to me. There's usually so many!

Now one thing I did notice this trip is that there are A LOT of barracuda's here! Like everywhere we went I would see them. Both young and older ones. 

Sir Pedro San Miguel just hasn't learned what personal space is!

Of course Sir Pedro San Miguel was following me and then would race over to hija when she jumped in and then back to me again. He was everywhere we were. Such a friendly species (Bermuda Chub).

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After about an hour, we got out to rest and sat around at the palapa. Then the hubby said something about going snorkeling. Wait what? You are going to come snorkeling and move from your sun blocked seat? Amazing!

We gathered our things and Hija led the way. We went S L O W L Y to where we had gotten in the water with the guide the other day, over at the old hotel, and I then discovered (this time) a ramp to go down instead of using the steps. Hija pointed it out to me. 

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As we were getting in, we seen this really huge crab on the side of the rocks. Every time the water came in it would push him around and then when the water went out, he would move across the rocks to get to where he was going. It was funny to watch. 

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Mi Esposo decided he was going to snorkel without fins and just use his mask instead of renting them again. The bad part is, I didn't bring his snorkel and only brought his mask because he really don't get in there often with us and it's just something to add space to our luggage so I've stopped bringing his fins and snorkel. The mask is just for scuba diving at this point. But, he was a trooper and held his breath during snorkeling this time around. Of course Sakari goes without anything but her mask and I had to talk her into wearing it this vacation because she normally just wears regular goggles. But, last year I went and bought her a prescription mask and she's loving it. Seeing things she has never been able to see clear before. 

I found a blue parrot fish! Interesting fact about parrotfish, They change colors during their life from juvenile to adulthood. However, the blue parrotfish is the only one that never changed colors and remains blue when adults. 

Now this is one of my favorite fish. A Trigger fish (file fish) I get so excited when I see them. I think it's just the way they swim, which is more like a flutter, with their fins on the top and bottom toward their back fin. So fricken cute! I had one and it was my favorite fish. They do come in different colors and some are very beautiful. 

Then all of a sudden another one appeared. Double excitement!

A couple four eyed butterfly fish

Ok, snorkeling time was over and was a success with several fish that we hadn't seen before. It's still not a terrific spot, but at least there's a few things to see here and there. 

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Here's a video from today's "ocean" activity

When we got back to our real estate, we decided to sell and move to a new location...the pool area. We knew we were done with swimming in the ocean for the day and fresh water time was in store for us. 

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I jumped in for a little bit, but decided I would rather bask my skin in sun and heat until it wrinkled like a prune. Daddy and Hija stayed in for quite some time. Again, sorta odd for papi.

My spot for most of the rest of the day, other than to cool off.

Sakari being goofy...if you can't tell what she's doing here, the video below it will show you. This child I swear...

Lately my little hija has been on this french fries with cheese kick. I'm not sure what brought that on, but she wants it non-stop. Today would be no different. We ordered her an entire plate of fries and cheese dip. She was a little leery about the cheese dip because she knows that everything I have tried that looked like cheese dip was in fact not cheese dip of any size, shape or form! I've been tricked every time. Of course she would volunteer me to do the taste test and I nicely declined!

That was the face of a happy child with her fries, cheese and ketchup. I was happy with getting Coca Light wasted.

It didn't take long before she had an audience. I guess the singing Mexican birds thought cheese fries were good too. They called in all their friends for back up!

Our waiter, Carlos, came around and told us that the restaurant and bar would be closing shortly and we told him "La Cuenta por favor" and handed him our $30 coupons. 

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I had went to go take more pictures of the area and when I returned the hubby told me that he came back and told us that we had to have used those coupons the first day we were here. Well that's some crap. We didn't know that. They had handed us the coupons and the free entry wrist bands at the same time and we didn't realize that they needed to be used that day. But, since there was a misunderstanding, they did offer us 10% off our bill and free drinks on the house. 

There were still some couples and families there, even though it was getting late and they were closing. We asked Carlos if it would be ok to stay and watch the sunset. He said "I don't see why not". They had already taken up all the cushions and removed the trash so we made sure that when we left our spot, we disposed of all trash and picked the cushions up and put them on the stack in the building so they didn't have to. 

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Now I'll show you around the area a little more than what I did the first day we were here. It is just so beautiful here. 

The sun was slowly going down still

It really is ashamed that the hotel next door is in ruins. Honestly, I probably would have stayed there next time if it was fixed up. We did ask our waiter about it and it used to be called Hotel Cozumel Carib. He said that the hurricane wiped it out and that is what's left. Something about the owners left the building and fled to either the mainland or "back home" wherever that is". I heard multiple stories like this while we were here that owners just abandoned buildings after hurricanes (so I could possibly be getting this mixed up with other places). They now have a few people staying in it with people bringing "stuff" to the island. Hmmm, what kinda "stuff" where they talking about? He didn't elaborate but there were a few rooms on the bottom floors that did appear to be in use with things hanging out on the balconies and plants. 

Now they had 2 of these large palapa's on the side of the building, out right by the ocean, and they were pretty secluded since they didn't have beach loungers along this side since COVID. They had big cushions on them. We walked past them on our way down the "beach" to go to the snorkeling area and I just assumed that you would have to rent them or something. However, a lady that we spoke to the first day we came here said she had ask and was going to go take a nap on them and they said anyone could use them. 

The sun was slowly starting to set, but it was pretty cloudy out and I just knew that it wasn't going to be the sunset we had hoped for. 

There were people coming in to dine at the restaurant upstairs and I really felt out of place sitting on the beach by the wall in front of them. They were all upstairs, but still it was weird having them watch us. The guy went around and started lighting the torches they have along the wall. I bet it was really pretty once it got dark. We looked at the menu and thought about maybe going home and showering and coming back for dinner, but the menu didn't really appeal to us for some reason. 

The sun was going down and we wondered if the mainland of Mexico was actually having the best view or if it was blocked by the clouds like it was in Cozumel. 

One small glimmer of the sunset before it fell into the ocean and the flame was extinguished. 

And that was that. Not the sunset we had hoped for at all, but it was still pretty.

We packed our things and headed to the car.  Of course on the way home there would be this awesome sky lit up with pink and orange and beautiful pastels that I had now wished that we would have stayed just a little longer to witness that. I desperately tried to get a picture of it along the ride home, but there were just too many buildings in the way that it wasn't happening. #insertsadfacehere

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Final Thoughts:

It had been another successful day at Buccano's and that's saying a lot because I usually don't like to return to places a second time around (only because we like to experience new places each time) unless it's just a "must do twice" type of place. This was one of those places from the atmosphere to us just having so much fun and Sakari loving the dock to jump from. If I come back to Cozumel, we probably would try to come back here again. I highly recommend this place!

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