Cozumel

Considering we travelled all the way to Cancun during Covid, we made sure that our trip was going to be long enough to make it worth the effort. All in, we stayed for just over two weeks and decided to break the trip up a bit. After our stay at the Royalton Chic, our next destination was Cozumel. Z found a very reliable car shuttle service that we ended up using throughout our trip and so we had a private car drive us to Playa del Carmen where we caught the ferry over the Cozumel. The weather was still hit and miss and we were unlucky in that our ferry ride was quite rocky on the choppy weather which made it fairly unpleasant for Z. Towards the end of the ride, I too was feeling like it was time to get off the boat, and thankfully we docked shortly thereafter. The ferry over to Cozumel is roughly 20-30 minutes depending on the boat and weather conditions and ferries run pretty much hourly every day. 

While the beaches in Cancun are great for swimming, there isn't really any good snorkelling to be had...enter Cozumel. This small (448 sq meters), flat island is known for its great snorkelling and diving spots because of its surrounding diverse ecosystem of coral reefs. Large parts of the island are covered with mangrove forest, some of which we had a great view of from our hotel room. We arrived mid week and quickly discovered the island was about to be overrun with athletes. The 2021 Ironman Cozumel competition was being held the day after our departure day back to Cancun. Until we arrived, we had no idea this was going on and had we known, perhaps we would have planned our trip a little differently so we could be there for the race. Needless to say, the atmosphere on the island was filled with excitement and soon turned into witnessing a bunch of ironman athletes perform their tampering swims, rides, and runs. While I'd never compete in an Ironman, it was inspiring to see these athletes and helped inspire us to get a 10km run in one morning. 

We stayed at the Westin, which is about a 10-15 minute drive from the ferry. We (Z) picked this hotel because of the snorkelling right off the beach. Here we also booked an ocean front room and were upgraded to a corner room with wrap around balcony. The room was very spacious, well appointed with an amazing ocean view. The beach here was quite smaller in space than our first hotel in Cancun, and it was a lot more rocky than the white fine sand that I got spoiled with at first. There were plenty of loungers though to relax and soak in the sun and views. The hotel wasn't that busy at first, but later in the week, a bunch of Ironman athletes arrived, though they pretty much trained every day and didn't really hang out by the beach so we never had any trouble finding a prime spot to sit. The snorkelling at this hotel is pretty awesome.  You could literally stick your head in just past the water's edge and start seeing the abundant marine life. The shoreline is lined with corral and rocks and this is where the many fish hung out. Swimming around the dock towards the shoreline by the restaurant building provided the more of a view of the diversity of the marine life. While out on one of his solo snorkelling adventures, Z saw a stingray. He followed it for awhile before the stingray scurried off. Not sure how I would have reacted to seeing this mammoth ray. Well, let's be real I would have panicked and freaked out even though I know they are not aggressive unless provoked.

We wanted to explore Cozumel a bit and decided to rent a car one day. Driving around the island is fairly easy as there is only one road that takes you around the whole island so the chances of getting lost are fairly slim. We were staying in the northwest part of the island and thought it would be cool to drive to the east coast and then south to Punta Sur Eco Beach Park. Along the way we stopped at one of the many playas, but adhered to the warnings we read about not swimming or snorkelling on the east coast because of the unpredictable undertows and we didn't want to end up on an unintended trip to Cuba. We enjoyed a fresh lemonade while enjoying the beach for a bit before hitting the souvenir shops before heading back on the road.  Destination.... south. we actually drove a good part of the bike and marathon route for the Ironman and it looked like an absolutely breathtaking course. Punta Sur is the southern point of Cozumel and is part of a 247-acre ecological park made up of pristine beaches, reefs, lagoons, and forest. There is an entrance fee to the park, which allows you to hang out at one of the many beach clubs, gives you access to tour the lighthouse and nautical museum, as well as the lagoon which has a crocodile observation area and is great for bird watching. We started at one of the beach clubs with Z going snorkelling to the reef which was quite a ways out, too far for my liking so I stayed back. After his extended snorkelling adventure, where he once again saw a stingray, he returned quite giddy telling me all about the variety of fish he saw. Shortly after his return, the sky opened up and the rain came down so we hunkered down under cover at the beach club restaurant and had some lunch. It was here where we noticed that there was a family of wild racoons hanging around looking for food scraps. While it was a bit strange to have racoons roaming the beach, they didn't really bother us and weren't aggressive. Not too long after we cleaned up from our swim time, the rain mostly stopped and we made our way to the lighthouse and nautical museum before stopping in at the crocodile lookout. It was a little nerve racking walking on the wooden walkway over the lagoon knowing that it's highly likely that right beneath you is a crocodile waiting in wait. We got a good up close look at these giant reptiles with one not afraid of showing off its teeth. The bird watching at this lagoon is quite amazing as well. 

Overall we had an amazing, relaxing stay on Cozumel and before we knew it, it was time to take a ferry back to the mainland and chill out in Cancun for another week. It's a lot more laid back and relaxed on Cozumel with less hustle and bustle, but I guess we did mostly stay at the hotel property and didn't witness the influx of tourists when the many cruise ships came to port for the day. San Miguel (aka downtown) then was probably busy and crowded. Thankfully the ferry ride back was a lot smoother than the ride over and we sat in the blazing sun on the top deck listening to the live music playing below.