Cozumel Mexico: Day 1: Mon. Feb 1, 2010

Well, the day to depart for Cozumel had finally arrived! This was a special surprise trip that I planned for Mr. Sassy to celebrate his 50th birthday, which was February 9th. I sprung the surprise on him about a week or two before the trip and needless to say, he was very pleased with his birthday present! We just LOVE to travel and Mexico is one of our favorite destinations. We have been to Cozumel before as visitors on a cruise (and I also have visited for a 4-day stay once), and we've also visited other places in the area before (Tulum, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Punta Bete).

We flew out of Atlantic City this time (instead of our usual airport, PHL). Our flight was scheduled for 7:00 a.m. so we left the house at 4:00 a.m. so we could get to AC by 5:00 or so. I was worried whether we were giving ourselves enough time because techically you are supposed to arrive 3 hours before an international flight. As it turns out, going through check-in and security at AC was so fast and such a breeze, we didn't even need 2 hours. AC is such a great airport.

We had really smooth flights (we connected in Fort Lauderdale). We arrived at the Cancun airport at around 11:30 a.m. and went through customs, etc. which was also very expedient, and since we only brought carry on luggage, we did not have to deal with baggage claims. We then proceeded to figure out where to catch the ADO bus to Playa del Carmen. We had done this before, but couldn't remember exactly where the bus was located.

I have to say that negotiating your way around the Cancun airport when you do not know precisely where you are going is not for the faint of heart. From the second you enter the airport you are hounded non-stop by super aggressive timeshare salespeople, porters, excursion salespeople and others, who do not seem to know the meaning of "no, gracias", no matter how firmly you state it. The timeshare people are particularly aggressive and tricky as well, as they pose as "Tourist Information" people and even wear uniforms that say Tourist Information. They approach you as though they want to help you with whatever you are looking for, but it's just a way to rope you into a sales presentation. They are stationed in multiple places and stand in the center aisles of the airport so that you cannot walk by without coming directly into contact with them.

When we finally found the ADO bus departure location, a salesman standing in the bus area tried to sell us tickets for more than I knew the tickets should cost (doing research ahead of time is a smart thing). So we said "no, gracias" again and headed back into the airport to find the ADO ticket counter so we could pay the appropriate price for the tickets.

Within a few minutes, we found the ticket booth for the ADO, purchased our tickets (about $17.50 USD for 2 one-way tickets).

The bus ride to Playa was uneventful and took about an hour. (I should comment that the ADO bus is very nice - modern, clean and comfortable). Once in Playa, we took a glance at our Can-Do map to figure out exactly where to catch the ferry to Cozumel. We were happy to see that the ferry dock was only a couple blocks from the bus station and the walk took us less than 5 minutes. We purchased our tickets (about $23.00 USD for 2 one-way tickets) and took the ferry across to Cozumel, which was about a 40-45 minute boat ride on calm seas.

Once we arrived in Cozumel, we decided to walk to our hotel instead of taking a taxi (another reason having only carry-on luggage is great). We stayed at a bed and breakfast called Mi Casa en Cozumel, which is located on Avenida 5 Sur between 7th and 9th Streets (calles). This was only a 10-15 minute walk from the ferry dock. I had chosen this hotel after doing research on-line (mostly on Trip Advisor) and reading lots of great reviews. I selected this hotel because I liked the look of it (the owner is also an architect and designed and built the hotel himself), it's proximity to the center of town and the reasonable room rates.

Unfortunately, we chose the wrong street to walk down (one with terrible broken up sidewalks) and didn't make the same mistake at the end of our trip when we went back to the ferry.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, a Mexican woman who worked at the hotel was at the entrance waiting for us. She welcomed us in Spanish and took us to our room, the Tamarindo.

We were immediately impressed with both the hotel and our room. Since we were on something of a budget for this trip, I had booked the most inexpensive room which is located on the ground level, so my expectations were low for how much we would like the room. As it turns out, we came to see that the Tamarindo room is probably the best single room in the hotel as it is very private, and has its own garden as well as a private patio with a table, 2 chairs and a large umbrella (the other single rooms have the small patio with hammock, but do not have the other patio with table, chairs and umbrella). Despite being on the lower level, the room got excellent cross breezes. In fact, sometimes at night we had to close the louvers to block the breeze because it got chilly.

The room was a standard sized hotel room with a small refrigerator, ceiling fan, clothing closet, sink area and bathroom, one patio with a hammock and chair that overlooks a tropical garden, and another patio on the other side with the table, chairs and umbrella. The room also has a credenza with a shelf and 2 small drawers.

We only have a couple criticisms of the room. First, there was a lack storage space. The only places to store things were the clothing closet (which was modest in size and did not include any shelves, only 2 bars with hangers) and the credenza, which just consisted of 2 small drawers and one shelf. So during the vacation we had stuff piled all over the credenza and in the corners on the floor because there was no place else to put our stuff. Also, the sink area was small with not a lot of counter space, and no shelves or cabinets, so all of our toiletrees were crammed onto the small sink counter area and our room always looked junky and messy.

Second, as is the case at most hotels in Mexico, the bed was rock hard. We are used to a softer bed, so our backs were aching (especially mine). One thing I did to alleviate the problem was to purchase an inflatable raft to cushion the bed more and that helped a little, but not completely.

But taking everying into account and considering the very reasonable rate we paid for the room ($50-some dollars/night), the quality and location of the hotel and the fact that breakfast was included, these complaints were minor. The hotel is located only about 4 blocks from the center plaza and just a block or two from the waterfront, so the location could not be beat. We could easily walk everywhere.

Here is a tour of the hotel and our room. I apologize ahead of time for the grainy quality of my videos. I have a cheapie camera, so I am thankful that it takes videos at all.

And here are a few photos I took with different views of the hotel and our room:

The hotel also had a special breakfast area for guests on the ground level, in the front of the hotel. In addition to a dining area, there was a counter with a computer which was available to guests to use every morning from 8:30 - 10:30 (also breakfast hours). This came in very handy for checking email from time to time.

The breakfast was different every day but always included fresh-squeezed orange juice, coffee and on some days a piece of pound cake. The breakfasts were tasty but very small - about the size of an appetizer and not that filling. HOWEVER, as I mentioned, considering the room rate, we were glad any breakfast was included and we certainly made up for any dearth in food at lunch and dinner. Here's a typical breakfast at Mi Casa and Mr. Sassy (a man who can EAT) expressing disdain over the portion size:

We do have one more criticism of the hotel (hope I am not complaining too much). Guests are pretty much on their own at this hotel. The owner, Memo, while a delightful person, was not around that often (I think we saw him 2 or 3 times over our 10 day stay) and there is no reception area (other than the breakfast area which is only open 2 hours in the morning). There was one employee there during our visit, the woman who greeted us when we arrived, but we only saw her at breakfast and occasionally caught a glimpse of her around the hotel. If we needed assistance with anything or advice, we were pretty much left to our own devices. The woman who worked there spoke not a word of English (not that we expected her to, since after all, this is Mexico) and my Spanish is somewhat limited (Mr. Sass doesn't speak much either - he prefers to invent his own Spanish words which is fun, but not very useful). There was no information left in the room for guests, other than a hand-written note stating the hours of breakfast. It would have been helpful to have some general information about the hotel and the surrounding area.

So now back to our first day:

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was about 3 p.m. We were feeling pretty beat, but we decided to walk to the local supermarket to purchase some beverages and snacks to keep in the room (as well as the aforementioned raft). The Mega was a convenient 5 minute walk from the hotel and is a really nice, huge, American-style supermarket that appears to be pretty new. The grocery clerks are so cute in this store. They wear flourescent green smocks and knee socks!

Since our groceries were heavy and we were walking back to the hotel with them, we asked the clerk to put them in a box instead of in bags and Mr. Sassy (a.k.a. "the pack mule" carried the box back to the hotel).















Once back at the hotel, we relaxed a bit and Mr. Sassy had a couple Coronas. We started discussing where to go to dinner and decided on Los Otates. This was one of the restaurants the helpful folks on the Trip Advisor Cozumel discussion board had recommended as good and cheap. Well, they were right - it was both. It was a small place with zero ambiance (just an open air shack with plastic tables and chairs and flourescent lights) but MAN the food was delectable. Our server first brought 2 dipping sauces and nacho chips to our table (the sauces were a avocado sauce, and a spicy red sauce). We ordered 2 appetizers: an order guacamole with chips, and enchiladas stuffed with poblano peppers, mushrooms and cheese. We also both ordered the vegetarian burrito for our entrees which were stuffed with grilled veggies (we actually detected the flavor of soy sauce in the veggies, believe it or not) and cheese. Mr. Sassy also ordered a beer, and I ordered a cranberry beverage which was humungous. We could not believe this, but the total bill including a generous tip came to $17. Unreal! And the icing on the cake was that the waiter was a real sweetie.

As we were waiting for our food to be served, the Martha Stewart in me was evaluating the lack of ambiance, and I came to this conclusion: if they simply swapped the flourescent bulbs out for soft lighting and the plastic chairs and tables for wooden ones, the atmosphere would be improved 200%. I told Mr. Sassy this and his reply was "when the food is this good, who cares about ambiance?" He had a point.
















Once back at the room, we were completely and thoroughly exhausted. It was only 7:30 p.m. but we simply couldn't stay awake any longer and we crashed out.

Which brings me to another note about the hotel. It is in a residential neighborhood that generally is quiet (and the neighbors are friendly), but there is an issue with dogs and roosters, which can be disturbing in the middle of the night and early morning. There are many dogs in the neighborhood and at times they go into a barking frenzy and don't stop. And then there are the roosters who start crowing sometime around 3:00 - 5:00 a.m. Fortunately, I knew to expect this from reading the hotel reviews, so I came prepared with earplugs, which helped a little. Mr. Sassy hates to wear earplugs so he slept without them and ended up being awaken quite a bit.

By the way, here's something you don't see in the States - dogs on roofs. Here's a photo I took of some dogs on a roof of the building next to our hotel: