Cozumel, Mexico: Day 3: Wed. 2/3/10

When we woke up this morning it was very windy and raining. We headed to breakfast where we enjoyed pancakes with fruit.

We spent a good part of the day hanging around the hotel, in and out of the room. I read a book. By around 2:30 p.m., the weather got nicer, so we decided to go out and walk around. We walked down to the waterfront, down the main strip, but couldn't tolerate the aggressive salespeople.

We stopped at Mega so I could tap the ATM machine, and Mr. Sassy popped into a cigar shop across the street to see what they had.

We continued to walk up and down various streets and were getting hungry, so we decided to see if we could locate La Choza. We asked a couple of people on the street who led us in different directions and finally, around 3:30 we found the restaurant. I had been to La Choza back when I visited Cozumel in 2002 and thought the new location was okay, but lacked a little bit of the intimacy and rustic quality that was very appealing at the old location. It was one large open room and was very loud due to the acoustics. It was crowded, considering it was in between lunch and dinner time.

The food was good, but quite a bit pricier than the other restaurants we had visited and not as delicious. We didn't order appetizers. The waiter brought some chips and dipping sauces to the table and I must comment that one of the dipping sauces was particularly good. It was a spicy cheese sauce and it was yummy. I ordered chili relleno (my favorite dish) which came with rice and beans (it was good, but not the best chili relleno I've had) and Mr. Sassy ordered chicken with mole sauce which came with rice and refried beans (he said it was very good - Mr. Sassy LOVES mole sauce as much as I love gelato). The meals came with noodle soup, but it was made with chicken stock, so I gave mine to Mr. Sassy (I don't eat meat, he usually doesn't eat meat, but will on rare occasions eat poultry). We also ordered pina coladas and Mr. Sassy also ordered some tequila.

For dessert, we got a little adventurous and tried something we never had before - avocado pie (which was spelled "abocado pie" on the menu). No, this does not sound appealing, but the photo in the menu looked so delicious and the waiter convinced us it was very tasty, so we decided to give it a try. It actually was pretty good. My first impression was that it tasted like a cross between cheesecake and key lime pie. It had an intense lime flavor, a creamy rich texture and an avocado aftertaste. It also had a cinnamony chocolate icing on top. Mr. Sassy was wild about it to the point that he said he wanted to see if he could find a recipe and replicate it at home. I liked it at first, but after a few bites decided that the pasty texture and avocado aftertaste didn't appeal to me. Our bill with tip came to about $47 USD. The service was efficient at La Choza, but not particularly friendly. The waiters seemed to be all business.

After our meal, we were feeling a little tired, so we went back to the hotel. It was about 5:00 or 5:30. We came across some Australian guests who were hanging in the main courtyard area. Mr. Sassy was feeling super sociable (I was not), so he hung out with them for an hour or two while I chilled in the room, reading my book. I could hear their cackling hyena voices echoing throughout the courtyard.

We went to bed pretty early. We tried to stay awake but both of us were feeling run down, so we conked out around 8:30 p.m.

I think the hard bed was taking its toll at this point and the lack of sleep was catching up with us. In the middle of the night, I couldn't take the hard bed anymore, so I relocated out to the hammock on the patio and was able to fall comfortably asleep there.

By the way, we probably have a strange sense of humor, but there are some little things that we find amusing in Cozumel. One of them is this cooking fuel truck that drives around every day playing a loud, silly-sounding Mexican song and during the song, one of the drivers bangs on an fuel can and makes a loud clanging sound. For some reason, this really tickled our funny bones all week. The fuel truck brought to mind Mr. Softee ice cream trucks at home, and we found it hilarious that they have something similar for selling fuel. We vowed to get this on video some time during our visit.

Another thing we could not stop laughing about

was the Ritz crackers we had bought at the supermarket. They are called

"Integrales" and for some reason this cracked us up. How are crackers integral? Integral to what? We came up with all kinds of possibilities. Maybe the party can't get started without the crackers. The party is really bombing and then voila - someone pulls out the Integrales, Ricky Martin pops out of a cake and the fun begins! We never did figure out how Ritz crackers are integral, but halfway through the week we made up a Latin theme song (and accompanying dance) for the Integrales. I tried all week to get Mr. Sassy to allow me to videotape him doing the song and dance, but I couldn't convince him. (I did video tape him dancing, though, and you'll get to see those videos soon). By the way, the Integrales are a little different than Ritz crackers at home. They are like a cross between a cracker and butter cookie, although not that sweet.

In case you haven't figured this out already, we had no real agenda for our vacation other than being beach bums and eating good food. So if you're hoping for a report filled with details about excursions to ruins, Mayan jungle adventures or scuba diving, you may be disappointed (although we did do some snorkeling during our trip).