Cozumel, Mexico: Day 7: Sunday, 2/7/10

Our goal today was to find a nice beach bar that we could walk to. We were tired of paying $28-$32 round trip to get a taxi to Mr. Sancho's and the other beach bars in that area. Yesterday I posted a question on the Cozumel Trip Advisor forum asking the helpful folks if there were any nice beach bars within walking distance of our hotel that were similar to the Barracuda, but more laid back and "chill" (no blasting club music) and they gave me a few recommendations.

First we went to breakfast. Breakfast today was French toast which was topped with some banana and papaya. I hate papaya, so I gave mine to Mr. Sassy. After breakfast we got on the computer to check for replies from the Trip Advisor folks and decided to check out both Las Palapitas and Los Girasoles. I found them both on my Can-Do Map and they looked easy enough to walk to.

We headed off to the waterfront and began walking south. Within 15-20 minutes we arrived at Los Girasoles. We walked in and looked around and it looked pretty nice and best of all, it had a nice chill vibe. There was enjoyable Caribbean, Latin and Mexican music playing at a reasonable volume. Since Las Palapitas had several recommendations, we decided to continue on to see what that beach club was like and then make our decision as to which to visit that day (it was a gorgeous spring-like day and a great day to be walking by the water).

The walk to Las Palapitas was another 10 minute walk or so down the waterfront. We popped in there and looked around and right away decided we liked the look of Los Girasoles better. Las Palapitas didn't grab us. Although our legs were tired at this point, and we really didn't feel like walking any longer, we bit the bullet and walked back to Los Girasoles.

Los Girasoles is across the street from the Hotel Cozumel (a bright orange hotel). I believe Los Girasoles beach club is part of the Hotel Cozumel. (The photo on the right is the beach club/restaurant which you walk through to get to the beach). Anyway, once we got there, we planted ourselves under a shade awning. Like most of the beach clubs in this area, Los Girasoles didn't have a regular beach. It had a wall of stone with several areas that had steps down into the water. We didn't mind. The sitting area was all sand, just like a beach and there were beautiful palm trees and what appeared to be a nice restaurant.

We could tell this place was popular with divers. There was a boat dock and boats of divers would come and go all day.

We sat near the restaurant for awhile and contemplated going down the steps into the water, but the water near the restaurant was a little rough. We decided to walk about 20 steps north to another area of the same beach club and we discovered there was a protected cove to swim in where the water was calmer and surrounded by rocks. The cove was almost like a swimming pool - it was about 4 feet deep, circular and crystal clear - just beautiful. We both snorkeled and we discovered that just as we made our way just outside the round cove, there was a beautiful deep area with some decent snorkeling. We saw all kinds of beautiful tropical fish. My favorite fish was a tiny jet black fish with tiny flourescent polka dots (if anyone knows what this fish is called, please let me know so I can find a picture of it). Mr. Sassy was excited to see a baby flounder while he was snorkeling and he almost stepped on it. It was sooo beautiful and so much fun.

Here's Mr. Sass going in:

One really nice thing about Los Girasoles is they have a lunch buffet that is $11 per person and includes the food buffet, plus non-alcoholic drinks and desserts. The food was pretty good (for buffet food) and filling but nothing that knocked our socks off, but it was nice to have a filling meal mid-day when we were doing a lot of swimming and snorkeling.

We also bought a couple cocktails which were reasonably priced (I believe $4.50 each). Their banana daquiris ROCKED!

While at the cove area, I noticed a pink flotation chair that was sitting on the ledge which nobody was using. I had seen a woman floating around the cove in it earlier and it looked soooooo appealing, so I asked her if it was hers and she said yes and invited me to use it. So I did and I just LOVED floating on this thing. Heaven on earth. As you can see in the photo I am wearing a shirt, hat and sunglasses to protect myself from burning (I know, what a dork). I just love this photo because it really captures the feeling of the whole day... and I can almost taste that banana daquiri. Don't the rocks in the water look like a Monet painting?

Around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. we left Los Girasoles and walked back to the hotel. We were back in 15 or 20 minutes. We were pretty beat, but also very hungry. Mr. Sassy needed a pick me up so we stopped at a little restaurant around the corner from our hotel (forget the name) so he could get some coffee to go. He really loved the coffee there because it had an essence of cinnamon. Mr. Sassy told me to pass on this information to coffee lovers: if you like your coffee strong, ask for "cafe negro" and you will get a stronger Mexican-style coffee that is more intense than regular American coffee.

Back at the hotel, we got washed up for dinner and decided to go back to Los Otates since we loved the food there so much and our wallet loved it as well. It was just as delicious as our first visit (sorry, I forgot to take photos of the food tonight). The only problem was there was a television on in the restaurant which was BLASTING the Superbowl. A couple of men were sitting in the restaurant watching the Superbowl and I have no idea why they needed to have the t.v. on THAT LOUD but it gave us a headache. What also bothered us is that one of the men had an adorable daschund on a leash that was tied to a post out in the parking lot and the poor thing wimpered and whined the entire dinner (he wanted his daddy). FINALLY after about a half hour, the man went and picked him up and let him sit on his lap while watching the Superbowl. The dog was in heaven and I was relieved that he was no longer wimpering.

For dinner tonight Mr. Sassy ordered a vegetarian burrito (which we had gotten the last time we went), I got enchiladas with mushrooms, poblano peppers and cheese. We also got an appetizer of queso fundido (baked cheese) which came with tortillas. I also got flan for dessert (caramel custard), Mr. Sass got 2 beers and I got a large soda. Everything was GREAT and the entire bill with tip came to only $19!!! Unreal!

After that, we walked down to the square to see what was going on. We knew that Sunday night was the big night for entertainment in the square, plus we had been told that this night was also the first night of Carnival, so we were curious to see what would be going on. At the square, we decided not to stay. The same Latin band was playing that had played the previous 2 nights and although they were as great as usual, we were just too tired to dance, and not in the mood to just sit and listen, so we decided to call it an early night. It didn't seem to be much different at the square than the previous nights, except that there were more people there (many more locals, especially).

We went back to the hotel and fell asleep super early - at about 8:30.