Thus begins our second full day here in Cozumel. Wow it seems like we’ve been here a while, but as per usual, I’m sure the rest of the trip will fly by. (Enjoy it Ellen! Enjoy it while it lasts…)

The morning starts off bright and early as Patrick and I gather our things to head over to the dive shop for Day Number Two. Hmmm dilemma. There was already someone wearing Patrick’s wet suit. Oh hello Mr. Crab. [ just for the purpose of scale, he is bigger than my hand!]

But once the rightful owner reclaimed his suit, we were on our way! And yes, we are running late. Funny how we get accosted by cab drivers when we don’t need one, but as soon as we do, they are nowhere to be found. Admittedly, it’s a little earlier than most of the tourists are up (and earlier than I should be up).

However, about halfway there (and four minutes until we are supposed to be on the other side of town) we managed to hail a cab. The cool thing? By speaking Spanish (or by attempting to) cab rides are half the price! (I don’t know if this a real rule, but that’s been my experience)

As soon as we get there, the skies let loose, drenching us. Never one to let the weather impede an experience, we grab our gear and dive right in. Unfortunately, while we were supposed to do two dives today, we get our first dive cut short. Patrick was having trouble equalizing his ears, so we couldn’t continue for the day =/.

Sooo, we finished up quite early today, though hopefully we’ll get to complete the course tomorrow so as to get our certification. We decided to wait around for John Alex at the hotel we were diving from, so the next few hours were spent swimming, napping, and judging men in speedos.

Weirdly enough, it started raining about once every hour, and then it would clear up and become hot and sunny again. It made napping slightly difficult, but nevertheless I managed to succeed.

Around one, the ‘rents show up and John Alex gets back from his dive (which was at a minesweeper wreck that had eels and lionfish! Ahh so jealous). Since our stomachs were beginning to rival the thunder in the noise pollution department, the fam sets off in search of meat. And being the traditionalists that we are, we settled on fine traditional Mexican cuisine:

Yepp, USDA Certified 100% Angus Beef hamburgers. Yummm. After lunch, Mom, John Alex and I set off to explore the shops. Which, I must say is quite an experience. The shopkeepers are just a pushy as they are in Turkey, but the difference is that about half of them are women here in Mexico.To be honest, I love the prices, but I hate this kind of shopping. Gah! Stop guilting me into buying things!

However, I did make one purchase today that is the equivalent of my poofy pants purchase in Turkey: I got a super cool brightly colored hammock! Yay! I haven’t quite decided where I am going to put it yet… maybe for any guests who come spend the night in my dorm next year? (Thus eliminating parental visitations :P)

I also got some very pretty silver earrings with small bits of turquoise in them. Initial price? $35. With my intense haggling skills cupped with my intense frugality, I got them for…(drumroll)…$12! Victory! However, initial feelings of superiority were soon deflated when I discovered similar earrings being sold at similar low prices. Damn it. And I thought I did so well. Taking back my self’s pat on the back. At least I didn’t get ripped off…

The walk back was littered with rain showers so we played leapfrog with the overhangs. Luckily the last bit of the walk had clear skies so I was finally able to get pictures of some of the strange statue things we kept passing every day. I can’t quite figure them out. Did the Mayans actually get this far east? Or are these just Mexican heritage statues? Must investigate further than the small Wikipedia article I read.

However, here’s a cool collection of Mayan statues and mock ancient carvings:

A very cool fountain with the Mexican Medusa, who ironically is standing in a pool, I guess revealing that she wasn’t quite as endowed with such stony powers as her Greek compadre was.

And my personal favorite - me practicing for the future of my empire:

Much of the afternoon and early evening was spent lounging around, reading and working on various projects. Dinner was once again a staple food: peanut butter and jelly. Yum. The rain fortunately let up just long enough to enjoy the sunset.

Ahhh, beautiful, isn’t it? After soaking up the view, we gather as a family and watch Michael. Love John Travolta. Classic film.  Well that’s all for today folks. Chao!