Paradise at the Sea Shore
Tuesday, June 22
*Apparently the comment feature doesn't work on this blog either. Shame. I will try and fix that*
The first day of our adventures! The day started bright and early with a planned departure of 5:30 am. Which of course means we left by 6:10 am. But timeliness aside, we left the house as the sun was greeting us over the horizon.
In a manner typical of every major morning event, I did not get any sleep last night. I figured it was more important to set up this lovely blog for all my faithful readers (though I must say, the line spacing still bugs me – but I can’t figure out how to fix it). But I had my coffee this morning and I am ready to go!
Morning Transit
6:10 am: smelly mom-o-bile is packed and we are on the road! Sleep-deprived and packed full of coffee, I tried to engage the entire van with a resounding chorus of the Proclaimer’s♪I‘m on My Way♪(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xmlb3ZRPuU). This, unfortunately, was met with much groaning as iPods were pulled from pockets and hoods were pulled over heads. Tsk tsk some people can’t handle mornings (says the girl who only sees sunrises from the wrong direction).
After safely arriving at the airport (good ole RDU) and obtaining our boarding passes, I try to explain the merits of competitive airporteer-ing. For those not familiar, here are the goals:
1. Never stop to look at the departing screen. Always check your departing flight while walking by briskly. Stopping means admitting inferior knowledge of your travel arrangements.
2. Security should be efficient. This means you should have everything prepared so that throughout the entire process, you never have to break stride. [Note: sometimes unavoidable slow people will get in your way. Glare at them, huff or sigh loudly, glance at your watch, and mutter under your breath about “amateurs”].
3. Extra points are awarded if one manages to sneak on illegal items. (I got both tweezers and nail clippers through security!)
Mom and Dad didn’t find the process as amusing as I did. However, I did discover one thing while at RDU. Sometimes mirrors double as office windows. Meaning if you stop to fix your pants, you might find yourself staring uncomfortably at a shocked TSA agent. Oh yay.
Flights
The RDU to Houston flight was uneventful. Mainly because I looked like this for 2.5 hours:
Houston’s airport was large and was packed with huge, mainly Hispanic crowds (plus one clearly American nineteen year old female) huddled around small TVs watching the Mexico World Cup game. Which they lost. But they still advance! Sahweet. The only other thing of note was the discovery that YES Gloria Jean’s coffee shops ARE in America. Score!
The Houston to Cozumel flight was also of similar uneventfulness as once again I chose to mimick the state of consciousness I inhabited during the previous flight. This is actually significant because this marks the FIRST TIME EVER that I had a glitch-less flight. I feel like I just experienced one of those significant, life-changing moments, complete with an angelic choir.
Interesting observation (as we stood in the customs line making faces such as these - yes, JA is eating me):
…of the 220 or so seats on this airplane, with the exception of one Japanese couple, they were ALL WHITE. I started inwardly groaning, thinking that we were fo’ so’ heading to an infested tourist trap. I also got the opportunity to practice my Spanish with the customs agent, with our entire dialogue consisting of Gracias and De nada.
The Condo (of your wildest dreams)
We arrive at our home for the next ten days and let me just say: WOW. I had no idea what to expect and I was floored. Here a couple cool shots:
And here is the view:
You just walk out and you are right there on gorgeous Caribbean waters. Now this is what I call vacation, baby. And you can’t really see it in the picture, but there’s even a mini, white sand beach on which you can lay and wave to passing boats. Or on which you can impersonate the Sirens and attempt to lure said passing boats to their watery graves on the surrounding reefs. Whatever floats your boat, no pun intended.
Afternoon Snorkeling
Naturally, the first thing we did was to don our snorkeling gear and to hit up the waters outside our condo. It was actually a pretty pleasant snorkeling area and we saw numerous amount of sealife, including:
· Parrotfish
· Stingray
· Conchs and Sea biscuits galore
· Sea Slug
· Fairly large black sea urchins
· Gigantic pufferfish with sparkly emerald green eyes
· Triggerfish
Apparently, there are a lot of sharks in the area as well, so hopefully we’ll get to see one before the trip is over.
Evening Explorations
After snorkeling, we decided to walk over to the one major town on the island. Biggest surprise? We seemed to be the only tourists in sight. I was actually quite shocked. I don’t know if it was the time of day, or the place we happened to be, but all we saw were the locals out playing with their kids and swimming.
One note about the locals: I was also surprised on how Mayan they looked. Very dark features, slightly slanty eyes, large noses, and petite mouths and chins. Also saw a lot of weird Mayan monuments, but modern ones. Will investigate this further.
Dinner was delicious, your typical Mexican food and beer, and we got to witness probably one of the prettiest sunsets on this planet. Be jealous. After dinner, we went to the dive shop to enroll in certification dives, hit up the grocery store for food (might need that), and then called it a day.
One good thing: I got to practice my Spanish twice more! Once when asking for the location of the sugar and the other time for a price inquiry for a cab. Patting myself on the back. Maybe I should make gold star stickers to award myself for such instances.
But that’s all for now, folks! End story is we made it to Cozumel, Mexico safely and soundly, and we have a full day of adventures ahead of us tomorrow. So sleeeeeep time for Ellen.
Adios! (Btw if you're interested in following the pictures that I upload during this trip, check out the album at:
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