Feliz Cumpleaños!
Wednesday, June 23rd
Today is my Dad’s birthday! Happy 65th, Dad =). Cool fact: he has lived through 12 presidents, 7 wars, and 3 children. A notable accomplishment.
Scuba Lessons
We wake up bright and early to head over to the dive shop to begin our certification dives. Brief mix up over registration information leads to an increased price, but at last it is all sorted out. It also turns out that now the class will take 3 days instead of 2, but c’est la vie. John Alex, since he already has his certification, enrolls in an Advanced Diver certification course.
Patrick and I have a dive instructor named Alfonso, who is about 35-40 years old and bubbly. Alfonso is a fantastic instructor and he takes us out and puts us through all the paces of underwater mask removal, out of air situations, and a few buoyancy tests. Also, scuba diving really is an extraordinary method of learning panic suppression, because panicking can be quite deadly in such an unfamiliar element.
Hmmm, Alfonso also was shocked to discover I was 19 years old, assuming I was 15. Really guys? Really?! First Adem, the Turkish taxi driver and now Alfonso, my dive instructor? Do I really look that immature? Sighhh, WELL. At least I’ll appreciate this later in life.
Cool sites on today's dive:· Barracuda (though a small one at only 3 feet or so)
· Seahorse (these are really rare in the wild! My mom has been looking for one for years)
· Underwater plane wreck
As you may have guessed, the animal life pictures in this blog are not mine. I have no underwater camera. But just wanted to give you guys a glimpse of what we’re seeing.
Afternoon Delights
Speaking of seeing, this is what I came home to:
Haha, just thought I’d rub it in your face a little more. The afternoon was spent relaxing, working on some of my projects, and napping.
Speaking of napping, my family decided that documenting me doing this would be one of the themes for the trip:
Dinner and a Sunset
Since it is my dad’s birthday, we went out on the town. Along the way, we passed the Mexican military getting scuba lessons, guarded of course by soldiers with machine guns. Interesting. Mom was creeped out, but I thought it was really cool.
We get about halfway to the restaurant when it begins pouring. Like torrential downpours. Like shouldn’t –have-worn-a-thin-potentially-see-through-dress type downpours. Never to fear, we make it safely to the nearest minimart and examine their impressive knife display.
Deciding to taxi ourselves over the rest of the way, we make it to the restaurant where we board an elevator at street level (where the doorman gives us free bread!), and arrive at the top floor of a large building where the restaurant is located.
It’s be-you-tee-ful. Food is also super delicious and a Mexican band is playing music. Ahhh, this is the life. And the weather even clears up for a bit so we can enjoy the beautiful sunset! We have a nice long dinner where the waiter tries to take my plate on 3 separate occasions (but I insisted on licking the plate clean), but overall a great meal.
Afterwards, John Alex and I enjoy a nice long walk home as the rest of the fam stops and gets groceries for the rest of us. That’s all I’m gunna post today, guys. That margarita tonight was a little strong so typing this is taking a tad bit more effort than normal.
Hasta mañana, mis amigos!
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:
The Eve of Departure
Greetings everyone! And Happy Summer Solstice! I hope everyone’s summer is going fantastically. I know mine is =). Because in less than 2 hours, I am leaving for MEXICO! Hooray! (I need to stop writing posts at 3 am – it makes me use too many exclamation points).
But yes, at 5:30 am, my family and I will depart on our Next Big Adventure –> Destination: Cozumel. Well, truthfully, it’s their first Big Adventure, but semantics schmantics.
The Trip
Here’s an overview of the sitch: (translation: situation)
· June 22nd: Depart RDU at 8-something a.m. – aka way too early for a family with (almost) three teenagers
· Stopover in Houston. Check to see if things really are bigger in Texas. I have my doubts.
· Arrive in Cozumel – presumably safely and with all our luggage (knock on wood)
· Spend 10 days exploring, relaxing, scuba diving, World Cup-ing, and other shenanigans
· July 1st: Depart Cozumel – insha’allah with all 5 family members alive and present
Got it? Sounds like a fun trip, no? Hopefully, it will be. However, the majority of you are probably thinking – where the hell is Cozumel anyway? Or maybe you’re a lot smarter and more versed in the geography of the world than I was when I heard about it a couple months ago.
But basically, Cozumel is in Mexico. If the web address for the blog didn’t give it away, then my ecstatic shout at the beginning of this post probably did. However, more specifically, Cozumel is an island located off the coast of the Yucatan Pennisula, a little bit south of Cancun.
Yes, I am aware that this isn’t the “real” Mexico. I’ll leave that region to the usual suspects à you know, the English-teaching, well-digging, food/shelter-providing, baby-rescuing, all around good-hearted and service-oriented college students.
I’m not entirely sure what we will be doing this trip. Just kinda going with the flow on this one. I’m pretty sure we will be exploring the island, scuba-diving, snorkeling, and avoiding the masses of tourists that allegedly arrive by the cruise-ship-load. But we will see.
Background
So when most people go to a foreign area, research is generally done so as to get a feel for the area. Some buy guide books, some read novels by local authors, some Google it, some rely on the ever dependable Wikipedia…. My source? Why my mother of course.
Don’t get me wrong, my mom is a great Googler and finder of obscure facts. But due to the selective hearing capabilities of teenage children, the only two facts I retained about Cozumel are these:
1. The port can hold 6 cruise ships. (Ohhh Lord)
2. You can’t use the water to brush your teeth.
So Cozumel will be as much of a surprise to me as it is to you, my dear readers.
Preparations
So events leading up to departure. All in all, a lot less snafus than the ones before my Turkey trip, thankfully. (If you’re new to my blogs, check out the Turkey trip here: http://turkishdelights2010.blogspot.com/).
Hmm what did I do to prepare? Well here was my to do list:
1. [Completed] Online Scuba Certification Course - Now all I have to do are six certification dives and I’m good to go! Mom, Dad, and John Alex are already certified but by the end of this trip, both Patrick and I will join the exalted ranks of PADI Open Water Certified scuba divers! Hooray!
2. [Failed] Become tan.
3. [Completed] Successfully unblocked my debit card (knock on wood). However I have apparently developed a reputation at SECU. I briefly mentioned the trouble I had in Turkey and I received an “ohhh so you’re that girl”. Uh oh.
4. [Failed] Complete a vigorous ab workout regime to turn my poor body, victimized by that dreaded freshman year of college, into beach babe shape. Hmmm, eating entire tubs of ice cream probably didn’t help.
5. [Completed] My packing! Before 10 minutes to departure! In fact, I was the first one done and a full 12 hours in advance too. *patting myself on the back*
6. [Failed] Review Spanish. Yo soy una americana - dame el helado, ahora. Ehh, good enough.
Hmm, a 50% success rate. Not too shabby. If I shot 50% in the NBA, I’d be making millions. (one day, one day…). Well, that’s all for now! It is now 4:30 am in the morning and one hour ‘til departure time.
Everyone cross your fingers (!) that, for the first time ever in my life, my flights tomorrow (er…today) will go smoothly and according to plan.
See y’all in Meh-he-co!
Ellen
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