Cozumel
Day 1
We woke up at 4am on January 24 and headed to the airport for our Christmas present to each other. A trip to Cozumel! The trip started out a little rough. We almost missed our plane due to a massive traffic jam, and I left my purse on the plane in Atlanta and had to run back through the airport to claim it. After that, we hoped we had experienced all of our glitches for this trip. We settled into the Delta lounge for an early morning cocktail and some mini waffles, and then boarded our plane to Cozumel. First class! We enjoyed some mimosas and a little nap as we flew to our tropical paradise. We were in great spirits when we arrived and we were eager to see how our hotel choice would pan out. We knew it was gonna go one way or the other. It looked okay online, the reviews were good, and it was cheaper than all the other all inclusive resorts on the island. But what is it they say? If it's too good to be true, it probably is. YYEEAAAA. It was supposed to be on the beach, but it was actually across the street. That made our "ocean view" room a little less than perfect. It did have a view of the ocean. Not much of a view, but a view. The best comparission I can make is it was like the Carnival Cruise of resorts. The only saving grace is that it's off season. So it was fairly quiet! But I would imagine during the busy season the place is packed with kids and even more obnoxious "shows" by the pool than we were already subjected to. It took us a couple hours to get over that disappointment and frustration, but the all inclusive (crappy) cocktails eased the pain a bit. The upside was, there was a dive shop directly across the street. That made morning dives so nice and simple! We spent that first day just settling in, enjoying some cocktails, and scheduling our dives for the next day. In the evening we decided to walk the mile into town. About a half mile in we had seen 1 or 2 places along the road but we weren't seeing any town in the distance. We later learned the town was a mile the other way. So we decided to stop in at one of the few places along the road, called Blue Angel. It was a cute little place over looking the water. They turned out to have THE best margaritas I've ever had. And they were HUGE! At least 2 shots of delicious tequila in those things along with mix made from fresh juice. And there was a cute Mexican guy in his 20s playing guitar and singing hits from the Eagles, Jason Mraz, Elton John, and other great artists! And the best part was his thick accent. Reminded me so much of our Hotel California experience in Italy many years ago on a family vacation. I love accents so much, and they're always better put to American music. "Ohhh Mexeeco. Eet sound so seemple, I'd shoor like tah goo. Da sun so hot, I porgot tah goh home. Gesss I'll hab tah goh nowww." Plus he had this awesome little device that he'd push and peddle that would give him back up vocals on the spot, as well as some percussion. It was so great! He asked for requests and I requested "Your Song" by Elton John. Just as he began to play, an annoying drunk guy started talking to us through the whole thing. I was so frustrated. I looked at the singer and he looked back at me and gave me the "crazy" sign with his hand. He knew what was up. So once the guy walked away, he played the song for me again! It was so sweet. Between him, the incredible margaritas, and Bart at my side, I was a happy girl!
Day 2
We woke up and had some breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was the only good meal at this place. On the whole island really. That was perhaps the biggest disappointment of this trip. We knew the "all inclusive" food would be bad (although I didn't anticipate HOW bad), but seemingly all of the food on the island was made this way. Geared toward tourists, not Mexicans. We just wanted some authentic tacos dang it! But the diving. Ohhh the diving. What a treat!!! So much eye candy it's hard to know where to look. Eels, rays, crabs, lobsters, turtles, crazy colored fish.....it felt like being in a doctor's office fish tank. And one of my favorite things was the coral. Such incredible colors and unique structures of coral unlike anywhere I've seen before. Of course, my GoPro didn't capture a fraction of the awesomeness. Always seems to be the way. But we so thoroughly enjoyed our two dives that morning. When we got back we had gotten a little chilled. The first 2 days were in the 60s and low 70s. So we decided a visit to the hot tub was in order. Well, it turned out to be more like a slightly luke warm tub. Some people we met told us they've been to this place every year for 4 years, and they've never been able to get them to turn it up. They kept telling us, "ohh. Okay. Let me check on dat por you." But nothing would happen. One staff member told us it was too cold outside for the spa to get hot. Yea. Okay buddy. So, we cooled off in the warm tub with a few cocktails, and decided to rent some scooters so we'd have them for the next day. We ended up hopping on one scooter and going back to Blue Angel. My singing guy wasn't there, but the margaritas were. We had a couple of those along with a few extra shots of our new fave tequila, Jarana, and I convinced Bart to let me drive him the mile back to the hotel. I was confident, until I had to turn. It's tough with someone on the back! Especially after tequila. :) But we made it back alive and tucked ourselves into bed.
Day 3
I was so happy to open my eyes and see a crystal clear sky! This was our day set aside for exploring the island a bit before our scheduled night dive. We hopped on our scooters and headed to the other side of the island. It was so relaxing to be cruising across this wide open road surrounded by green trees with the sun beating down on us, and the wind in our hair. The island isn't that big so it only took us 20 minutes or so to get across. The beaches on the other side are really where the beauty is. Our first stop was Coconuts. A bar that my cousin Courtney had told us is a MUST. It was quiet there that afternoon. But you can't beat the view! It sits on the highest point of the island. Which isn't all that high, but the views of the water, rocks, and white sand was breathtaking. We had a pina colada and some nachos while we viewed the albums they handed us. Albums full of girls who take their top off in the bar for a free shot. We looked for Courtney but couldn't find her. ;) After Coconuts, we continued down the coast until we rounded the bottom and got to a beach called Playa Palancar. It looked like a good place to stop, and it turned out to be PERFECT! There are several beach clubs along the coast but many are loud, over priced, and crowded. This place was the opposite of all of that and had everything we were looking for. Beer, crystal water, white beach, and peace. We spent the next few hours toasting in the sun and wading in the turquoise water. As we stood out in the ocean looking at the beauty, I breathed it all in. It was one of those moments of pure, true happiness that I've been going back to often this week as I sit in front of my computer under florescent lights. It was hard for me to leave. But we had to get back for our night dive! I was super nervous about this. Something about the ocean at night has always creeped me out. But it was INCREDIBLE! Such a different experience from diving during the day. Reminded me of the feeling I got on my first night skydive. There are all different kinds of critters that come out to play in the night time ocean. I got to see two things that have always been on my diving bucket list. Octopus and sea horses!!! Up til (sadly) quite recently, I thought sea horses only existed in Disney cartoons. When I learned they were real, I just HAD to see one. And we saw two! Just hangin upside down from little plants. They're so cute!! And the octopus are awesome. Not like I thought they would look. They almost look more like jelly fish that slither along the coral. And they change colors when you put your flash light on them so they blend with the coral and become hard to see. We saw so many of them. It was pretty incredible.
Day 4
This day was our final 2 dives so we were looking forward to more awesomeness. And boy did we get it! We saw sharks! Another thing on my diving bucket list! We had heard the bull sharks were in town over by Playa del Carmen, and we were bummed to miss diving with them. But instead we got to swim with several nurse sharks. So cool! The second dive particularly was just so insane. SO many fun critters to play with, beautiful weather, the "fast boat", and a smaller crew of people. Although we did get stuck with "go pro on a stick guy" who hijacked most of my GoPro footage. But that's ok. It was crappy footage anyway! After we got back from those dives, we decided to rent a jeep and head back down to our new favorite spot, Playa Palancar, for some more beaching. We settled in with a Corona and soaked up some more rays. After an hour or so Bart said we should go in the water. As we talked and enjoyed the sun, he got out to get some water and came back. He walked up behind and put his arms around me and said, "I have a multiple choice question for you." "Uh oh," I said. "Would you rather, a) stay here forever..." "YES" "......b) go home, c) stay Ms. Nocita, or d) be Mrs. Rogowski." And he pulled a gorgeous diamond ring right out of the crystal clear water. I couldn't believe it was actually happening! We hugged and kissed for so long it took me several minutes to actually say yes. Although I think I said yes about a hundred times over the last year. :) When he told me he had the ring made with his mothers diamonds, that was the nail in my proverbial awesome coffin. Once again, Playa Palancar proved to be a magical place. And there was something so beautiful about having that day be just about the 2 of us. I had no internet to tell anyone. There was no chaos. It was just US. It was that wonderful, private feeling that kept me from telling anyone other than family (who knew anyway!) until we left Cozumel. The only thing so far missing from this trip was sitting on the sand watching the sunset. Something I REALLY wanted. Amazingly, all of the beach clubs close at 5pm. Except one! So, we headed to Alberto's and it was there that I got my final wish. A BEAUTIFUL sunset over the water while we talked and snuggled on the sand. A woman asked us to take her photo, and I did, and promptly said, "WE JUST GOT ENGAGED! CAN YOU TAKE OUR PHOTO TOO?" I'm so glad I did that. Those sunset photos have become some of my favorite pictures of all time. We were pretty much on an engagement high until we got back to the hotel and got notified that our flight the next day was cancelled due to the INCH of snow in Atlanta. This news was definitely the worst thing for that moment! But we VERY quickly decided to not let it bother us. We snuggled together, decided we'd make the best of the next day, and I slept quite nicely with visions of marriage dancing in my head. :)
Day 5-7
Mom was successful at booking our flight out for the following day. So we decided to rent just 1 scooter and go back to......you guessed it......Playa Palancar. And of course, Blue Angel for some final margaritas. We definitely made the best of our day that never should've been. But we were ready to get home. We had things waiting for us here, and every extra day on that island is an extra $300 or so in food, lodging, and transportation. We had blown our budget for sure! But day 6 rolled around and we were informed that once again, our flight was cancelled. That's when the freak out started. Bart kept calm, but I was beginning to melt down a bit. We decided the best thing to do was go to the airport and see what we could do. We ended up with a ticket agent who worked her tail off for about 45 minutes, typing a mile a minute while loads of other stranded people around us were unsuccessfully attempting the same thing. She threw out many options for us, none of which worked for many reasons. But she then told us she had a flight to Minneapolis that was leaving, um, NOW, and we could connect to Orlando from there. If you haven't looked at a map lately, Minneapolis isn't exactly on the way from Cozumel to Florida. But it was at least NOT Atlanta, and it was a step closer to home. So we said YES! It all happened so fast she had to write my boarding pass down, and a guy came up and ran us through security at lightspeed and we boarded that plane with only seconds to spare. And somehow, still, we got our first class upgrade. I'll never understand how that happened but I was so happy! From then on out our trip home was LONG, but successful. We arrived home around 3am on day 7 and immediately passed out. We thought we'd never make it. But the second we did, I wished we were back. :)
It was a trip we'll never forget, that's for sure. Even with the crappy food, the warm tub, the price gouging, the haggling, the sun burns, and the Carnival hotel, it was a special time we'll always remember. And Playa Palancar will always hold a particularly special place in our hearts. :) Enjoy some photos and a little video I made with what I could salvage from my camera footage!
We woke up at 4am on January 24 and headed to the airport for our Christmas present to each other. A trip to Cozumel! The trip started out a little rough. We almost missed our plane due to a massive traffic jam, and I left my purse on the plane in Atlanta and had to run back through the airport to claim it. After that, we hoped we had experienced all of our glitches for this trip. We settled into the Delta lounge for an early morning cocktail and some mini waffles, and then boarded our plane to Cozumel. First class! We enjoyed some mimosas and a little nap as we flew to our tropical paradise. We were in great spirits when we arrived and we were eager to see how our hotel choice would pan out. We knew it was gonna go one way or the other. It looked okay online, the reviews were good, and it was cheaper than all the other all inclusive resorts on the island. But what is it they say? If it's too good to be true, it probably is. YYEEAAAA. It was supposed to be on the beach, but it was actually across the street. That made our "ocean view" room a little less than perfect. It did have a view of the ocean. Not much of a view, but a view. The best comparission I can make is it was like the Carnival Cruise of resorts. The only saving grace is that it's off season. So it was fairly quiet! But I would imagine during the busy season the place is packed with kids and even more obnoxious "shows" by the pool than we were already subjected to. It took us a couple hours to get over that disappointment and frustration, but the all inclusive (crappy) cocktails eased the pain a bit. The upside was, there was a dive shop directly across the street. That made morning dives so nice and simple! We spent that first day just settling in, enjoying some cocktails, and scheduling our dives for the next day. In the evening we decided to walk the mile into town. About a half mile in we had seen 1 or 2 places along the road but we weren't seeing any town in the distance. We later learned the town was a mile the other way. So we decided to stop in at one of the few places along the road, called Blue Angel. It was a cute little place over looking the water. They turned out to have THE best margaritas I've ever had. And they were HUGE! At least 2 shots of delicious tequila in those things along with mix made from fresh juice. And there was a cute Mexican guy in his 20s playing guitar and singing hits from the Eagles, Jason Mraz, Elton John, and other great artists! And the best part was his thick accent. Reminded me so much of our Hotel California experience in Italy many years ago on a family vacation. I love accents so much, and they're always better put to American music. "Ohhh Mexeeco. Eet sound so seemple, I'd shoor like tah goo. Da sun so hot, I porgot tah goh home. Gesss I'll hab tah goh nowww." Plus he had this awesome little device that he'd push and peddle that would give him back up vocals on the spot, as well as some percussion. It was so great! He asked for requests and I requested "Your Song" by Elton John. Just as he began to play, an annoying drunk guy started talking to us through the whole thing. I was so frustrated. I looked at the singer and he looked back at me and gave me the "crazy" sign with his hand. He knew what was up. So once the guy walked away, he played the song for me again! It was so sweet. Between him, the incredible margaritas, and Bart at my side, I was a happy girl!
Day 2
We woke up and had some breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was the only good meal at this place. On the whole island really. That was perhaps the biggest disappointment of this trip. We knew the "all inclusive" food would be bad (although I didn't anticipate HOW bad), but seemingly all of the food on the island was made this way. Geared toward tourists, not Mexicans. We just wanted some authentic tacos dang it! But the diving. Ohhh the diving. What a treat!!! So much eye candy it's hard to know where to look. Eels, rays, crabs, lobsters, turtles, crazy colored fish.....it felt like being in a doctor's office fish tank. And one of my favorite things was the coral. Such incredible colors and unique structures of coral unlike anywhere I've seen before. Of course, my GoPro didn't capture a fraction of the awesomeness. Always seems to be the way. But we so thoroughly enjoyed our two dives that morning. When we got back we had gotten a little chilled. The first 2 days were in the 60s and low 70s. So we decided a visit to the hot tub was in order. Well, it turned out to be more like a slightly luke warm tub. Some people we met told us they've been to this place every year for 4 years, and they've never been able to get them to turn it up. They kept telling us, "ohh. Okay. Let me check on dat por you." But nothing would happen. One staff member told us it was too cold outside for the spa to get hot. Yea. Okay buddy. So, we cooled off in the warm tub with a few cocktails, and decided to rent some scooters so we'd have them for the next day. We ended up hopping on one scooter and going back to Blue Angel. My singing guy wasn't there, but the margaritas were. We had a couple of those along with a few extra shots of our new fave tequila, Jarana, and I convinced Bart to let me drive him the mile back to the hotel. I was confident, until I had to turn. It's tough with someone on the back! Especially after tequila. :) But we made it back alive and tucked ourselves into bed.
Day 3
I was so happy to open my eyes and see a crystal clear sky! This was our day set aside for exploring the island a bit before our scheduled night dive. We hopped on our scooters and headed to the other side of the island. It was so relaxing to be cruising across this wide open road surrounded by green trees with the sun beating down on us, and the wind in our hair. The island isn't that big so it only took us 20 minutes or so to get across. The beaches on the other side are really where the beauty is. Our first stop was Coconuts. A bar that my cousin Courtney had told us is a MUST. It was quiet there that afternoon. But you can't beat the view! It sits on the highest point of the island. Which isn't all that high, but the views of the water, rocks, and white sand was breathtaking. We had a pina colada and some nachos while we viewed the albums they handed us. Albums full of girls who take their top off in the bar for a free shot. We looked for Courtney but couldn't find her. ;) After Coconuts, we continued down the coast until we rounded the bottom and got to a beach called Playa Palancar. It looked like a good place to stop, and it turned out to be PERFECT! There are several beach clubs along the coast but many are loud, over priced, and crowded. This place was the opposite of all of that and had everything we were looking for. Beer, crystal water, white beach, and peace. We spent the next few hours toasting in the sun and wading in the turquoise water. As we stood out in the ocean looking at the beauty, I breathed it all in. It was one of those moments of pure, true happiness that I've been going back to often this week as I sit in front of my computer under florescent lights. It was hard for me to leave. But we had to get back for our night dive! I was super nervous about this. Something about the ocean at night has always creeped me out. But it was INCREDIBLE! Such a different experience from diving during the day. Reminded me of the feeling I got on my first night skydive. There are all different kinds of critters that come out to play in the night time ocean. I got to see two things that have always been on my diving bucket list. Octopus and sea horses!!! Up til (sadly) quite recently, I thought sea horses only existed in Disney cartoons. When I learned they were real, I just HAD to see one. And we saw two! Just hangin upside down from little plants. They're so cute!! And the octopus are awesome. Not like I thought they would look. They almost look more like jelly fish that slither along the coral. And they change colors when you put your flash light on them so they blend with the coral and become hard to see. We saw so many of them. It was pretty incredible.
Day 4
This day was our final 2 dives so we were looking forward to more awesomeness. And boy did we get it! We saw sharks! Another thing on my diving bucket list! We had heard the bull sharks were in town over by Playa del Carmen, and we were bummed to miss diving with them. But instead we got to swim with several nurse sharks. So cool! The second dive particularly was just so insane. SO many fun critters to play with, beautiful weather, the "fast boat", and a smaller crew of people. Although we did get stuck with "go pro on a stick guy" who hijacked most of my GoPro footage. But that's ok. It was crappy footage anyway! After we got back from those dives, we decided to rent a jeep and head back down to our new favorite spot, Playa Palancar, for some more beaching. We settled in with a Corona and soaked up some more rays. After an hour or so Bart said we should go in the water. As we talked and enjoyed the sun, he got out to get some water and came back. He walked up behind and put his arms around me and said, "I have a multiple choice question for you." "Uh oh," I said. "Would you rather, a) stay here forever..." "YES" "......b) go home, c) stay Ms. Nocita, or d) be Mrs. Rogowski." And he pulled a gorgeous diamond ring right out of the crystal clear water. I couldn't believe it was actually happening! We hugged and kissed for so long it took me several minutes to actually say yes. Although I think I said yes about a hundred times over the last year. :) When he told me he had the ring made with his mothers diamonds, that was the nail in my proverbial awesome coffin. Once again, Playa Palancar proved to be a magical place. And there was something so beautiful about having that day be just about the 2 of us. I had no internet to tell anyone. There was no chaos. It was just US. It was that wonderful, private feeling that kept me from telling anyone other than family (who knew anyway!) until we left Cozumel. The only thing so far missing from this trip was sitting on the sand watching the sunset. Something I REALLY wanted. Amazingly, all of the beach clubs close at 5pm. Except one! So, we headed to Alberto's and it was there that I got my final wish. A BEAUTIFUL sunset over the water while we talked and snuggled on the sand. A woman asked us to take her photo, and I did, and promptly said, "WE JUST GOT ENGAGED! CAN YOU TAKE OUR PHOTO TOO?" I'm so glad I did that. Those sunset photos have become some of my favorite pictures of all time. We were pretty much on an engagement high until we got back to the hotel and got notified that our flight the next day was cancelled due to the INCH of snow in Atlanta. This news was definitely the worst thing for that moment! But we VERY quickly decided to not let it bother us. We snuggled together, decided we'd make the best of the next day, and I slept quite nicely with visions of marriage dancing in my head. :)
Day 5-7
Mom was successful at booking our flight out for the following day. So we decided to rent just 1 scooter and go back to......you guessed it......Playa Palancar. And of course, Blue Angel for some final margaritas. We definitely made the best of our day that never should've been. But we were ready to get home. We had things waiting for us here, and every extra day on that island is an extra $300 or so in food, lodging, and transportation. We had blown our budget for sure! But day 6 rolled around and we were informed that once again, our flight was cancelled. That's when the freak out started. Bart kept calm, but I was beginning to melt down a bit. We decided the best thing to do was go to the airport and see what we could do. We ended up with a ticket agent who worked her tail off for about 45 minutes, typing a mile a minute while loads of other stranded people around us were unsuccessfully attempting the same thing. She threw out many options for us, none of which worked for many reasons. But she then told us she had a flight to Minneapolis that was leaving, um, NOW, and we could connect to Orlando from there. If you haven't looked at a map lately, Minneapolis isn't exactly on the way from Cozumel to Florida. But it was at least NOT Atlanta, and it was a step closer to home. So we said YES! It all happened so fast she had to write my boarding pass down, and a guy came up and ran us through security at lightspeed and we boarded that plane with only seconds to spare. And somehow, still, we got our first class upgrade. I'll never understand how that happened but I was so happy! From then on out our trip home was LONG, but successful. We arrived home around 3am on day 7 and immediately passed out. We thought we'd never make it. But the second we did, I wished we were back. :)
It was a trip we'll never forget, that's for sure. Even with the crappy food, the warm tub, the price gouging, the haggling, the sun burns, and the Carnival hotel, it was a special time we'll always remember. And Playa Palancar will always hold a particularly special place in our hearts. :) Enjoy some photos and a little video I made with what I could salvage from my camera footage!
Breakfast in the Delta lounge.
Margaritas at Blue Angel!
All entrees come with a free flan and shot of DELICIOUS tequila!
What is it about being in a small boat next to a huge boat that's so creepy?
Our "ocean view".
The view from the highest point on the island.
This is the pool area at our hotel. Classy, huh?
Our nightly drinks by the pool.
I swear my feet had circulation...
One of my fave pictures ever.
Another one of my fave pictures ever. The sunset view from Blue Angel.
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