Cozumel, Mexico: Martes - The other side.

Every morning I've woken around nine, donned my suit and cover-up, grabbed a book and sandals and stepped outside of my room to a stretch of gorgeous sand and ocean. You can hear the chimes and announcers from the cruise ships docked nearby and the hint of music from the beach outside our door. Waiters zip from chair to chair greeting people with cold drinks as divers ready their equipment on the pier. It's a glorious way to start a day and I order a bloody mary and settle myself into what is slowly becoming "my" beach chair.

It's easy to lose oneself to the lure of this lazy spell. Have a drink, a snack, have a few more drinks and before you know it it is four o'clock and you have amassed a large sunburn. It's a nice way to deplete your mind of anything work or stress related, but it is also a bit depressing when you realize that a whole day has gone by and you forgot to shower or exist in any manner. So today we are going to do something different and venture to the other side.

I didn't know much about Cozumel before we explored a bit on the first day and perused over some local maps. It turns out that the majority of the island is not developed. Most of the shops and residences are located in or around San Miguel, the island's only real town and the location of it's piers between the mainland. Out hotel is on the outskirts of San Miguel, but no more than five minutes driving to what is considered the main square.

However, if you drive ten minutes past our hotel you enter a never-ending  road that goes along the perimeter of the island. Beach resorts pop up through the foliage every few minutes displaying large signs for beer and boasting such names as "Playa de Corona". Besides the occasional sign and random hut it's a never ending tunnel of short trees and low brush. After what seems like too long you finally spot water, and then you are catapulted onto a cliff side highway with beautiful views of rocky shores and steep descents with no shoulders on the road. The ocean here is so different from our calm beach and the waves crash heavily against large boulders and cliffs.  A few brave surfers have triumphed the surf but mostly the people take to watching rather than swimming.

The water is so amazingly blue I can hardly stand it. I must have exclaimed over the color at least a dozen times while we were there. Each wave that surfaced seemed to glow from inside and illuminate this bright indescribable turquoise. I want to steal that color and stick it on my walls but I don't think there is any way to replicate it, not the way that patches seemed to literally glow. The artist in me wants to try and capture it somehow; it is too perfect.

We pulled off on a remote side road to get out and take pictures and found ourselves in a parking lot of what seemed to be some run down reggae bar. The place looks odd and sort of creepy. It's set back behind a hill so it's not visible from the road and it seems like a perfect set for a Caribbean themed horror film. At least in my opinion. It's possible that I've been watching too many cheesy thrillers and crime investigation shows lately... Either way, we survived and managed to get a few awesome pictures of the ocean and walk out on the rocks.

It didn't take us long to get back to the Nissan and head towards anything that would appease our growling stomachs. To my joy we stumbled upon a sign for a place called Coconuts, a restaurant that I had heard of from one of my coworkers and was looking forward to trying. It sits high up on a cliff and takes a bit of a hike to get to, but once you get there it is well worth it. Most of the restaurant is open  so that you are sitting beneath a gigantic hut complete with thatched roof. The decor is bizarre, every centimeter of open space is decorated with t-shirts, license plates and business cards from all over the world. We even spotted two license plates from no place else but New Hampshire. You can imagine my small town happiness when I snapped a picture of those!

NH representin'

The food was good, but the drinks were better. I could only handle 1 margarita since I was the driver and the tequila yumminess went right to my head. Dave was hurting from the night before, when I thought it would be a great idea to do shots and drink whiskey on the rocks... so he stuck with soda water. We munched on chips and salsa (which was becoming obvious we would eat with every meal), tacos and some french fries to remind us of home. I believe that I could live off of that spread and with that view and maybe even that decor.

Best business card in Coconuts!

If you ever find yourself in Cozumel, I would suggest you pay a visit to Coconuts. Rent yourself a dune buggy, VW beetle or horse and carriage and make the commute. It's definitely worth it.