YCGL - March 1, 2025 - Back Home Again in Cozumel

So, after finally logging off last night about 2:30, the 5:00 alarm came around fairly early. Push Through, Carry On, Man Up and all of that. Wake up and pretend you are functioning. And I did. Steve and I had agreed to leave at 6:00 for the airport and we pulled out of his driveway at 6:01. Right on.

Accept, the parking lot was Full. A sign out in front said to park at row J. I turned on to row J and drove the full length and if was full. Turning back to row K, the same thing. And rows L, N, P and finally, I just drove west until I saw some open spaces, on row BB3. There was open space on row JJ, that's what their sign should have read. That wasted about 15-20 minutes of our time, Luckily, we had accounted for that amount of time when we left at 6:00.

And, in fact, by the time we had walked the 12 miles to Gate A18, we were some of the first people there. Soon, another couple showed up who Steve had invited, Ralph and Claudia. They are long term friends of Steve and were traveling with us. They are a cute couple, about our ages; she is bright and bubbly and loved talking to everyone, and Ralph is quiet, humorous and obviously enjoys watching his wife Extroverting over everyone.

As I boarded the plane, I inched my way back to seat 23E, in the middle of three seats. I nodded to the lady sitting on the aisle that I needed to move in and she said, "The man sitting at the window is my husband. We would really like to sit next to each other, would you mind trading the middle for either the window or the aisle seat?" That was a no-brainer, so I got to sit on the aisle and everyone in the row was happy.

We took off about 10 or 15 minutes late, which wasn't a problem. However, when the chief stewardess started showing the safety video, it stopped about three minutes in to it. She apologized over the microphone and tried several times to restart it. The crew ended up doing the safety demo the old fashioned way, standing in the aisle and showing how to buckle and unbuckle a seat belt. Thank goodness, I don't know that I have been doing it correctly for the last 60+ years of having seat belts in the cars. Unfortunately, the video problem showed up because the wifi network in the plane quit working, which meant no movies or other entertainment during the flight. Second, the plane seemed cold to me. I had worn a vest on the drive over to the airport and I forgot to take it off, and I was glad I had it. I wonder if that was part of the wifi problem.

Third, when we were approaching the Cozumel airport, we were way too high and the tower waved him off landing. One more trip around the island and we came in fine... except the brakes were locked when we touched down and it make a very loud bump sound and made the plane shutter as it hit.

Finally, as the stewardess was giving us the final briefing, she said, "I wish all of you well on your stay in Cozumel, and you please wish us well on our return trip, because we are out of alcohol." Wow, can you imagine that, people after a week or so of partying in Cozumel, having to go cold turkey on the last leg of their trip. You did have to feel sorry for the crew on their way back to Denver.

Not surprisingly, the line for Customs, luggage and Declarations was long to interminable, but the actual stops were literally a walk through. It took almost an hour. Steve got ahead of us and reserved a four passenger taxi to take us to the hotel, which was fine, except we had six passengers worth of luggage with the extra dive gear. It took a while to get everything in and Steve and Ralph had to ride in the back seat with their feet up on one of the dive bags. I had three smaller bags around me in the front seat. But we made it to the El Presidente just fine.

Steve had invited another friend to Cozumel. Patty had flown ahead to Houston where she used to work for Compac and has friends and family there. She got in to Cozumel earlier in the day and was waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel. I recognized her from some pictures Steve had shown me, so I walked over to her and introduced myself as we walked in. She worked in personnel for Compac and is a Myers-Briggs person, so we had plenty to talk about.

When Steve and I got into our room, we both walked up to the west wall and took in the view.

Who couldn't love a view like that???

After a walk around the hotel, we got another taxi and drove back into the city for dinner at an old favorite, Casa Denis. However, the ride was rather circuitous because much of downtown was blocked off to vehicles.

Today was the Saturday before Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) and is the traditional day of Carnival! The main drag along the coast was packed with people. It was like five Cruise ships hit all at once. And they were waiting for the parade. There were 8-10 large floats covered with people, paper and party, and it filled the street! There were more people there than I have ever seen before in Cozumel.