Breakfast at 8 a.m. as we get ready for our shop till you drop excursion in San Miguel, Cozumel. We head down the pier with lists in hand after checking with the shopping consultant on places that are recommended. We spend a great morning picking out a skirt, some jewelry, an a wrap. I chatted with a businessman who relocated from Michigan and now has a phone center and drugstore in the back of jewelry shop. He was selling viagra, Retin A, motrin, tequila, penicillin (everything to have a good time on the town) as you can see below but not painkillers he said although he got requests every day for narcotics. Apparently it’s common for Americans to come on medication shopping trips and buy several hundred dollars at a time of drugs.
My partner negotiates a deal on a diamond ankle bracelet and while the sale is being closed and two bracelets are being made into a pair of earrings, a pendant and an ankle bracelet by the gemologist we are plied with marguerites (oh senorita it’s only Mexican lemonade - have another one) After consuming a few (quite a few for this early in the day) of the drinks it led to some difficulties in the rest of the shopping but… we’re professionals so not to worry. A small carved onyx bird as a present for Mario as they’d found a bird last night which was resting after catching a ride on the cruise ship . The gentleman host told me “we saved a life” as they’d given it food and water and tucked it onto a ledge to recover - so this was a memento of the occasion.It was extremely warm and humid today (even the locals were minding the environmental conditions) and downtown Cozumel was full of cruise ship tourists as there were six large ships in port. Managed to struggle back to the ship with our purchases in hand , grab some lunch and head to the solarium, pool, hot tub and pool deck. Our departure is delayed as we wait for 200 passengers who have not returned yet. Listening to Jimmy Buffet, Rolling Stones while catching a few rays as Mario conducts marine species identification lessons for my partner with his dive photos and she does a tour of our local area with the map we picked up at the airport on departure - does it get any better than this?
We head to the VIP lounge (courtesy of the frequent floater aka gentleman host) for pre-dinner champagne and canapés. We score tender tickets from the concierge to ensure an early trip to Grand Cayman in the morning. I head down to supper in the Columbus dining room where it’s crab cake, thai soup, spinach salad, grilled chicken, baked potato, green beans and apple crisp for dessert. I waddle off to the aquarium bar where the latin music is located this evening to meet up with the dance class. I tire of being a ‘bar fly’ and entertaining the Jamaican bartender while the dance lessons continue so I decide a pre-midnight bedtime is just what is required.
