GRATITUDE / LIFE / VACATION

The Blessings of a Rainy Week in Cozumel, Mexico

The beauty of the unexpected

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes you get what you need.” Thank you, Mick and Keith, for those ever-true lyrics. Last week, we may not have gotten the beachy loungy snorkely vacation we wanted, but we got more than we needed.

When Andy and I went to Florida for my mother’s grave unveiling last Fall, we got to walk on the beach every day we were there, feeling the fine sand sink with each step, the waves covering our calves, and watching the sandpipers running in front of the shimmering water. We wanted more of that.

Andy had never shown interest in Mexico, because, you know, all the news of drug gangs and disappearing tourists had made their mark. So up until this month, my requests had yet to get traction.

On New Year’s Day, I saw deals for both a flight and a hotel, the Playa Azul in Cozumel. We could avoid the chaos of Cancun and fly to the island. We booked it to celebrate Andy’s birthday.

The weather, unfortunately, didn’t cooperate. As our departure date approached, I saw on the forecasts that it would be raining every day. Damn.

We played everything by ear. That was, as it turns out, a good thing. We were open to wonderful surprises.

I’d forgotten what real humidity is like. It smacked us in the face. What we call humidity in Colorado in the summer is still like buttered toast compared to most other places. Humidity in the tropics is sweat coming out of all pores, not just on the body, but seeping from the air itself, thick and constant. It was unfamiliar, but our dry skin was happy.

Our simple room at the vintage yellow stucco hotel was on the main floor. The patio had two dark rattan benches and a table. The small pool was right outside our door, and we could see and most importantly, hear the ocean beyond. Perfecto.

The hotel room included a buffet breakfast, which was excellent. And dinners there were also tasty. When we arrived and dropped off our bags, I had a fish fillet cooked with dried red chili pepper and onion strips and a very welcome mojito to take the edge off. Andy had a tender Cochinita Pibil dish (pork) that was delicious and got reintroduced to Bohemian dark beer, an old favorite. This was the start of a string of good restaurant choices. We had better restaurant food here than anywhere in Europe, and it was affordable.

On our first full day, we walked toward town on the sidewalk that runs on both sides of the island. We made it a few miles to a marina, which was quiet. With all the rain and wind, there weren’t any boats going out. We saw a lighthouse and what looked like a castle across the harbor. We used the bathroom at the marina, though the water was turned off. When you’re in need, you just do it and are happy there is a “public” restroom to use.

We headed back, just as it started to rain again. We decided that we needed to cab it to town, so the next day, Andy’s birthday, we did.

San Miguel de Cozumel was once just a small island town. The municipal building is dated 1939. Now, the town center is filled with cheap souvenir shops and items that look Mexican but are made in China. We didn’t linger there. There are also some tributes to the Mayan goddess, Ixchel, with explanations in Spanish. We learned more about this important goddess later.

A few blocks away, we found a chocolatier that I’d read about, Chocolateria Isla Bella, which is run by a mother and daughter. I recommend the salted caramel truffle.

Throughout the town were colorful murals on buildings like this one:

Some sidewalks are wavy.

We found some authentic Mexican artisan shops on the street across from where the cruise ships dock. And the prices were fair, unusual in a tourist area. Betty, a shop employee, suggested a restaurant called La Choza for Andy’s birthday dinner, as it’s a local favorite. We walked there, several blocks away, as it started to rain again. The mole chicken was complex and delicious. Mole usually consists of sweet and earthy ingredients like dried chilis, sesame seeds, chocolate, cinnamon, and other spices. This one was a family recipe with 20 ingredients. Andy’s shrimp quesadillas were excellent, as well. We shared rich coconut ice cream for dessert.

The next morning, Andy realized that his hat had fallen out of his backpack as we were trying to get our umbrellas out at Viva Mexico, a store where he found a t-shirt. Yes, we are those tourists who like to have t-shirts and hats from the places we visit.

We couldn’t find a working phone number for that store, but two days later, Andy went back and the shop employees recognized him and returned his hat! When does that ever happen? At the same time he was getting his hat back, I found the hand-embroidered blouse I’d been seeking at a store that was about to close. It’s beautiful. That store, Los Cinco Soles (Seven Suns), sells handmade items from all over Mexico, relationships that they’ve cultivated over many years. A store with a conscience.

Another day, Andy left his sunglasses in the rental car (don’t be too hard on him, the case was black, as was the console.) This time, the rental agent tried to reach me multiple times, and the glasses were returned! They are a design Coyote doesn’t make anymore, so Andy was very grateful.

These incidents of genuine honesty and goodwill convinced us that Cozumel is a great place and its people truly welcome us crazy Americans.

It seems most people go to Cozumel to scuba dive. We aren’t those people.

Instead, we rented a car and went to the San Gervasio Archeological Park in the middle of the island. We opted to hire a local guide, whose name is Nacho. His birthday is February 29, leap day. He said with a smile that he’ll be 16 (that’s 64). He leads four or five tours per day in the complex, usually big groups not just a couple like us, so we received personal attention — a little more luck.

He told us that his top half was Spanish, and his bottom half was Mayan. He distinguished the difference between Mayans and Aztecs, which some people confuse. Mayans were quite advanced, were astronomers, and developed a calendar. They were short, under five feet tall, wore gemstones in their teeth if they had wealth, were cross-eyed, and had a distinct mark on their low backs. He said he has that mark. He said their ancestry was from Mongolia.

The ruins were a city dedicated to offerings to the Mayan goddess Ixchel. She represents femininity, love, pregnancy, and medicine. Nacho showed us a niche where he left an offering that he said helped his daughter get pregnant.

One of the building ruins he showed us was a wealthy family’s home. The boys and girls had separate rooms with their own bathrooms (yes, indoor plumbing in 1200 A.D.), and the parents slept in between. The kitchen had two stoves of rock.

There was the number seven in evidence everywhere. Seven steps, seven lengths on a sidewalk to the sea, seven columns in places, seven upside down steps forming an arch.

Some of what Nacho told us contradicted what was written on signs in the park, but he said those signs were from 1970 and haven’t been updated with current knowledge about the finds there. Anyone who says this is a small quick trip didn’t walk all of it. Heck, we didn’t. There was at least one building we didn’t get to.

He spent a lot of time talking about the vegetation. The poison ivy tree, the Banyan (aka Alamo) tree, and the Limbo Limbo tree. He pointed out the Chiclet trees from which gum was made. The locals used the natural chicle to clean their teeth as well as other uses. He told us that a white man stole the idea and made synthetic gum, impacting the economics of the locals who had made gum from the sap of the trees and sold it off-island.

Then there was the tree he hugged, a Chaka tree. He said that when you hug that tree, you should meditate upon your dead relatives and friends. So, I did, and I felt more at peace in the tree’s shade.

Nacho gave me his WhatsApp number* so I could refer others to him. Most vendors seemed to have personal WhatsApp numbers to text, including the HTL car rental guy, Joel. I also recommend that company. He’s the one who found Andy’s sunglasses.

We bought an inlaid stone mask to drive away evil, then drove to the east side of the island.

We stopped at a commercial establishment, Playa Punta Morena to walk on the beach. Their business model was apparently that to use the beach, you were supposed to buy something. However, the restaurant prices were very high and the merchandise was questionable. Don’t hate me. We didn’t buy anything, but we did walk the beach.

The beach was bigger than at the hotel, but still not very long. There was plastic litter scattered around probably from the restaurant. We were surprised that the owners didn’t try to keep the beach more pristine. We saw this kind of litter in other places we visited, which is something I hope the government takes seriously and cleans up.

We looked out at the water, which was rougher than on the west side. There is no electricity on the east side, so all the restaurants and parks use generators. I’d heard in advance that cell signals would be weak if at all. The west side, where most tourists stay and do water sports, has more modern infrastructure.

As everywhere during our visit, the red flags warning people not to enter the water were prevalent, but still, some families were braving it.

We drove past several private beaches and a few parks. Other than that, the east side of the island is quiet except for the pounding waves.

Our last full day, which was nicer, was spent in part on a horseback ride in the jungle and a narrow beach. We felt bad for the horses, as all through the jungle there were large cement-colored puddles and mud. It could have been dangerous if they stepped in the wrong place. The beach was a bit better, but again, there was plastic trash, and it was too narrow to do anything but walk in a single file. Still, it was nice to be on a horse again.

We also tried to get in the water at the hotel but didn’t have the proper water shoes to get in past all the sharp coral rocks. Next time we will be more prepared. We enjoyed ourselves anyway. As we were standing there watching the waves, we fell and sat on the edge with waves filling our bathing suits with sand, as we laughed.

We have gratitude for a few more things that happened. First, we met our next-door neighbors, Mike and Donna from Detroit the day before we left. Andy talked to Mike about San Gervasio. They were planning to get a key lime pie from one of the restaurants across the street from the hotel. A few minutes later, Mike was at our patio with a medium-sized pie that he gave us and walked away, almost before we could thank him. It took until the next day for us to finish it. What a nice guy!

Our flight didn’t leave until 4 PM. We had some time before catching a cab, so we started to walk up the street. Just as we started, a rental car pulled up and called us over. Tobias from Utah and his wife asked where we were going. When Andy told them we were going to catch a cab in about a half hour, Tobias insisted that they give us a free ride to the airport instead. So, we took them up on it. What a gift! We saved $25 with that generous gesture.

So, despite the weather, we were so lucky on this trip, and we are grateful for all the good people we met and the experiences we had. When I talked to a friend about these blessings, she suggested that they happened because we had given up expectations and were ready to receive them. Perhaps. No matter why they happened, I plan to pay it forward.

I asked Andy when he wanted to go back. He said, “How about next month?”

Sondra Singer is a writer, musician, and storyteller who spent too much of her life in advertising sales. She writes about various subjects including memoirs, personal essays, and politics. Please clap if you like her writing, follow, and subscribe. And check out her website, here.

*I have the WhatsApp numbers for Nacho the guide and for the car rental. If anyone wants these, let me know. I receive nothing for my endorsements.