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Sat, March 1, 2003
Nicole started coming down with a cold the moment we stepped off the plane to Cozumel (pronounced "Koh-sue-mel"), and it doesn't help that our room is nice but incredibly musty.
Sun, March 2, 2003
We woke up to the sounds of the people upstairs rearranging their furniture. It sounded like fingernails on a blackboard and they inexplicably kept it up for half an hour. The Iberostar has all you can eat and all you can drink. I figured an all-inclusive resort would be a problem if the food wasn't any good. Unfortunately, the problem turns out to be just the opposite: the food is so good we keep eating way too much and then are too bloated and lazy to do anything...until it's time for our next meal. We devised a means to get ourselves out of bed by determining to reward ourselves with a beer for getting up. We made it as far as our front porch hammock.
Mon, March 3, 2003
Went biking. Bought some crap. Did two dives. In the evening, Nicole said her ears really hurt which we took to be due to the fact that she was fighting off a cold. We numbed the pain with some alcohol. Nicole saw an enormous spotted ray, but unfortunately the camera was fogged up so she couldn't get a decent picture.
Tue, March 4, 2003
Nicole thinks that she may have been paranoid about her ears clearing during her scuba dive yesterday, and so she may have overdone it. Her ears still hurt this morning, so we made an appointment for her with the resort doctor. Turned out she has given herself a "Class 3 Middle-Ear Barotrauma", which means that aggresively clearning her ears caused her to start bleeding from behind the eardrums. She needs to take medication every four hours, chew gum, and refrain from diving for a day or two and the doc says she'll be fine. As we can't go diving, we rent a car today to see the island.
It's amazing how difficult it is to get cash around here. We were warned by several people not to pay by credit card in small restaurants and shops or they will have a party with your credit card number. Unfortunatly, there's no ATM in the hotel. Fortunately, we were informed by a Canadian couple we drank with last night that we could use our credit card to get cash at the front desk or from our Apple Vacations representative. However, if history teaches us anything it's "Don't trust the Canadians". Neither turned out to be true. We had to drive downtown, a good 20 minutes away, and track down what appears to be the only ATM on the island. Nicole's ear pain has subsided, though her hearing is still muffled which indicates the blood has not yet drained from her ears.
Wed, March 5, 2003
We decided to make a reservation to see Chichen-Itza today, in case Nic's ear was not yet good enough for her to dive. Good call. It's much worse today. Chichen Itza is considered one of the top four Mayan ruins in the world. I had seen it twice before but it was still pretty impressive. Nicole loved Chichen-Itza, but unfortunately her ear pain was back with a vengence. She said it was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life and was often wincing in pain on the verge of crying for much of the time we were there. She was still really impressed by Chichen-Itza though, through the pain.
We came back, it appears that the maid had cleaned our room with bleach, even though we hadn't actually gotten around to complaining about the musty smell. The room is still stinky, but now in a clean way.
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March 6, 2003
Nicole still not well enough to dive, so I did two dives alone, while she hung out at the resort. On the afternoon dive I saw a nest of 10 enormous lobsters.
March 7, 2003
We did a deep dive (> 100 feet). At the end of the dive I was at 500 PSI (near the end of my tank of oxygen) doing my five minute safety stop before surfacing. I saw a sea turtle 40 feet below me, which I had to check out never having seen one underwater before. I got a good look at him, but unfortunately he started swimming away so I was unable to get a good pic of him. I made it back to the boat with my tank empty. The second dive was incredible. Loads of fish everywhere and good visibility. However there was a very strong current and I had to swim as hard I could to stay in one place, which made photography difficult. After a while I gave up and just went were it told me to go. I saw a nurse shark and some fish so enormous they looked like they could beat up the nurse shark. The nurse shark was a ways away and swimming into the current so I couldn't get a good pic of him.
A note in my log from Nicole: Matt farted in my face when we were lying in the hammock. He owes me. You are all my witnesses.
Nicole has decided that the guy upstairs must be an obsessive compulsive freak. It's the only explanation as to why he rearranges the furniture all day. Hopefully Nicole's ear will be OK on the flight, though she claims it would be pretty cool if her eardrum exploded, splattering the guy in the next seat with blood. At night I did my 30th dive ever (an embarassingly low number since I've been certified for many years). I saw my first octopus. He was a little guy, about 4 inches long. When we got back to the boat I bragged to a guy in another dive group that we had seen an octopus. He responded nonchalantly, "Yeah, we saw several, but they were just little ones." Oh yeah, well, we saw...a unicorn...underwater. The hotel's definition of "vegetarian" might clash with that of some of my more "strict" vegetarian friends. One of the vegetarian dishes at tonight's dinner was green beans with ham. Apparently in Mexico pigs are considered a vegetable.
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March 8, 2002
 
I strongly felt the urge to go upstairs this morning and ask why anyone would feel the need to drag their furniture around at 7:15 AM. Not so much to complain - at this point I am simply overwhelmed by curiosity. Sadly, I did not, so we may never know. Today we swam with the delfines, which was a lot of fun. It's amazing how animals without fur still manage to be so cute. As we left Cozumel with happy memories, we found ourselves scented with the official fragrane of Cozumel (mustiness), and in my case, with a wicked case of montezuma's revenge. |
