We we went to Sweetwater Chophouse in Defiance because they had some great Mexican food specials. I had the braised beef short rib chimichanga and Ian had the lobster enchiladas. YUM!
Ian and I LOVE Mexican food in all forms. (beans + cheese + rice + salsa + chicken/beef/pork/seafood = food heaven.) So naturally, when we had to decide on what excursion we would do for our cruise stop in Cozumel, we knew we wanted it to include authentic Mexican food.
We looked over a ton of Royal Caribbean excursion options, which included boat rides, beach adventures, tours of ruins, swimming with dolphins or stingrays, ect. The options were very overwhelming and also very expensive. Most of the good excursions, which included food, were over $100 per person.
Since we had access to beaches in the greater Tampa area while staying with my grandparents (before and after our cruise), we eliminated the beach excursion options possibilities.
Ian and I had gone on a boat ride/stingray adventure in 2009 in the Caymans (A trip that I won! Yes, people really do win free trips to places. Now, I will officially never win anything else in my life. I'm OK with that.) Swimming with animals really didn't appeal to us this trip (...probably because I accidentally put Ian in a lot of danger in the Caymans. Our catamaran stopped at a shallow point in the ocean and we got to "swim" with the stingrays. A stingray as big as the moon brushed up against me and I jumped on Ian. I made Ian lose his balance which caused him to step around. The only thing you are not supposed to when visiting with stingrays is to step around. You are supposed to shuffle your feet, because if you step on a stingray as size as the moon, they will sting you and it will hurt. Ian got lucky and we got back on the boat until everyone finished their "swim").
I love history, but the tours of the Mayan ruins were pretty far away and traveling in a hot van with a bunch of strangers for hours sounded like work. Mayan ruins had to wait for another day, some day.
We did some research and decided we would do our own tour of Cozumel. Cozumel is an island off of Mexico and appeared to be very safe. We decided we would do some shopping for souvenirs, really jump into the culture and pick out our own authentic Mexican meal. Also to our benefit, I studied the Spanish language for 8 years. (This really didn't come in handy in Cozumel, almost everyone spoke English.)
The evening before the stop in Cozumel, Cougar and her friend (you get to meet them in my next post), gave us a coupon for a free snack plate at Poncho's Backyard in Cozumel. Perfect! We planned to go there for lunch.
When the ship landed at the port, we took off on our adventure.
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| International Port is behind me. |
It seemed at the time that the port was a huge tourist trap, so we moved through the winding port buildings as fast as we could. We had to walk through a half mile of very aggressive salesmen trying to sell us non-Royal Caribbean excursions, jewelry, and souvenirs. We made our way through the port quickly and followed the signs to the taxi station.
I was very thankful there was an official taxi station and that all the taxis looked the same and were numbered. I felt really safe since there weren't any unmarked taxi's, and that we were getting into a legitimate vehicle.
Per our research, we told the taxi driver where we wanted to go and negotiated the cost before we got in. Seven dollars and fifteen minutes later we arrived to our destination, the Forum Shops. These shops were highlighted on a flyer that we got as we exited the boat.
A "bouncer" greeted us at the door to the shops, and we headed in. (bouncer?) These Forum shops were actually an indoor mall (what!?). It was a really nice indoor mall. This is not at all what we wanted to do. I should have inferred that because the name was Forum Shops, in English, that this might be the case. If we wanted to go to the mall we would have stayed in America. Because we were there, we did a loop around the mall and most of the shops were not open yet. From what I could tell, it seemed most were stuffy jewelry stores. (Get me out of here.)
We promptly left the mall and headed across the street where we could get a good view of the beautiful water. I had a little bit of crystal clear - sparkling blue - water envy. Unfortunately, there wasn't a beach as it had appeared from the other side of the road. The water came right up to the street, so we just snapped a picture and decided to keep on keepin' on.
We continued down the road and looked through a couple shops that were more authentic. We browsed the shops along the main road, and then a Mexican gentlemen asked us to come down the alley to his shop off the main drag. (Um, sure!) We followed him... even though I began to see flashes of the Lifetime Natalee Holloway movie in my head.
He tried selling Ian cigars and somehow the $60 box was down to $20 in about five minutes. Ian was super uncomfortable and didn't end up buying any because he doesn't know a lot about cigars (and I was afraid we might be buying something illegal. I mean how are we supposed to know!?) I was eyeing a Mexican blanket. I found a color I liked in the stack and began to negotiate. The sign said they were $25. I said I would pay $10. He said $15. We landed at $12. We walked out of there and headed back to the main road. We survived. And I got a great deal, right?
As we continued down the road we noticed 95% of the shops had the same items, even the same as the shop in the alley and the shops at the port. I found the blanket I bought for $12, was only $4 in other shops. Crap.
Note to future visitors of Cozumel. You only really need to go into a couple shops and negotiate, negotiate, negotiate if you see something you like! Most shops sell the same items. Also, the International Port shops seemed a little more expensive then the shops further in town. But I'm sure you could negotiate prices down with them as well.
I was pissed.
I had some more shopping to do, so I needed to be more aggressive. I had been seeing some bright Cozumel shirts that I thought my sisters might like. Most shops were selling them 2 for $20. I was determined to get a deal on them.
We went into a shop and I saw the shirts I wanted. There was a girl working that looked about 15 years old. She asked if I spoke Spanish, in Spanish, and I said "Si, un poco." (Yes, a little.) She smiled. Then we continued to negotiate in English. ha. I kind of felt bad for her. This is probably their only source of income. And, why were they letting their child work at the store by herself? As soon as I said I would pay $10 for 2 shirts, she got real sassy with me. I didn't feel that bad anymore. I showed her the $10 bill and said that's all I can pay. She accepted, and I only hated myself a little bit.
Here are the other souvenirs we picked up.
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| for our Christmas tree |
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| for Ian's mom |
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| for my mom |
Now, time for our lunch adventure.
We could not find the restaurant for the life of us. We walked a really, really long way down the main road, in the scorching heat, hoping we would run into a big sign that said PONCHO'S BACKYARD. We passed this pretty wall... and then we weren't in Kansas anymore.
We walked further... and finally asked a local person if they knew where Poncho's was located. They said it was further down the road, in the direction we were going. So we continued to walk and walk. Let's just say the direction we were going . . . I was losing my appetite to nerves, and I was about to pass out from the heat. Tourist bait.
We never found it. So, we turned around and walked back towards Kansas. We were very close to giving up on our authentic Mexican food experience, and almost went into Margaritaville, a restaurant/bar we passed. Tragic.
No! We want authentic Mexican and I want to use our free snack plate coupon! As we got closer to Kansas, we hailed a cab and had the driver take us to Poncho's. It was not in the direction we were headed before. Meaning, the local lied to us or there was some miscommunication. Minutes later we are at a storefront near the Forum Shops where we began. Huh?
The restaurant was behind one of the shops we had gone into earlier.
When we walked in to Poncho's, it occurred to me that maybe this restaurant we had been searching for wasn't so authentic after all? In hindsight, with the name "Poncho's Backyard" in English, and the fact our coupon was given to Cougar and her friend on the ship . . .we should have known... Stupid tourists.
We were exhausted. We decided to stay and enjoy this experience:
* The woman musician and I had a smiling contest.
* Ian and I each had one very strong margarita.
* Our gourmet Mexican was tasty. Authentic? Well, I'm not quite sure. Expensive? Yes.
* After handing over the snack plate coupon, and reminding her server 3 times about it, we finally got it after we finished our meal. I wish I had taken a picture of this snack plate! It was pretty much a single chip in some refried beans. (Hilarious. All that for this!?)
We had fun, but if we were to stop in Cozumel again, on a cruise ship, I think we would take a taxi to one of the beaches. The same beaches that were options as excursions through the cruise, you can get to on your own and pay a la cart for the beach activities you want to do (like snorkeling, jet ski rental, kayak rental, ect). Also, I'm sure the beach would have had the same souvenirs and Mexican food.
Lots of lessons learned, just a couple of arguments and some laughing after the fact.
We ended up spending $40 on lunch, $20 on cabs and $30 on souvenirs. Total of $90.
After our emotional and exhausting morning/lunch in Cozumel, we headed back to the ship to relax by the pool.
Stay tuned for Vacay 2012 Part 4: The things cougars say.
Adios! XO
We could not find the restaurant for the life of us. We walked a really, really long way down the main road, in the scorching heat, hoping we would run into a big sign that said PONCHO'S BACKYARD. We passed this pretty wall... and then we weren't in Kansas anymore.
We walked further... and finally asked a local person if they knew where Poncho's was located. They said it was further down the road, in the direction we were going. So we continued to walk and walk. Let's just say the direction we were going . . . I was losing my appetite to nerves, and I was about to pass out from the heat. Tourist bait.
We never found it. So, we turned around and walked back towards Kansas. We were very close to giving up on our authentic Mexican food experience, and almost went into Margaritaville, a restaurant/bar we passed. Tragic.
No! We want authentic Mexican and I want to use our free snack plate coupon! As we got closer to Kansas, we hailed a cab and had the driver take us to Poncho's. It was not in the direction we were headed before. Meaning, the local lied to us or there was some miscommunication. Minutes later we are at a storefront near the Forum Shops where we began. Huh?
The restaurant was behind one of the shops we had gone into earlier.
When we walked in to Poncho's, it occurred to me that maybe this restaurant we had been searching for wasn't so authentic after all? In hindsight, with the name "Poncho's Backyard" in English, and the fact our coupon was given to Cougar and her friend on the ship . . .we should have known... Stupid tourists.
We were exhausted. We decided to stay and enjoy this experience:
* The woman musician and I had a smiling contest.
* Ian and I each had one very strong margarita.
* Our gourmet Mexican was tasty. Authentic? Well, I'm not quite sure. Expensive? Yes.
* After handing over the snack plate coupon, and reminding her server 3 times about it, we finally got it after we finished our meal. I wish I had taken a picture of this snack plate! It was pretty much a single chip in some refried beans. (Hilarious. All that for this!?)
We had fun, but if we were to stop in Cozumel again, on a cruise ship, I think we would take a taxi to one of the beaches. The same beaches that were options as excursions through the cruise, you can get to on your own and pay a la cart for the beach activities you want to do (like snorkeling, jet ski rental, kayak rental, ect). Also, I'm sure the beach would have had the same souvenirs and Mexican food.
Lots of lessons learned, just a couple of arguments and some laughing after the fact.
We ended up spending $40 on lunch, $20 on cabs and $30 on souvenirs. Total of $90.
After our emotional and exhausting morning/lunch in Cozumel, we headed back to the ship to relax by the pool.
Stay tuned for Vacay 2012 Part 4: The things cougars say.
Adios! XO
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