Scooters for Rent in Cozumel

On the street in Cozumel I saw a big sign saying, SCOOTERS FOR RENT. My first thought was mobility scooters for people who needed some help walking around. Then a Vespa-type scooter whizzed by. Ahhhhh!

Melissa took this picture of the warning sign posted where you rent these scooters.  You probably also ought to know the traffic laws!

Rhonda's Scoot Partying at Carlos and Charlies

Rhonda very kindly loaned her scoot to Melissa for the cruise. Before we left Baton Rouge I jokingly promised Rhonda I wouldn't let her scoot drink too much. But when in Cozumel, just how much is TOO much?

The nachos were yummy too!

Does anyone have a pair of scissors?

Gee, I've done three posts in a row without a TravelScoot picture. That's a record! Of course you wouldn't have seen those three posts though if it hadn't been for my TravelScoot.

I'm going to start this post with a few words of advice. TAKE YOUR TOOLS AND A SPARE BELT WITH YOU, and don't just leave them on the ship like we did. Some day you'll be glad you were prepared.

One thing I had NOT planned on (and the reason I am advising you to keep your tools and a spare belt with you) was my dress getting caught in the belt. I often scoot in dresses and have never had a problem before, but this dress was a little longer. All of the sudden I'm scooting along and BAM, I'm not moving anymore. It took several minutes for Alan to work the fabric out of the belt and we did it by rolling slightly forward and back until he was able to get it out. We thought we were going to have to resort to scissors, but luckily we didn't have to do that. The fabric was torn, but at least I was still rolling!

Isn't that Walmart bag fashionable?  At least it matches my dress!

"Free Parking!" and a scary elevator

As soon as we entered Cozumel we were again immediately presented with MANY shopping opportunities. We found a small elevator to take us to the second floor which is where we had to go to enter the mall. The shopkeepers were urging us into their stores here too, and we heard many more offers of "Free Parking, Free Parking!"

When we got to the back of the mall we wanted to go down to the first floor so we could go into Cozumel. The only elevator we could find was broken. While Melissa, Alan, and I were contemplating what to do, a local man came up and pointed down to see if we were needing to go down. We nodded yes and he motioned for us to follow him. He took us down one hall to the back of the mall and then into a back door of a service area. At some point my life started flashing before my eyes because I didn't know this man and didn't know where we were going. We went down another hall and stopped when we got to a huge freight elevator with heavy steel doors. He manually opened the doors and then motioned us on. I was very happy to see the light of day again AND have my heart resume beating.

Off we went exploring the streets of Cozumel. We got past the mall and enjoyed some of the local shops, some in buildings and some in open areas in alleys. It was mostly the same souvenier types of items over and over again, but we also saw some beautiful and unique items. I fell in love with a very colorful handcarved round tabletop painted in many bright colors but it was too large to transport home and we really had no where in our house to put it.

You could buy Cuban cigars (but it's illegal to bring them back into the US), "Rolex" watches, and a whole host of diamond and tanzanite jewelry. The most popular item for the travelers I was with was Mexican vanilla, which is sold in many different size bottles. We came back with a liter of it which we paid $8 for. The woman who sold it to us asked me twice to tip her to pay for her chicken tacos. Lots of workers (mostly in entertainment areas) wear big buttons asking you to tip them. I really had to learn when to say yes and when to say no.

The second picture was taken in an alley off one of the side streets of Cozumel. Alan and I thought the wiring was interesting. The third picture is of a local pharmacy where you can buy "prescription" drugs without a prescription. I'd heard you could do this but seeing it in person was eye opening!

There's more to tell you about, but I want to separate it into more posts, so hold on, the adventure continues...

Cozumel

These are pictures from when we docked in Cozumel. The first is taken from shore and gives you an idea of part of the walk from the ship. The second shows a bicycle taxi with two lovely ladies who let me take their picture. These drivers work only for tips and get passengers from the ship to the dock. I'll bet they have some incredibly strong leg muscles!

If you click on the first picture to make it bigger, you'll see how amazingly clear and beautiful the water was. I always thought the colors I saw in the postcards were fake. I was wrong!

Carnival Ecstasy Blue Sapphire Theater

The Blue Sapphire Theater officially seats 1200. It can be accessed from two levels of the ship. Both these pictures were taken from the second level. There is size friendly AND scooter friendly seating all over the place. If you're using a scoot you'll probably prefer the first level, which is all handicap friendly, but if you're on the second level, there's this special handicap area available too. This is where most of the shows are, but also things like bingo and the towel folding workshop, which was surprisingly fun!

One of the highlights of the cruise for me was Cruise Director Steve Cassel's debarkation talk, where he explains what you do to get off the ship. We gots lots of helpful information from that, but I also laughed harder than I'd laughed in months as he told us the top ten stupidest questions every asked by Carnival Cruisers. ("What altitude are we cruising at?") Steve is an exceptionally funny guy.

On shore in Progreso

On our day in Progreso, Alan headed off to an excursion to Chichen Itza which left me and Melissa to explore shopping opportunities.  Here we are headed off the ship.

We are greeted by a local band, playing to set a festive mood.

Here's a look back at the ship from shore, to give you an idea of the distance to the first store.

You have to go through this store to get to ANYTHING in Progreso, including transportation to the excursions.  There are many employees inside to help you shop.  This is where I began learning to bargain on prices.  I bought a beautiful turtle made of obsidian.

Once you go through the big store there's a whole mall of stores.  Many of them have small ramps to get inside.  Otherwise you'd need to take a small step up to get in.  Prepare yourself because you will hear "free parking!" at least a dozen times as the shop owners try to entice you into their store. 

We shopped for a couple of hours and then headed back to the ship.

I didn't even realize until I was looking at the pictures that I was ignoring the "don't walk behind red line" warning.  Obviously I didn't think it applied to scooting!