This Monte guy, I guess he gets his revenge one way or another. More on that later….
If you read my last blog you knew we had some traveling coming up. It came just in the nick of time. Panama has been under a severe drought. Over the last year, El Nino, has taken its toll. There were cattle dying in some areas and dire rationing going on. Here at the beach we pretty much only heard 3rd person stories or read some unknown FaceBook post about it. Well it finally caught up to us. We were without water of 4 full days and then were on a scheduled ration. Yep, I was walking up one floor to the pool roof and getting buckets of pool water to flush the toilets. The administration finally was able to arrange tankers of water to be delivered and we were able to survive on 5 hours of water a day still used sparingly. Well, Denise and I were anxious to go on our scheduled trip. If not already arranged we would have left sooner.
Denise’s trip was to fly to Charleston, SC where she would meet up with some girl friends from Seattle. They would then head to Savanah. All this was to celebrate someone’s birthday/bucket list. I think it was a long way to go and a lot of money to spend just to eat and drink an awful lot – Oh the stories Denise has told. I am surprised I didn’t have to send money for bail. Due to flights, Denise arrived in Charleston 4 days early and stayed with our friend Norma (Norma this is your 5 seconds of infamy). She had a great time before the drunks cougars girls showed up. Fortunately Denise’s group only had to stay one night in ‘the big house’ where they slept it off and then were released to leave town. Denise then headed south to Jacksonville for Rob and Jenn’s beach wedding – cool! After these two weeks of unbridled partying, the day after the wedding Denise left town flying to Cozumel meet me.
Me, well I left Panama the same day as Denise but I headed to Cancun. My first goal was met – flushing toilets – but oh, don’t drink the water. I made my way over to Cozumel, my ultimate destination. I had never been there and was looking forward to seeing what all the excitement was about. I met up with Mark Tyler of Tyler Investment (very successfully handles our retirement funds). Mark has been living on Cozumel for a while now and truly enjoys it. I spent about two weeks hanging with Mark before Denise arrived. Mark showed me all the very good local restaurants and bars. Wow, was the food good. We don’t get Mexican food in Panama, at least good Mexican food. We also frequented an English Pub and spent multiple nights/meals at a great Cuban place – best Mojitos and Pork Tacos.
We spent many days sitting under a Bahia on the waterfront drinking beer, reading, and abusing the Wifi. Mark was a great friend and gave lots of his time. If you go there you should look him up, if your IRA sucks you should look him up. Denise arrived in Cozumel where her and I revisited the best places since she only had 5 days. We went snorkeling for our first time – way cool. It was a very relaxing time.
Ok now back to Montezuma (my friend Monte). I do think he gets you either coming or going. So I didn’t have to pray to the porcelain god but on my 3rd day in Cozumel, during a pretty good downpour, my flip flop caught something on a sidewalk and I took a pretty nasty fall. My knee was missing lots of skin, my elbow was scraped bad – yes blood everywhere – and I really really jammed my wrists. I walked into the English Pub and they thought I had gotten jumped. Well I got cleaned up and they gave me some ice and LOT of beer. My knee is healing nicely now but after Xrays and some drugs my wrist still hurts like hell – Mexico is great for drugs. Also on our last night, the A/C in our room decided to go crazy, wouldn’t turn off or down, and started spitting moisture. Well the last time the A/C was cleaned was well, NEVER! So I am sure it was spewing molds and mildews so of course I ended up with a bad head cold for the last day. Oh well more drugs. Well I am on the mend but since I am such a nice guy I decided to share it with Denise – my cold, not the drugs. So I guess Monte won again!
We got back to Panama after 2.5 weeks to find the water back on BUT still a severe drought and fearful that at any time I may be back to the bucket brigade. The rains supposedly are right around the corner but it will take quiet a lot to solve this shortage for the country. They are even limiting ship size through the Panama Canal. You would think we were in California!
So some Cozumel observations. The weather we had was great. The food and drink is very good and very cheap compared to Panama and the USA. The west side of the island (populated side) doesn’t really have beach but has shoreline. There are lots of rock and coral which is one of the reasons it is such a tremendous snorkeling and diving mecca.The east side or rugged side has very active waves and a lot more sandy beaches. There are a handful of beach bars that are along the east stretch. It is worth the trip. Cozumel has nice streets and nice sidewalks (compared to Panama, which isn’t hard to do). It is clean and the folks are a bit more progressive than Panama. It has lots of tourists and cruises coming through. On the main land, Playa Del Carmen looked very nice with wonderful beaches but seems to be a pure party town. If you have ever been to the Caribbean, I don’t need to mention how amazing the water is. If you haven’t, it really can’t be adequately described so put it on your bucket list. The colors and clarity are truly amazing.
Well we are home in Panama now and getting back into routine – get up, read mail/Facebook, Coffee, walk the beach, breakfast, go float in the pool, lunch, siesta, go float in the pool, dinner, happy hour, read and/or TV, then bed. Damn I am tired just thinking of such a busy schedule!
Enjoy the pics and as always let me know if you have a question or want me to expound on anything relevant. All comments and opinions are my own – so there!
RB
