Babymoon - Cozumel, Mexico, March 12, 2008

Today started out a bit on the dodgy side.  The hotel is a Vacation Club as I indicated yesterday.  That meant that at some point they wanted us to listen to the pitch.  Now, I don't mind doing those kinds of things, as I am always willing to listen.  The problem was that we were told yesterday it would be 45 minutes after a 45 minute breakfast (which we misunderstood and thought was going to be breakfast on our own and then a 45 minute pitch) and it turned out to be a 90 minute pitch.  I tried to be nice about it, but as we rapidly approached the 2 hour mark I lost my cool.  I told them quite curtly that I might have been interested, but they needed to do a better job of getting to the point as I wasn't going to continue to sit there to listen to the pitch given that we had just paid for this vacation, we'd paid a pretty good sum of money and I wasn't about to spend money on a vacation for next year I didn't know we were going to take.  They quickly excused us and called it all done.  That wasn't the expected reaction.  We might have been interested in the deal, but I wanted to hear how much and they needed to understand that I wasn't about to plop down my credit card to purchase the package less than two days into my vacation.  In the end, I felt a bit like an ass, but I really don't care.  They needed to understand my position.

Another quick day at the gym.  Colleen went with me this time and so I chose to only run for 35 minutes instead of the typical 55.  It was nice anyway.  I got to run off the anxiety over the sales pitch and felt that I was ready for the beach.  We quickly changed and slathered on the SPF 50 sunscreen to head down.

Beach time for me is usually odd in that I am not a strong swimmer, my sinus pressure issues typically mean I can't reach equilibrium to scuba.  That means I usually just lay on my back and float like the dead.  It was awesome.  I did take a stab at kayaking on the ocean, but it was quite tiring and Colleen didn't want to go with me.  We did manage three good hours on the beach though.

A quick shower and we decided to catch a cab down to the city center.  It was interesting.  There were a dozen cruise ships in the harbor, and that meant the shops were full force trying to attract people to their stores.  We tried our best to avoid spending anything we didn't want to, as I was stunned to find that most of the stores actually preferred US Dollars to Pesos.  The exchange rate is roughly 11 pesos to the dollar and we didn't bring US Dollars, as most travel sites suggest using the local ATM (and Bank of America has a deal with a local bank for no ATM fees and that bank happens to have an ATM here at the hotel) and the local ATM will off course deliver pesos.  Oh well.  I got my new guitar pin for Cozumel.  It was AWESOME!  We got some stuff for the family and some stuff for us.  We meant to go to a Belgian Chocolatier, but the ships had started sailing and when the ships leave the harbor, most of the stores close.  Not like we won't have a chance to get back down there.

We did manage to find a bar I could get Crown Royal.  NICE!  We also found a tequila store where I purchased a coffee flavored tequila, a citrus tequila and a strawberry tequila.  How cool is that?  I also bought a bottle of habanero pepper sauce which they sold pretty cheaply.  In all, we don't exceed our duty free limit, thankfully.  I only wish Colleen would get to sample some, but I suppose soon enough.

The food at the hotel tonight wasn't all that stellar.  Colleen was tired and we decided to turn in early.

Cheers!