Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2011
Me and Jason
One of my favorite pictures from the trip - Rasta's BarIn 8 cruises, I’ve never really booked an independent excursion outside of the one time I went to Roatan and we hired a taxi for the day. I was a little worried about booking a bar hop that would leave us with only a 30 minute buffer to be back to the ship before it set sail. With prayers said and fingers crossed – and the trust in all the positive online reviews, we booked with www.cozumelbarhop.com and sent our $20 deposits to strangers in Cozumel in advance of the cruise.
When we arrived in Cozumel, we followed the instructions on our confirmation emails, which led us out of the port area, down the street, and to a 7-11 convenience store as a meeting point. Ryan and Dana were with me and Jason, and with this being their first cruise and first port – I think they were wondering if they’d make it back to the ship with all their organs still intact. I reassured them that there were hundreds of positive reviews for this tour and not to worry. I could see how they’d be a little concerned!
Our guide for the day was there waiting and the
others showed up too. We paid the remainder of our deposit ($30 each), and the 12 of us joined Marta (I think it was Marta!) and the driver on the bus.
She immediately put us at ease! She talked about the areas we drove through as we went to the other side of the island. We learned about the housing and home structures. Rainwater collecting on the top of the homes and the planned neighborhoods. Cozumel is still very much in a developmental stage, but it’s good to see the progress. We’d been instructed ahead of time to bring cash because the bars don’t have electricity for card readers!
Within 35 minutes, we arrived to our first destination – Punta Morena. (Make sure you include the N in Punta or you’re not saying a nice word!) At each bar we were to receive a free shot on arrival and about 45 minutes to enjoy the area. This area was a large open walled restaurant area with a beautiful beach behind it with hammocks and even a pool. Massages were offered there and both Jason and Ryan took a 2 minute demo massage. I think local time was around
10:30 AM, but hey – it was 5 o’clock somewhere! Jason and I enjoyed this stop in the hammocks and relaxed. The views were beautiful!
Stop number two was at Coconuts. It has a really nice tropical feel with all types of lush greenery around the building. They have parrots, dogs, a cat, and even an alligator! Signs are everywhere as well as t-shirts, business cards, and unmentionables stapled to the ceiling. I’m sure the place has seen some wild times. They had a photo album on the counter full of evidence of free drinks hundreds of ladies have “earned” in the past. Several walking trails radiated out from the main building, including an overlook down the beach. The bar is at a highpoint, so there wasn’t a beach, but it worked out great because that’s when a rainstorm came through!
A man was out front selling items woven from palm leafs. All the gals got little crickets which made appearances in our photos the rest of the afternoon!
The rain was finishing up when we arrived at Playa Bonita. This was more of the drinking spot. The beach is small, so we all gathered around a table
and did our cheer/toast for the day: “Arriba, A bajo, Al Centro, A dentro!” Marta had a shotglass holster and finished off a pre-mixed standard bottle between the 12 of us. We had another tequila round before left too. (Surpassing the promised single shot per bar!)
Our last stop was at Rasta’s. Red, Green, and Yellow completed the theme or the bar. We didn’t even make it across the street to the store, because we were busy inside eating their yummy coconut shrimp, drinking coconut water, and enjoying the beautiful beach and surf behind it. It might have been the drinks, but I’m pretty sure this was my favorite stop, followed closely by Punta Morena. There was a chair on the beach with a sign indicating it’s use was for topless pictures, but the guys were shy and we couldn’t talk them into sitting down!
Time was approaching for us to get back to the ship, so we all hurried back to the bus for the drive back to the port. We arrived with plenty of time and with all our organs still intact (Ryan breathed a sigh of relief that we weren’t the new stars in a
Jason
Coconuts - Bar horror movie!)
I highly recommend the bar hop to anyone in Cozumel. It’s a great way to see the other side of the island and create some great memories with friends!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.162s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 30; qc: 106; dbt: 0.0947s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
