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Published: March 27th 2018
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At the beginning of last year, my family and I took an amazing trip to the beautiful island of Cozumel, Mexico. It was everything I could ever imagine. Unfortunately, due to a bad storm, we were only able to spend one perfect day in the sun. This did not stop us from having the time of our lives going snorkeling, speaking with the people of Cozumel, and absolutely planning our second trip back to the island in 2019.
To get to Mexico we took a cruise ship departing from Mobil, Alabama. The ship was great but no where near as amazing as the feeling of stepping off of it, and into Mexico. When we arrived we walked through local shops and visited different road side tents selling small treasures. At one of these tents I purchased a ceramic skull, traditionally painted in a bright orange, and small hand painted details that you would see on any sugar skull. Continuing on our way to our main excursion, I couldnt help but spin to look at everything happening around me. I wanted to soak it all in as much as possible. The streets were crowded and fast paced, while the shore line was
completely calm and relaxing. This city really had a little bit of everything. People were friendly(mostly to get you to buy something), but I really learned this when we finally reached where we were going. We arrived at a small dock at a hotel and boarded a boat to go snorkeling at 3 coral reefs. One of which was the 2nd largest reef in the world and needless to say I was stoked ! The weather was perfect and the water was the most beautiful shade of light blue I’ve ever seen, looking off in the distance at it, but when I looked over the side of the boat and down to the bottom of the ocean floor it was crystal clear. You could see absolutely everything from just the boat and we were about to get in for an even closer look . We had two tour guides, Ricardo and Jose, who made our trip easy and fun. They thought of everything they could to make it amazing and even went the extra mile to provide us with complimentary drinks and food. They provided us bottles of Coronas and hand made guacamole and tortilla chips. Our first stop was
not the second biggest reef in the world, but it didn’t cease to amaze. There were so many colorful fish that were not at all scared to come up and interact! A few of them even caught a small nibble at our toes. We were supposed to wear life jackets and flippers on our feet , but when advised that we could take them off, I didn’t hesitate for a second. I swam down to the reef looking at every living thing I could lock eyes with until having to move on to our second reefs destination. The second reef was the one I had been waiting for since we booked our excursion.. the second largest in the world. We all could not wipe the smiles off our faces as we hopped back into the warm water to see this amazing reef. As I swam down it was even more amazing then I thought it would be. It was so alive with color and movement, there was no place that I could look where nothing was happening. It was so full of life and it just kept going ! Fish after fish, coral after coral there was so many beautiful
creatures to observe. To name a few honorable mentions, we saw plenty of blue tangs, sea turtles and (from a distance) a barracuda. I could have stayed down there forever if it weren’t for having to come back up for air and soon it was time to move on to the final destination on our snorkeling trip. We soon arrived to a very large starfish gathering area. There were hundreds of star fish as far as I could see and this time we were able to stand and walk among them. Looking down most of them seemed to be a maroon red color with white on the ends of there ridges, giving them a polka dotted pattern. We could actually pick them up but we had to be very gental and carful to not hurt them or ourselves from a possible star fish bite. After visiting the huge gathering, our tour guides decided to surprise us with one more spot to stop at on our excursion. They told us that this spot was very special because the sand here was so soft it had therapeutic properties, and we would be able to get in the water and feel it ourselves.
I have never felt anything so soft. Every step was like walking on silk mixed with the soft fur of a blanket in one. It is said to be great for your skin as well, so I rubbed it on my arms and legs to try and really take in the therapeutic experience. We anchored the boat here for a while to listen to music, eat and drink. While we were still enjoying the feel of the sand and the music, sting rays came swimming by our feet. They were so friendly and majestic and had no problem with us touching them. They stuck around for awhile to explore and finally left giving a perfect ending to our day in the water. As we made our way way back to shore I made sure that I soaked in every ounce of the view before we stepped back on the dock. I closed my eyes and let the sun hit my face and let my hand trail through the water as we drifted back to shore. With just one more hour until we had to get back on our boat we all agreed the last thing needed to be done was
get a margarita! We went to Margaritaville ,right on the water next to where we exited our boat, and talked about everything we had experienced that day. We drank, we laughed and had an amazing time, while at the same time dreading each minute that passed, knowing that this would be the end of our day in paradise. Walking back up to the boat I realized how small I really am, not just because the size of the ship was nothing short of gigantic, but because there is a whole world out there to see. So many people and experiences to encounter. This trip sparked my mind to wonder and with that wonder, a need to explore. This blog post is my first but it will most definitely not be my last.
Until next time ~ Kaylinn.
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