Did You Know We Rented a Motorcycle in Cozumel?

Did you know we rented a motorcycle in Cozumel?

We were not sure what we wanted to do on the day our cruise ship docked in Cozumel. We have visited here before five years ago. That day we paid entrance to a national park and snorkeled. This trip we had considered diving Cozumel, but one day of diving was all we could afford!

So we thought about renting a jeep and touring the island. I wanted to see some mayan ruins but the bigger ones were on the mainland, a 45 minute boat ride. And we had seen some ruins last trip. When we got off at the port, we talked to a couple of ladies at the information booth. One lady worked for the government and gave us what info we were looking for. The other lady worked for a tour company that offered the same excursion packages offered on the ship. They both were very nice and gave us some good info to think about. They were also honest; when my husband asked if there were any other info or tour booths located nearby, the tour group lady said yes, but it was her partner and would give same info and rates as she did.

We checked on a jeep but didn't seem just right. We crossed over the street and found several guys renting other things, including motorcycles. As my husband drives a bike in the states and the driving in  Cozumel is the same, we talked to him for a bit and struck up a good deal. He gave us a map, showed us the main road, told us which sites require paid entrance (the rest being free) and also a place to eat. We then got situated and took off for our jaunt around the island.

We had a good time once we got off the main road and on the access road that follows along the coast line. The water is gorgeous! We stopped at one secluded spot to walk around a bit. The waves were too strong to really get into the water.

gorgeous beach

We took off again just enjoying the sights and being together. After we rounded the curve back inland my husband pulled over and told me to drive! I have not driven a bike of any size since I was an early teen. But my husband gave me pointers and I slowly took off.  Not too hard really and not bad. But, I quickly turned it back over to him.

We then made our way towards the downtown section passing shops and schools where the locals are. We then rounded back along the other coastline past all the tourism district and back down past the port to eat.

We shared some fajitas and I had lime juice. Then we enjoyed a hour or so on the beach just playing in the water and relaxing. I had my swim goggles with me so I saw a few small fish. We also collected some shells to bring home.

mr. santos-a good enough place to eat, play on beach,  and shower

Then we used the facilities to shower and change and head over to the shops. (The guy we rented bike from told us to shop after 1pm-better prices.) There were folks lining the sidewalks cajoling us to come in. We passed most of them by as I was only looking for vanilla. We found a place to make our purchase-vanilla, hot sauce and candy-then headed back toward port. But my husband decided to take a back street.

We passed a shop that had some Ironman gear and photos in the window. The weekend before had been the Ironman 70.3 race. We pulled over and went into the shop. It was actually a dive shop. We walked around a couple minutes then got into a conversation with the owner. My husband told him that he had done an IM race last year and our friend did IM Cozumel last year. The owner told us that one of his employees had just completed the 70.3 distance that previous weekend and showed us a surprise he had made for his friend-a banner with a photo of him crossing the finish line to hang in the window next to the pros photos!!

By then it was time to head back to ship. We returned bike and walked through shops, trying to avoid that fact that when we left port, our ship was headed back to states....