The Magic Fingers of Cozumel

Day 3 Remember the Magic Fingers bed vibrators that cheap motels had? You put in a quarter and supposedly enjoyed the experience.

Mrs. F and I tried one of those out once and it went on and on and was nothing but annoying to the point that I unplugged the thing rather than suffer through it.

That was my night last night. The ship up until now has been quite smooth, but this vibration started in the evening and went all night long. I'm pretty sure a size 70000 grommet has worn out somewhere.

I woke up quite early and witnessed our arrival in Cozumel - in the rain.

I got myself together and headed down for breakfast, comforted by the thought that today I'd be ahead of the t(hr)ongs of buffet cruisers and perusers.

Wrong. It was jammed. Everyone was there early because of planned excursions in Cozumel. I was there early not because of any plans, but because the vibro-bed had bounced me out of slumber.

I found a sheltered place outside on the pool deck to enjoy my omelette, hash browns, and snags. Bangers, actually.

A general observation about the food - it's been quite good. Time after time I've been pleasantly surprised by the taste of the various victuals, particularly the food in the sit-down restaurant. There's been barely a thing that I haven't enjoyed and consumed with mucho gusto. (That would change later on.)

It was still nice and early, and interesting things were afoot - and a sea, with additional cruise ships docking and whatnot.

Without any kind of a plan, I headed off the ship, along the long dock, and through the extremely long duty free gauntlet of vending torture, and into the tourist trap that is the Cruise ship debarkation point at Cozumel.

I walked through the official sanctioned cruise ship tourist trap places and out to the unofficial cruise ship tourist trap places, full of pharmacies, eateries, and people with placards hawking rides, tours, and so on.

People were generally very friendly, but I wasn't interested in shopping or getting a back alley tattoo.

I did wonder about the various prescription drugs that you can buy in the pharmacy without a prescription and whether people take these back on the ship and to the States.

Before too long I'd seen enough and headed back to the ship. I knew that this was not the real Cozumel, and I wouldn't see that unless I booked something or took a taxi somewhere.

The only money I spent was the $5 USD tip I gave these fellow musicians. I showed one of them the mighty callouses I have on the ends of the fingers of my left hand, from fretting the strings while playing guitar for The Tragically Hips.

Zapata Zapata Top

Back in the Cabinette, the day's towel animal was a little less impressive - a Stingray.

I am pretty sure I can reproduce that one.

So tempted. The key to the towel animal universe.

As a writer, one writes, one written word after another. And that's what I did, up in the library (which is almost devoid of any books).

It had been a very productive morning indeed! Tourist traps knocked off, blogging done, omelette consumed, self-confidence restored.

Lunch!

Tacos!

The Trays of Uncertainty

Michelin Ribs

Buffallllllllllllllllo! chicken sandwich, slaw, tater salad.

German chocolate cake.

Lunch was great, except for one thing - the Michelin ribs.

Not Michelin-starred ribs. Michelin. Like the tires, these things were freeway tough. I couldn't really get the meat off the bone with knife and fork. This is the only complete fail of any food I've had on the ship thus far. 

At least Bib would be happy.

That said, the tacos were tasty, but the meat had sat around for too long. Semi-fail, but edible nonetheless.

Next up was nap time. My short night made for a short-tempered Flushiepants.

I'm going to leave this off here as photo upload times have become interminable. Two hours to get this far - I'll try again later this afternoon to complete the day.

Capt. out.