If the sun kised me in Cancun, it made out with me in Cozumel

Considering the reputation Cancun has, we had a much better time there than we expected.  Eating at stalls the food was cheap and, more imporantly, DELICIOUS.  Half of the things we eat we don't really know what it is beyond what kind of meat it is and what color the sauce is, but while some things have had rather strong flavors that can be overwhelming after a while (I'm talking to you, mole enchiladas!) everything has been good, we haven't had anything we just outright didn't like. 

Our couchsurfing hosts were great up til the end, and even let us stay a day longer than expected.  Another surfer from Germany arrived as well, and it was fun meeting him.  Our last morning they cut down a coconut from their front yard (next to their turtle pond) and let us eat the meat.  I've never had fresh coconut meat before, and it was not at all what I expected, with a nutty flavor.  Very good.

We then took a colectivo, like a mini-van, down to Playa del Carmen, and jumped on the ferry over to the island of Cozumel. Our new couchsurfing host is also amazing.  She is originally from Boston but has been living here a dozen years or so working as a wedding planner.  (lots of people like getting married in paradise!)  She and a friend of hers who is also visiting here took us on a car tour of the whole island, which is 9 miles wide and, I'm totally guessing here, but I'd say about 25 miles long.  The beaches are awesome, and since she is a local she stopped and was able to show us some fancy hotel rooms, and even showed us the place she hosts her weddings.  (Gorgeous.)  I know I sound like a commercial for couchsurfing sometimes, but it is such an amazing thing to be able to have an instant friend in a place like this.  After the car tour she took us to the local square where she knew a latin band was going to be performing.  We sat out in the square and listened to the music while people danced, it was so much fun, what a great day. 

Yesterday she had to work so we walked out to the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and we got a little more sun than we should have.  I'm more pink than burned, but still a lot more sun than I'm used to getting!  We found another stall to eat at, I had the most delicious pozole, a little different than the kind I had in New Mexico, but just as good, with lettuce and radishes served on top.  It was a little more expensive than the places we ate at in Cancun, but at $3, still nothing to complain about.

We struggled with our decision to hold off on diving for now, it seems such a perfect place for it here.  But we know we will have more opportunities in Belize and Honduras, which are along the same barrier reef.  We'd been thinking about going snorkeling today, but we got so much sun yesterday we might take a day to do some laundry and re-pack (and blog) and just get some stuff done.  Definitely want to catch the sunset tonight, we missed it last night because my pozole was so good I just couldn't rush it. 

We leave here tomorrow, we'd been planning on going to Tulum, but might head for Coba first to get a little jungle action before we run out of beaches. 

Also, my sister wrote me and said she had been talking to her kids about the devastation following the earthquake in Haiti, and then yesterday they saw there had been an earthquake in Guatemala and the kids got very scared about David and I.  So, for the record, we are fine!  (And nowhere near there yet.)  But I read a "fun fact" before i left that said more people die every year eating shark than are eaten by a shark.  We are being careful, but we aren't anticipating any trouble. 

Lastly, I'm still trying to figure out how to post pics.  The files are large so it takes a long time to upload, which I don't always have.  Rather than post pics here I may just start an online album somewhere to direct you to rather than having to upload everything twice.  But experimentation continues.