Tyler Hunt

Today’s stop at Cozumel marks the second and final destination for the trip. It’s funny, I’ve been here once before, but never realized it was an island. The taxi drivers were just as great as last time though. They would fit right in on Orlando roads. I didn’t feel like dealing with all of the hassles of another excursion today, and I’m happy with that decision. After the rushed day in Grand Cayman yesterday, it was nice to be able to spend the whole day seeing everything at a leisurely pace. The thing to do here is shop, but after about the first two or three stores, everything starts to look the same. There are Diamonds International stores on every other corner, with a few Tanzanite Internationals thrown in for good measure. Tanzanite is the big thing in precious stones right now. It’s considered a good investment piece since its value is apparently rising by twenty-five percent every year. There is only one known mine for the purple gem, and it will supposedly run out in about ten years.

It was fun watching everyone come off of the party boats and stagger back onto the ship about ten minutes before we were scheduled to depart. Two guys jumped off the pier into the water and had to be rescued with a ladder. That was really entertaining. Then there was a long guy who made his slow and crooked trek down the pier just as they were starting to pull in the gangplanks. They had to send someone out to escort him. I don’t think he would have made it otherwise. At one point he stopped dead in his tracks to take a picture of the ship. That was one of the funniest moments of the whole cruise.