Cruising The Seven Seas: Old Banger

Old Banger

21^st March 2012

Cozumel, here we are! The day has finally arrived!

Five of us had arranged to meet, rent a car, tour the small island of Cozumel, Mexico and snorkel. I went to set up the lab at 8am rather than 9 so we could get off the ship as soon as possible. While making a cup of tea in the Mess I noticed we were still moving. Why? Our schedule says 7.30am arrival.

In the lab, at about 8:30, Ani wandered in and told me we weren’t arriving until at least 9.30. Just my luck. On top of that, there was a delay because of the strong winds coming into the port which made docking difficult. Just our luck. Then there was an even bigger delay as we had to wait for another delayed cruise ship, NCL Epic, to pull up alongside us. Now this was just bad luck for everyone!

Waiting and waiting, Rama, Inna and Maryna, didn’t turn up to meet us. Rather than cancelling things and waiting for others to get their act in gear, Ani and I got off the ship intending to have the best day we could… and boy, were we in for a treat!

There were two choices of car rentals from this particular company. The Jeep was $60 or the Volkswagen at $35 for the day. As there were only two of us we went for the cheap and cheerful option. That wasn’t the final price though. There was an additional $15 for insurance. It was optional, but I thought we’d better get it in case anything happened. After all, we didn’t want to be footing the bill if someone bumped into us or vice versa. On top of the insurance came $10 of petrol. We had to return the car with a nearly full tank, which we expected.

Waiting on the sea front for the car to be driven over to us, we were keeping our eyes out for Volkswagens. None. All of a sudden, Ani got all excited, laughing “Noooooo, it can’t be”. Yes it was! We had just rented an antique Volkswagen Beetle that made a rust bucket look luxurious! We rolled up. Ani had tears running down her face!!

Getting in the car, I couldn’t get my car seat forward to touch the pedals. The guy who rented our car said “allow me” before physically hammering the seat about and almost picking it up, before putting it a smidgen closer to the steering wheel. Oh boy, this was going to be interesting! Looking for my seat belt, the guy said “Seat belts aren’t mandatory in Mexico… so we didn’t install any”. Looking at the pedals, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought I’d driven some heaps of crap in my time, but this was taking things to an entirely new level.

About to pull off, I checked my right mirror, only to discover that it didn’t exist. No right hand side mirror, no seat belts, tiny pedals, too far for my stubby legs to each and no handbrake… Ani and I were glowing with enthusiasm and confidence! We later discovered that the brakes were just about useable – we’d be screwed if we had to do an emergency stop. Needless to say, we were left thanking our lucky stars we’d said "yes" to the addition insurance!!

Pedals

Driving along the main coastline road, there were numerous snorkelling points, some private, others public. A favourite place for many to visit is Chankanaab. The cost to enter is $20 which will cover entry, snorkelling, sun loungers and umbrellas. There’s also different water sports from parasailing to jetskiing and swimming with dolphins, all of which come at an additional cost.

Travelling along down the coast, we stopped off at Punta Sur (South Point) and then Bob Marley’s Place (if you are a fan of reggae and/or Bob Marley – go!). The sea was rough and impossible for snorkelling.

We were trying to find the lighthouse, where we were told, you could see crocodiles in their natural habitat. We’d driven past the lighthouse somehow. Asking for directions, I was told to head back the way we’d travelled and head down the old road.

Getting back on the road, we headed back the way we’d come before joining the old road. There are two roads circling the island, the old and new road, so we didn’t think it’d be too hard to find the lighthouse. Of course, we were very wrong. Once again, this time on the old road, we’d driven past the lighthouse. Confused, we checked the map. According to the map, there is a small dirt track we need to take to get to the lighthouse. We’d been looking out for it since we set off and hadn’t seen anything of the sort.

Unfortunately time was ticking. We had to carry on our journey in the direction of the ship. You never know, we might be able to try again, next week. Stopping off at a small beach bar, we decided to spend the last hour chilling before Pirate Night.

Snorkelling

Dropping our stuff, we could see a number of people snorkelling a little way out. The bar tender told us that if we have our own equipment we could just go right on in and start snorkelling.

Stripping off and grabbing our snorkels and masks, we waded into the water. Only a couple of metres from the shore we dipped down into the shallow water and started swimming out. You didn’t have to go far until you were amongst the coral. Fishes were literally swimming straight towards us. I’ve never seen schools of fish come so close to me, some very nearly touched my mask. Others were circling Ani, almost intrigued to investigate what was going on. It was absolutely amazing to see. The disposable underwater camera we'd purachased onboard certain came in handy!

Swimming around there were fish of all shapes and sizes. Some were so brightly coloured. Blacks, yellows, purples and even reds. The bravest fish, the ones swimming around us were silver with a bright yellow line stripe down the side. Seeing a “pothole” in the sea bed with swaying coral, we spotted a massive lobster poking out from the rocks.

Turning around was an enormous red, orange and silver fish swimming along before throwing itself into the seabed. Then it’d poke it’s face around, looking for food, before swimming along a little further and repeating the seabed bashing. Everything looked so surreal.

Floating above the coral, taking photos, I didn’t realize just how big the coral was… and I bet it’s tiny compared to what you could find if you went out further into the sea, scuba diving. The large deep purple corals were swaying with the current. Hidden away were more fish. One resembled an Angel fish, coloured in black with two yellow and purple strips.

Another resembled the Japanese Fighter fishes I once owned. They didn’t move very much and had a similar colouring, black with a red or purple tint to their scales and some had a dark red fin, while others had bright yellow.

My descriptions really aren’t doing the fishes, coral or entire experience, much justice. With a bit of luck, the photographs come out half decent. First though, we need to finish off the film before getting it developed, probably in Port Canaveral.

Getting out the water, Ani munched on fajitas before it was time to take the rust bucket back to the car rental store.

I’ll never get used to driving a car with next to no brakes! We were still laughing about the car on the way back to the drop off point; especially when the car stopped going into third gear and doing bunny hops along the road. In the end, I had to speed the car up as much as I could, skip third and jump into fourth gear, something the car didn’t particularly like by the sounds of the rattling, roaring and banging going on inside the engine. Both Ani and I were expecting the engine to drop out at any second, or the wheels to fall off! We’d have to get the car back Flintstone style!

Dropping the car off, the guy was good enough to take our photo with our Herbie Banger. Running back to the ship we had 30 minutes to get ready for set up and then we were straight into Pirate Night.

Although tired from an action packed day, we were strangely enough feeling refreshed and ready for a night of pirates and photos.

One thing is for sure, it was a great day out, probably the best of this contract, so far. Hopefully, it won’t be long until episode two begins! Next time though, we’ll try and gather more people together and rent a Jeep. Or, at least a car with fully functional brakes!