Thursday, December 27, 2007 (Pat)

Our last full day in Cancun. Woke up to a partly cloudy day but a nice morning starting out. Today is our excursion to Isla Mujeres – an island we could just see to the east of Cancun. At 8:30am we arrived at the pick-up location up the road, paid the balance of our tickets, and gathered with a bunch of other people at the dock.

The Caribbean Queen was a good sized, ferry type boat. On the way up to the boat there was a photo-op with some crew members dressed up in Mayan/Aztec garb. Then we were given a plate of fruit and found a place to sit inside at a table with another family. The boat was full of people with the same idea of going to the island for some fun in the sun. Some breakfast juice, smoothies, and coffee were served and before long the relatively smooth ride was over.

We unloaded at a nice white sand beach area with lots of colorful umbrellas and beach loungers. Looked good! We followed the crowd to the eating area that was mostly covered for the orientation for the day. Ron and I just planned to check out the town and then check out the beach. We were still a bit hungry so we walked up the road to the town. Several narrow streets lined with shops and vendors and lots of people milling around. We found a grocery store and got some snack items and then wandered back along the beach. Lots of photo ops of the fishing boats, people, coconut drinks, and we were ready to head back to the beach area. The clouds were getting a bit darker but still had some sunshine so we went to ‘our’ beach section and found the correct beach chairs to sit on with our boat group. Lunch was not served until 2:30pm so we had some time to relax. We didn’t get much sunning. Before long darker, wetter-looking clouds were gathering to the North and East and looking threatening. There were some canopied areas with some white plastic chairs and before long we were all sitting under the tent canopy watching the rain pour down. It just kept coming! Soon it was time to eat and still raining. We went over to the eating area and managed to find a table under cover. Food was buffet style and not too bad.

Our boat group wasn’t due to leave until 5:45pm so we basically hung out under cover, people watching until it was time to load up on the Caribbean Queen. The ride back wasn’t as smooth but uneventful. Fortunately it wasn’t raining when we had to walk back to the hotel. Both of us were cranky, disappointed in the day and not feeling good with colds so we grabbed something easy to eat from the store downstairs, ate in our room, finished our munchies, watched some TV, and went to bed.