Letting The Soul and Spirit Fly in Cozumel

…the end of summer. Too short for some, too long for others.

Road trips, camping, Denver, Cozumel, writing, reading, plays, and actually working out at a gym for three months consistently (hey, quite a feat for me) filled my summer.

I did manage to write my way to Cozumel but I still have plenty of writing to do. For now, I’m looking past the rejections emails from literary agents and concentrating on the few who wrote ‘good rejections.’ You know, those that give you positive input (not that they have to, but that’s always a bonus). 

But back to Cozumel or as the Mayan indigenous say, “Cuzamil,” which means the island of swallows. The island and sea are beyond “nice.” The ocean and beaches refreshed my eyes and spirit.

To get an idea of the island, here are some photos I took.

We (my best friend Pati who I met 20+ yrs. ago in an airport) mistakingly thought we arrived when we flew over Cancun. That place is huge compared to where we were actually going. Cozumel is a small island, population around 100,000, surrounded by the Carribean Sea.

Stepping out of the airport proved frustrating with all the timeshare people rushing at you, on a ruse to get you a taxi, but really it’s to sign you up for a tour. Okay, so we got past that and stepped out into a wet oven of humidity.

The Cozumel Palace hotel was so unassuming from the entrance, but when those glass doors opened, we were met with a gorgeous view of the infinity pool stretching to the equally beautiful ocean. That and being embraced with cool air conditioning, an iced drink, and flowers made us forgot the airport arrival and weather.

Now, I’m of Mexican descent, so I arrogantly think I know Mexican food. It turns out I don’t know much about authentic Mexican food from Mexico. What I know is Mexican American food from California, Texas, and New Mexico.

Here’s the breakfast I chose, because of the name: Huevos Divorciados (Divorced Eggs). A thin line of black beans separate the two eggs and tortillas but the different salsa’s blur the line. There was also the traditional Mayan dishes: Poc Chuc (pork in source orange and vinegar marinade), Xni-pec salsa (haberno based), meats with achiote (annatto) and most foods topped with queso Blanco.

Forays into the town when the heat died down resulted in plenty of shops to see and a very nice gathering place in the center of town.

Although Cozumel is known for its diving and snorkeling because of its many reefs and cenotes, we didn’t partake of that, mainly because our hotel tour didn’t offer it during our stay and the other reason was because we don’t know how to swim. The activity we did partake in was a visit to the KaoKao Chocolate Factory.

I love chocolate and I was in heaven learning the history of cacao, grinding the beans, and making my own cacao bar. We had a tasting of twenty types of chocolate.

The cacao beans are ground three times in a hand cranked grinder until a soft paste forms. You knead it into a ball, press down, make a thumb imprint in the center, add pure vanilla, and knead again. Add whatever you like after that: ground nuts, chile powder, cinnamon, raw sugar.

The result was my own 70% dark chocolate disk with cinnamon which I patted into a disk and packaged to take home. This disk can be melted into two cups of hot milk or water.

Vacations over and now it’s back to work. Here’s a photo of our last sunset over the Carribean.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.