Monday, September 25, 2006
Part 3
The next day we were at sea again so pretty much more of the same. Pool deck, beers, general rowdiness. A lot of travel agents have a fruit basket or bottle of wine delivered to their client's room on a cruise but ours threw our group a one hour party in one of the bars. That was probably a recipe for disaster for us. We were drinking Red Stripes and probably set some kind of record for most beers drank in an hour. The fact that we each carried as many beers as we could stuff in our shorts made us forget the fruit basket.
Day turned into night and we hit the casino again. We missed the midnight buffet again but hung out in the bars until probably 4:00 a.m. when we adjourned to the pool deck to work on our moon tans. 5:00 came and people starting milling around, drinking coffee and getting prepared for the ship to stop in Playa del Carmen. It was a tour option and the ship would be continuing on to Cozumel. At this point, it seemed like a good idea to just stay up and have another cold one so we did.
9:00 a.m. came and the ship docked at Cozumel. The process took a while and a lot of the passengers sat around near the doors to the tender, which would shuttle people back and forth between the ship and land. There may have been a few minutes of shuteye but soon we were on the dock and hailing a cab. We told him to take us to a nice beach and he nodded and said "San Franciso Beach" and took off. It was a nice ride along the water and we passed a little seaside bar. "Stop!" 12 Coronas and a bottle opener later we were on our way.
When we arrived at SF Beach, it was deserted. We were literally the first ones there and we grabbed some wooded lounge chairs and buried our beers in the sand. We drank a bit, slept and bit and eventually the place began to fill up. Tony and I went and got a volleyball and recruited a tall girl from the Ecstasy to form our team. We started playing and betting beers on each match. I don't know how but we won game after game after game. Marilia was great but she didn't drink so Tony and I would split her beer and of course drink ours. We made all challengers have at least one girl and they all paid off until we ran into a guy who probably didn't like the smack talk we were giving and refused to pay up. Since it was my ball and it was the only one on the beach, I wouldn't play until he did. We argued and eventually some girl said she would buy our beers if we would just shut up and play again. The guy was a jerk and he went and got two musclehead crew members from the ship to play us. Even though they didn't have a girl, we still played and got beat 16-14. I wanted to win that game so badly. We bought them beers and went to find Shep, who was enjoying the beach.
We eventually made our way into town and went shopping. First stop, the liquor store. Tony and bought rum and vodka but Shep wanted something different and ended up with Kahula. It was Mexican but he had no idea it was more of a after dinner drink. Then we were off to buy Mexican blankets and had fun bargaining the guys down to $4 a piece. We then hopped on the tender to take our purchases back to the room. I can't remember but I think we grabbed a sandwich and headed back to shore to the craziest bar I've ever been to, Carlos and Charlies. Typical touristy Mexican bar but we had a blast, dancing on the furniture and throwing back a bit of tequila. I kept losing my hat until I figured out the fans were hitting me in the head and knocking it off my head.
We got on the last tender back to the ship. They really stressed making it because the ship would not wait for stragglers and we certainly didn't have the money to fly to the next port. On the short ride back to the ship, we met the people in the Oakland A's hats. They were Spanish so of course we tried to talk to them. I went up and bought them all a beer. Yes, the tender had a bar on it. At this point, I couldn't count very well and began the count: Uno, dos, tres...veinte cerzevas por favor! (One, Two, Three...Twenty beers please!). Those guys loved me after that and we would see them over and over.
Lucky for us because we hadn't had enough to drink the day and night before and that day, the ship was having a Jamaican Jimmy Buffet Lulua party with free beverages. We all ended back at the room at different hours but it was an epic party, one which I never duplicated.
The next day we were at sea again so pretty much more of the same. Pool deck, beers, general rowdiness. A lot of travel agents have a fruit basket or bottle of wine delivered to their client's room on a cruise but ours threw our group a one hour party in one of the bars. That was probably a recipe for disaster for us. We were drinking Red Stripes and probably set some kind of record for most beers drank in an hour. The fact that we each carried as many beers as we could stuff in our shorts made us forget the fruit basket.
Day turned into night and we hit the casino again. We missed the midnight buffet again but hung out in the bars until probably 4:00 a.m. when we adjourned to the pool deck to work on our moon tans. 5:00 came and people starting milling around, drinking coffee and getting prepared for the ship to stop in Playa del Carmen. It was a tour option and the ship would be continuing on to Cozumel. At this point, it seemed like a good idea to just stay up and have another cold one so we did.
9:00 a.m. came and the ship docked at Cozumel. The process took a while and a lot of the passengers sat around near the doors to the tender, which would shuttle people back and forth between the ship and land. There may have been a few minutes of shuteye but soon we were on the dock and hailing a cab. We told him to take us to a nice beach and he nodded and said "San Franciso Beach" and took off. It was a nice ride along the water and we passed a little seaside bar. "Stop!" 12 Coronas and a bottle opener later we were on our way.
When we arrived at SF Beach, it was deserted. We were literally the first ones there and we grabbed some wooded lounge chairs and buried our beers in the sand. We drank a bit, slept and bit and eventually the place began to fill up. Tony and I went and got a volleyball and recruited a tall girl from the Ecstasy to form our team. We started playing and betting beers on each match. I don't know how but we won game after game after game. Marilia was great but she didn't drink so Tony and I would split her beer and of course drink ours. We made all challengers have at least one girl and they all paid off until we ran into a guy who probably didn't like the smack talk we were giving and refused to pay up. Since it was my ball and it was the only one on the beach, I wouldn't play until he did. We argued and eventually some girl said she would buy our beers if we would just shut up and play again. The guy was a jerk and he went and got two musclehead crew members from the ship to play us. Even though they didn't have a girl, we still played and got beat 16-14. I wanted to win that game so badly. We bought them beers and went to find Shep, who was enjoying the beach.
We eventually made our way into town and went shopping. First stop, the liquor store. Tony and bought rum and vodka but Shep wanted something different and ended up with Kahula. It was Mexican but he had no idea it was more of a after dinner drink. Then we were off to buy Mexican blankets and had fun bargaining the guys down to $4 a piece. We then hopped on the tender to take our purchases back to the room. I can't remember but I think we grabbed a sandwich and headed back to shore to the craziest bar I've ever been to, Carlos and Charlies. Typical touristy Mexican bar but we had a blast, dancing on the furniture and throwing back a bit of tequila. I kept losing my hat until I figured out the fans were hitting me in the head and knocking it off my head.
We got on the last tender back to the ship. They really stressed making it because the ship would not wait for stragglers and we certainly didn't have the money to fly to the next port. On the short ride back to the ship, we met the people in the Oakland A's hats. They were Spanish so of course we tried to talk to them. I went up and bought them all a beer. Yes, the tender had a bar on it. At this point, I couldn't count very well and began the count: Uno, dos, tres...veinte cerzevas por favor! (One, Two, Three...Twenty beers please!). Those guys loved me after that and we would see them over and over.
Lucky for us because we hadn't had enough to drink the day and night before and that day, the ship was having a Jamaican Jimmy Buffet Lulua party with free beverages. We all ended back at the room at different hours but it was an epic party, one which I never duplicated.
