Today’s port of call was the beautiful island of Cozumel, Mexico. With the sun out, the waters were absolutely stunning and the colours in the photos just don’t do it justice. It would have been nice to travel out to one of the beaches, but instead we had already opted for a tequila tour. When in Mexico, do as the Mexican’s do, drink tequila.
There are several ports in Cozumel, but our ship’s port, Puerta Maya was a little town of it’s own. Straight off the ship you are surrounded by a fenced in area where there are shops targeting the tourists with so called duty free. I’m not too sure how ‘duty free’ they really are, as some of the items we saw, in shops a bit further from town, at lower prices. Prices aside, the atmosphere in the area was great and there was many a place to experience free taste tests of the country’s drink of choice, tequila.
Those who know me well know I’m not the biggest of drinkers. Heck I am generally a one to two drink drunk. Ply me with two cocktails and I am anyone’s. Given my lightweight effort at drinking, a tequila drinking tour was probably a silly choice to make. But like I said, when in Mexico! I have to admit that the thought of drinking straight tequila was somewhat petrifying and I was preparing to be the one that was being carried out with a barf bag.
Arriving at ‘Discover Mexico’ you were given a margarita to get you into the spirit of things. This I could easily handle, and the fact it was really small was reassuring. So far, so good. Next was on to the tequila room where we learnt about tequila and were retaught the correct way of drinking it. Forget the worms, the lime and the downing, apparently the correct way is to firstly ensure that you have got actual tequila made from 100% agave. Secondly, there is a whole process of smelling (it still stinks and fear set in about then), sipping, swilling, swallowing and exhaling. Funnily enough, this process actually worked and I was able to drink not one but three different kinds of tequila without covering the floor in any internal matter. Another bonus was I was still able to walk unaided when time to leave. Am I going to become a tequila drinker, probably not, but if faced with the choice of tequila I am capable of drinking it. Hey, I managed to drink all this at 10.30am so I can achieve anything!
Plied with alcohol, it was then onto the margarita bar (I was getting the feeling they wanted to get you drunk so that you spent money in their gift shop). Here they provided us with freshly made frozen mango margaritas that were extremely refreshing (did I mention it was hot?) and went down VERY easily. There’s an Australian saying when drinking, ‘eating is cheating’. I was more than happy to be cheating when they led us off to the taco buffet for lunch (delicious by the way). We were then handed a ticket and told that we could get a water, soft drink or beer with our lunch. Seriously, I’m sure they wanted us legless! Given tight arse Tanya was already half tanked, I opted for the one that was the biggest bargain, just happening to be a beer. A great mix for the stomach, tequila, margarita, tacos and beer. At this point I was thinking that I had definitely got my money’s worth in the tour, winning!
The tour ended off with a demonstration by traditional pole dancers. Now I’m not referring to the sexy, give me a dollar down my pants type (I could have pulled that off myself with the alcohol I had consumed). Mind you the demonstration wasn’t far removed from the typical pole dancer, they still suggested that you provide them with cash, they just happened to have clothing on.
Having finished the tour, we took our little alcohol buzz for a walk around the town just outside of the port area. For a moment we considered combatting possible effects of alcohol on Simon by picking up some viagra, no prescription required, (yes that was a joke) but decided to taste test some chili, listen to some live Mexican music and do a little shopping instead. All in all, a great day.
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