We arrived in Cozumel at around 11:00 We had an excursion scheduled but not until 1:00. We got off to roam around but were disappointed to again find that there isn’t much that can easily be seen near the port. First they force you to walk through a long duty free store to get out of the port. Only the ship crew members are allowed to bypass. Once we got out of the port security there were shops upon shops of tourist junk. When we got out of that area there wasn’t much to see. So we went back into the tourist trap and roamed around until we met up with our excursion at a little before 1. There were only 5 people including us on our excursion and everyone was from our ship. We went to Playa Mia Grand Beach & Water Park . Our excursion however was a cooking lesson that Anikka had selected to celebrate our 1 year Wedding Anniversary.
We met with our chef/instructor Luis and he was quickly cracking jokes. We ordered drinks (open bar was included) and started making our dishes. We started with dessert which was Caramelized Plantains and Chocolate Tequila Sauce. We then moved to our main dish which was a fish. I dropped mine on the counter while putting it in my pan but some how successfully flipped it mostly over by shaking the pan. We topped the fish with veggies and a Tamarind sauce. Last we made a shrimp and tortilla appetizer (“Devil-Style Shrimp Sopes”). When we were all done we got to sit down and eat our creations (they did add a side dish as well). Jason’s plates were more fancy looking than mine but the food tasted pretty good anyways.
After cooking we had planned to use the beach/water-park but unfortunately it was a gloomy day. We took some time to use the WiFi and catch up on a few things from home and sip on a few more beverages. Fortunately when the downpour started we were already under a large tent/picnic area and didn’t get soaked. Before we knew it they were announcing our ride back to the ship. Our poor cab driver got to experience my poor Spanish (it’s suffered greatly from lack of use…)
When we got back to the ship I took a nap and Jason got in line for the headliner of the week, George Benson. We had seen him 2013 but it was a great show again. His show was followed by an encore of comedian Alonzo Bodden.