Cozumel & The Coral Reefs of Mexico

Well, I've accepted by this point that an annual vacation with my mother is the wage of returning home only for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  And, given how well we get on (which is to say: in short bursts), we've decided that a cruise is the best middle ground.  It's affordable, convenient, and boozy.  Someone else does all the housekeeping and cooking; we can sip cocktails and read all day; we can dip our toes in the sea.  So, it was with some trepidation that I added my father to the mix this year.  He's good company, but I don't think we'll be doing that again.

I shall spare you the doldrums of a floating hotel and instead focus on the one thing about this trip that was a little bit unique: we got to spend a couple of days in Cozumel!

Anyone who's met me knows that I am completely disgusted by fish.  I mean... God, why? The eyes alone, yeesh.  But, at my father's invitation, I spent part of a day with him on a tour of the Cozumel Reef.  It is the same reef that runs all the way south toward Belize, and offers some of the best scuba, snorkel, and biodiversity of any marine habitat anwhere in the world -- second only, perhaps, to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.  So, suffice to say, we booked a submarine.

It was just about as uncomfortable as a day at the aquarium, but hey -- I drank a lot of tequila and took some photos.  A unique experience.