Adventure day! We woke up early and had desayunos de la casa and got walking. Our destination – Playa Mia on Cozumel.
Miranda had scoped this one out before we left but we hadn’t committed to going until a day or so ago. It’s a long trip!
We walked down 5th Ave to the area where they sell ferry tickets. It’s an “area”, because as soon as you get close to the ferry terminal, you’re inundated with people trying to sell you tickets. We bought some, and tried to follow the person in front of us until we got on the ferry.
Once there, we found seats and sat in what Miranda later called “the cattle car”. It was packed and hot. I asked to look at our tickets, because something didn’t feel right with them, and when I compared them to the advertising it turns out that we had accidentally bought First Class tickets which meant we got to go upstairs to a place that had plenty of space, air conditioning, and people who would bring you whatever drink you asked for. This is no SeaBus, folks.
On the other side, we caught a cab and headed up island to the water/adventure park. Once there, we showed Ava to the playground/water park and asked if she wanted to play there and she indicated affirmative so we hoped we’d found a place that would make her happy and we got all our swim stuff on and headed out.
And then we couldn’t find the fun.
She was anxious and needed picking up and holding through out the entire morning. We tried swimming in the pool, and playing with her, but she would get happy and then clingy again.
We had some lunch at the buffet and then changed her into her wet suit (rather than swim suit), then got a kayak on the beach to try to find some fun. She looks a little awkward in the photos, but she enjoyed it. We found a spot in the middle of the allowed kayaking area and dangled our feet in the ocean, which she was initially not ok with, but accepted it.
We weren’t allowed to snorkel in the kayaking zone, so the underwater photos are us putting the camera in the water and clicking and they turned out pretty good!
We paddled in after some relaxing floating on the ocean, and I decided to try the water park again. Then we found the fun! She was going down water slides and climbing up them and playing with water spouts and laughing and being so happy and it was just so great.
Towards the end, we got Ava out of her wet stuff and her and Miranda sat in some lounge chairs while I went out to play on some water adventure floaty stuff. It’s like giant floating toys with ladders and balance beams and a climbing pyramid and a giant floating water slide. No photos, but it was awesome. There was a couple other families playing there, and I look forward to my future where that can be my family. 😀
We got a cab back to the ferry terminal, wandered around a Cozumel market briefly. On the ferry back we both had a drink and put our feet up in the AC. Back in PDC we went to Senor Frogs, a chain restaurant, and we got balloon hats made.
I think next year Ava will be more able to explain what her difficulties are, and then we’ll be maybe more able to address them. As it is, we’re stuck trying things until they work, and hoping we solve enough problems to find the fun!
Overall, I’d definitely go back to Playa Mia. It had enough fun things that I think me and my family will enjoy for years to come!
Nice hats, too bad they cannot go home with you. I was on Cozumel once and not impressed, so I am with Ava on that.
It seemed no better or worse than the tourist area where we’re staying. Our saving grace is that we can walk a couple further blocks to get out of the tourist area.