The Best and Worst Day

Today had potential to be the worst day on the trip and actually ended up being the best. Rough ferry ride over to Cozumel had me white knuckling the railing from the seat I muscled my way into because I deemed myself a 'puker'. Thankfully, I did not live up to my name and made it off the ship in one, clean piece.
We were instantly taken by the beauty and colors on Cozumel. We rented our moped as planned and started ripping around the island for a self guided tour. Our only hang-up with the rental was Isaac didn’t have his driver’s license with him because he didn’t think it would be needed in Mexico. With hesitation and a photocopy of our passports, they rented us the moped.

The highlight of our day trip would have to be the amazing hideaway we found by just trusting a sign (and our dropping blood sugar) and following a long dirt road off the beaten path. Authentic Mexican food, cabanas and a beautiful beach is what was hiding amongst the palm trees in a secret enough spot to keep the feeling of seclusion alive.

Back on the moped, this time in wet bathing suits, for more exploring. Found a beautiful shrine with a mural of Bob Marley to the left of it and a “Naked Beach” to the right. End of story right there.

After a few more stops we checked the time and realized we needed to be heading back as we found we had ventured pretty far away and needed to get back for the 6:00 ferry to Playa. This is where we found the “lowlight” to our trip.

Isaac was driving us back on the separate road marked for mopeds that ran parallel to the main road. He had the moped opened up as time was definitely a factor. All of a sudden, I saw police lights through the trees that lined the median between the moped path and the main road. The police was keeping our pace and pointing at us to pull over. Of course Isaac was in his own little world and didn’t see any of this going on. I kept telling him to pull over and he didn’t hear me. Eluding the police. . . lovely. He finally pulled over and the police crossed over the median to our path. Long and short of it: the Mexican police, who didn’t speak much English at all, said we were speeding (I had no idea there was a posted speed on this path). He asked for Isaac’s license and REALLY didn’t like that we didn’t have that on us. He took our passports, went back to his truck to make a long phone call, and came back to tell us that we needed to come to the police station. Isaac was not having that. The one thing his boss said to him before he left was not to get thrown in a Mexican jail. This back and forth that involved Isaac telling the officer that he could write our ticket right there, fine us (400 pesos. . . we only had 380) and we’d be on our way went on for a good half hour. In the mean time, I’m a ball of nerves sitting on this completely deserted road waiting for our fate. . . whatever that may be. Not sure how, but Isaac finally talked the officer into taking all the money we had on us, (380 pesos) and letting us go. With a huge sigh of relief, Isaac kept the moped at a snail’s pace for our incredibly long journey back into town. Right when we got into the town, we came across a few huge speed bumps. Isaac went around the second one rather than over and instantly we saw police lights light up from a truck parked on the side of the road right ahead of us. I’m cursing at Isaac for not following the rules, once again, as we took the moped up to the officer who was leaning out his window and motioning for us to come over. As we got closer, I saw that it was the SAME officer that pulled us over earlier. In my head I was thinking “he changed his mind, he’s taking us in to the station”. He started off by saying to us, “I was waiting for you . . . I hope you know, I’m just doing my job”. Then he said “I feel bad” and extended his hand out his window and handed us our cash back. All 380 pesos, back into our pockets. We were floored. With all the corruption we had heard about and actually witnessed, we couldn't believe what had just happened and felt like we got the one honest cop in all of Mexico.