May 15, 2006 - Belize to Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We had a good, fast passage to Isla Mujeres, with just a bit of seasickness and countercurrent, arriving April 31st.  Neil saw a whale shark! As we neared Isla on the second day we had fair winds and current, beautiful bright sun, and we caught a Mahi Mahi. Passing Cozumel, we noticed several huge warships around, and wondered if they were doing practice maneuvers. Soon, a Mexican coast guard boat came nearby, asked our name and nationality, and told us to keep sailing. As we passed Cozumel, a big gunship near shore followed our progress with its gun. What was going on? Next, Good Hope (behind us and closer to shore) called on the radio to say that the coast guard was escorting them! Later, Elisabeth surmised that it must have been because President Bush was visiting Cozumel that day and therefore they had all sorts of high security. It was very odd!!!

We had not been thinking of Isla Mujeres as a destination stop, simply as a place to rest and wait for weather to go to Key West. We even considered bypassing it altogether if the weather was good to keep on towards Florida. But we're so glad we stopped! We had a great time there, eating fantastic, cheap Mexican food every day! Neil had his birthday there, and we ate out an unprecedented twice that day, before returning to the boat for birthday hats and cake. Yes, it was more touristy than places we'd been recently, but, like Cay Caulker, it's still pretty laid back and friendly. There's a beautiful Caribbean white sand beach on the north of the island, and fun streets full of little shops to poke around. We bought souvenirs and Liv bought several seashells that had washed ashore in the hurricane the year before. One day we saw a little fishing panga named "Zorrita" ("little Zora"), the closest to our boat's name we've seen. When we left, we loaded up with fabulous avocados, mangoes, and fresh tortillas from the tortilla factory!