Welcome to Cozumel.
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Cozumel is Mexico's largest Caribbean Island.
It's located directly across Playa del Carmen.
You can even see Playa from here.
In this video, we do our own tour around the island
Fish this big.
We rarely rent cars in foreign countries,
so will everything go as planned?
Is everything alright, my friends?
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Quesadilla for breakfast.
I never thought of that. Wow!
And, wow!
Scrambled eggs Mexican style.
It comes with bacon.
- Chorizo.
It's chorizo.
- [laughs]
Everything here in Mexico comes with a tortilla,
even for breakfast.
We're in Cozumel.
Today is beach day and...
...we got a car.
I'm the driver.
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- Hello [in Spanish]. - Hello [in Spanish].
[laughs]
- My life is in your hands... - Yeah.
- ...in Cozumel.
- [laughs]
Gordon is normally the driver
because I'm always shooting videos, you know, while he drives.
But today he wants to have a few drinks,
so I'm the designated driver here.
Jeez. Do people just go?
- Why did you get a Jeep?
- Well, I thought it was fun, you know.
Beach day. Jeep is like a beach car.
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- So we should be getting really close.
- The Monkey Beach.
- Oh, Money Bar. - Money Bar.
- Okay. This is a great place to snorkel that people say.
- Yeah.
Life is excellent with Gordon. [trying Spanish]
- Oh! - Look what it says!
It's so amazing, you know.
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- There are a lot of beach clubs along the coast here.
Most of them are free to get in,
as long as you buy something to eat or to drink.
So there you go.
Let's start the day with a pineapple juice.
Wow. It's even heavy.
Nice and refreshing.
Cheers! [in Spanish]
- Cozumel.
Cozumel is beautiful.
- Very beautiful.
There are a few places you can go snorkeling from the shore
here in Cozumel, and this is one of them.
Welcome to Skyreef.
This is considered the locals' beach club.
It's not a sandy beach.
Look at this, you come here to enjoy snorkeling,
enjoy the water.
They have snorkel gear to rent, but we brought our own here.
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It is so beautiful.
So full of fish right here,
fish this big.
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The Cozumel reef system
is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System,
the second largest in the world.
That's why snorkeling is a must when you come here.
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At some point, I was swimming, and they all surrounded me.
It is so beautiful.
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- Uh-oh.
- Look, it rains.
- It's sun, it rains, it's rain, it's sun.
Sometimes it's sun and sun.
- The craziest thing happened.
Look at this rain all of a sudden.
We're about to go to the next destination.
And, wow.
But it's sunny at the same time.
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It even looks like we're doing something wrong here.
- No, no. I do everything right.
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Just like that, it stopped raining.
And we arrived here at our next beach,
this is Playa San Francisco.
There are beach clubs that you can go to.
There is also this nice sandy beach.
You can just enjoy on your own.
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It's a beautiful beach.
And look at this, how cool.
We even found a little shade here.
[laughs]
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I just saw an eel this big.
I didn't have the camera, though.
Wow, it kind of freaked me out.
And I left the water.
How's the water? - Cool.
- Cool, no. It's great, baby.
- It's cool. - For a Canadian?
Come on, it's like a bath.
- I'm used to Brazil. - [laughs]
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The Caribbean Sea here is beautiful.
It's warm. The water is crystal clear.
But it's not that turquoise color that you see in the pictures, you know.
That's a little far out.
You can even see it here from the beach.
That's why you need a boat to go snorkeling
in the most famous spots here in Cozumel.
But when you get on these boat tours, you need the whole day,
basically, just to go to one location.
And we want to see more of the island.
It is our first time here.
We want to drive around and see the different beaches.
So that's our choice.
For next time, we're probably doing a boat tour
- Go?
- Ready for the next? - Yes. Si.
Advantages of a Jeep, you don't even need to lock.
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- Is Renata a good driver?
- Yeah!
Playa Palancar.
Good morning!
- Good morning, welcome! - Thank you very much.
How do things work here?
Entry fee... We don't charge entry fee,
only the consumption and nothing else.
For the parking, whatever, you feel like gifting us.
- Okay!
Beautiful, huh? - Yes [in Spanish].
This is Playa Palancar.
- "Palantar". - Palancar.
- Ah, car.
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Third beach on the same day. - Yes.
- Ah, look at us, huh?
This here is Palancar Beach, another famous beach.
And the system here is a little different.
Also there is no entry fee,
but there's a minimum consumption per person.
That's 170 pesos.
How are you going to spend your 170?
- I don't know yet.
- I know, I know. - Do you?
They put the prices in pesos and dollars.
Of course, that if you pay in dollars, it's not the official conversion,
so pay in pesos.
And something interesting here
because it changed the angle a little bit on the island,
and now we see blue skies, we don't see the gray skies anymore.
It's like it's a beautiful sunny day over here.
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Really nice.
It is the perfect beach to swim, you know.
Sand all over.
But for snorkeling, not so much.
You don't see any fish or anything.
For snorkeling, go to Skyreef.
Swim over here.
- Thanks. [in Spanish]
- Thank you, very kind [in Spanish]
- Is that all?
Chicken nachos.
Ooh, la, la, and it comes with a lot of cheese as well.
Only in Mexico, you could have nachos at the beach, huh?
- Yeah.
- You went straight for the jalapeño?
- Yes. [in Spanish]
- Need some spice. - Yeah?
Is it spicy? - Oh, yeah.
You want to try?
For you. - No.
- For you. - Okay.
[laughs]
There's more than chicken and cheese.
- Mm-hmm. - It's beans.
- There's beans.
There are refried beans here.
Wow, there are lots of taxis here in the parking lot also.
I guess a lot of people come here by taxi.
- Hello. [in Spanish]
We're now in the south of the island.
This is Punta Sur or south point, translating.
And there's an ecopark over here,
but it is closed on Sundays.
It looks like there's a lot of interesting stuff
you can do over there.
There are some lagoons here inside, too.
Look at this, how cool.
In addition to all the fun activities, it looks like there are crocodiles.
There are Mayan ruins as well.
We would most likely have gone there if it was open,
but it's not free.
Here are the prices.
288 pesos or $16.
Here there is also a lighthouse, you can go up.
Supposedly, there is a beautiful view,
but unfortunately, you cannot see that on Sundays.
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Sandy beach, but some big waves.
Rough ocean over here. - Very.
- Yeah. [laughs]
Right now, we're not facing the continent anymore.
This is open sea.
- Open. Oh, big, big.
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We rented our car with this company.
It was $58 for the day.
But here is another company for you to check out prices as well,
a competitor.
So here you go
Tips of local rentals in Cozumel.
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Beautiful island, huh?
- Yes, it is.
Now, we're going to a viewpoint.
- Right around the corner.
Amazing the amount of green here.
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Look at how you walk over here.
Look at the size of the holes here.
The viewpoints here are not very high,
but it is very interesting to see the rock formations,
and also the strength of the waves.
There are a few blowholes here, too.
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Not sure you're familiar with this here.
This is sargassum.
It's kind of a seaweed,
very common here in the Caribbean,
in lots of beaches in the Caribbean.
Here in Cozumel,
this is the first beach that we see this much.
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We're all the way over here.
See this tiny dot?
And the city is over here.
So we're like in the exact opposite.
We'll start driving back now, and it's already 4 p.m.
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Look at this!
Wow.
So beautiful.
This one here is probably really popular.
This is probably among the most beautiful
we've seen today.
- Yeah, look at that blue.
- The color of the water!
- Blue. - Yeah, yeah.
That's the turquoise blue I was saying
that you couldn't see from the other side,
from the other beaches.
But on this side, you can.
Here we are on the eastside of Cozumel.
The name of this beach here is Chen Rio.
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We just passed by this other beach that looked very beautiful,
decided stopping to check it out.
this is Punta Morena.
And there's a beach club over here, too,
or if you just want to enjoy the beach
without having to spend anything at the beach club,
you can basically just park along the road,
and go to the beach.
End of the day, it's already empty here.
Done in terms of beaches for today?
- Yeah, I think so. - Yeah. [laughs]
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- Oh, closed. - Yeah.
This place is called San Gervasio.
These are the ruins you can see inside.
This one here outside must be a replica
of what you find inside, the real ruins.
- Are you going my way?
- Yes. - Yes, I take you
I take you wherever you want.
- Hey, I'm the one taking you here today.
- Oh, yeah. She's kidnapped me.
- Come on, I'm a really good driver, am I not?
- Oh, you did okay.
I would take a tour with you again.
- Oh, would you? - Yes.
- Okay, so why didn't we make it on time?
- Oh, we had such a great day, so many beaches,
didn't have enough time to make it here.
I guess we'll be coming back to Cozumel.
- Oh, yes. Yeah.
- There's a lot to do here in Cozumel.
- So you should come back twice, three times, probably.
- Yeah. What we did is not even the tip of the iceberg.
- We're in the Caribbean. There is no iceberg.
- [laughs]
It's a bad comparison.
- This is an improvement on Google Maps.
- Why? - Two sides.
- Ah! [laughs]
- Zoomed in.
- Is everything alright, my friend?
- Yes, yes.
- We arrived a little late to check it out.
- At 3:45 p.m., we already close over here
and we can't let anyone go inside.
Yes, no problem.
- I thought you run out of gas.
Oh, no, no. Everything is good.
- I thought you were talking to someone on the phone.
- No, we were just talking to the camera.
[laughs]
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- Hello!
- How is it going?
- Everything is perfect
Just returned the car.
Everything went pretty nice, pretty smoothly.
I totally recommend that company if you can choose.
They were the ones who gave us the recommendations
of where to go or where to stop today.
They even gave us some tips about driving here in Cozumel,
and also told us which gas stations to avoid.
Now here is a very important piece of information.
You pay at the end when you return the car.
If you pay in cash, it's on price.
If you pay with your credit card, it's another.
It's 16% more.
This is the fee charged by the credit card companies.
Just keep that in mind and plan accordingly.
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