We've had a good time in Cozumel both times we've been there with Dale and Carol but we've also had a few issues. The first time in Cozumel, we took a snorkeling excursion. After snorkeling, the boat took us to Playa Maya for lunch and beach time. We noticed that there were several water activities so we decided to ride a banana boat after lunch. We had met a heavyset, older couple who decided they would ride the banana boat as well. If you haven't seen one, a banana boat looks like an inflatable, yellow pontoon. The banana boat is pulled behind a speed boat and will hold up to eight or ten people. We put on our life jackets and got on the banana boat which was near the beach. A preteen brother and sister were in front, Carol, Dale, and the Tiki Gal followed. I was behind the Tiki Gal and the older couple were behind me.
The boat driver told us that when we turned, we should all lean into the turn. Otherwise, we should just sit and enjoy the ride. The boat took off and began pulling the banana boat. We hadn't gone fifty feet when the boat began to turn and we all leaned. Unfortunately for us, we were much too enthusiastic about the leaning and the banana boat flipped right over sending us into the water. The older lady behind us was a bit surprised by this turn of events so she decided she would use my head to stand on until help could arrive. We were all wearing life-jackets so the lady was in no danger but this didn’t seem to matter to her. She was intent on getting out of the water and I, apparently, was going to help her. Luckily, I was a trained lifeguard as a teenager so I knew just what to do in this situation. I immediately inhaled all the sea water I could hold and began thrashing about. Since these actions didn’t help my situation, I placed my hands on some part of the lady’s body (I try not to think about what part it might have been) and shoved her off of my back. I immediately popped to the surface thanks to my trusty life jacket and exchanged my mouth full of water for sweet, sweet air.
Once we had all calmed down and the boat driver had pulled the banana boat back into position, we had to get back on. We found that it is much easier to get on a floating inflatable object when it is sitting on the beach than when it is bobbing along in ten feet of water. The kids got on easily and Carol and Dale soon followed. That left the Tiki Gal and me to try and help the large, older couple back onto the boat. After at least ten minutes of pushing and further near-drownings, we finally put the lady back on the boat. Her husband, the Tiki Gal and I were all exhausted at this point so the old guy decided he would just skip the boat ride and swim back to shore. The Tiki Gal and I were relieved that we weren’t going to have to help him up as well, to say the least. We managed to pull ourselves up with our quivering, jelly arms and the boat driver, trying with all his might not to smile, took off again. We had learned the leaning lesson so the rest of the ride was uneventful.
The moral to this story is – Don’t waste time in Cozumel riding banana boats. Drink Margaritas instead.
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