33

Today is my 33rd Birthday. Crazy. I'm glad I made equally crazy plans to celebrate; travel from my home to Oakland, fly to Boise for the weekend, then to Houston, then five days in Cozumel, Mexico. I thought all that was a lot of adventure. However, I couldn't have foreseen the insanity and extreme FUN Erik had planned for my Birthday. Before we left for the day (around 9:00am) I took a picture of Erik's new house. It was such a beautiful place and he's putting a lot of work into it. He's in the middle of finishing up the backyard with a pool, plants and tiles across the counters. The inside is already very beautiful with the tiles and decorations throughout his house.

The first thing on the agenda; Zip lining! I've never done it before, and was a little nervous. There was no one else at the theme park which also had paintball, ATV and horse back riding. There were three towers from which we could zip line from one to the next, as much as we wanted. From the top, you could see across a large part of the island. Off in the distance you can see the cruise ships in port.

Here's a picture of Erik:

Our guide had me try going upside down- hands free. After all the instruction about "Always hold the yellow rope" and being very adamant about it he was like "Let go of the rope and point your hands towards the ground". Are you kidding me!? I was definitely scared, but it quickly turned to fun and I did enjoy it very much!
It was about 10am when we wrapped that up and had to get back to Erik's house to get ready for the rest of the day, and night. We packed light, only what we could carry on us for the next 24 hours and still move about easily. The first thing we did was take the ferry from the Island of Cozumel across to the mainland at Playa Del Carmen.

The ride was quick and easy. In my opinion the second most beautiful picture of the trip is this next one, taken upon arrival to Playa Del Carmen. It wasn't raining, but you can see the dark clouds in the background and the beautiful beach in the foreground.

Instead of taking the tourist bus to Cancun, Erik knew the local van system that only cost 7 pesos each for a 45 minute ride from Playa Del Carmen north to Cancun. Awesome. Other local people boarded the 8 passenger van and we all rode to Cancun. Once we got there, Erik and I grabbed lunch at a french style restaurant called Ty-Coz Baguetteria. They were known for their baguettes and croissant sandwhiches. We both had the tuna sandwiches but I had croissant and Erik had the baguette. Delish!

From the restaurant, we hopped a cab to where Erik had a wedding planning session with a man who was throwing a surprise wedding for his sister and her soon to be husband. Um... OK!? While Erik was doing that, I had a cappuccino (wow, I really had a lot of caffeine on this trip...) at Cafe Nader. When Erik was done, we walked downtown to the mall and did some window shopping. Then we decided to catch a movie. It must've been about 6pm? A lot of the movies were in English, with Spanish subtitles. I had to do some convincing, but I got Erik to see Wrath of the Titans with me.

From the mall we caught one of the buses that go to the hotel and tourist district of Cancun, closer to our destination. Downtown Cancun in the hotel/tourist district was exactly what I would have thought a Mexican-style Las Vegas would be like. Tourists everywhere, all dressed up, walking around with drinks and having a great time. We had dinner at Carlos n Charlies restaurant. The waitstaff did skits and plays and songs every five minutes- it looked exhausting. But they were all having a lot of fun; I think they may have been drinking? Click here to see a video from inside the restaurant immediately after the waitstaff had all vacated their posts and went out front for a dance. You can also see the crowd in the background are the people in line for Coco Bongo.

After dinner it was time to go to will call and get the tickets Erik had gotten reserved for us. Little did I know that we were going to be admitted as "Staff" of the Coco Bongo event, escorted past all the people waiting and sat at a table where all the drinks were on the house! Unbelievable! Here's a picture of the Coco Bongo entrance I took earlier in the night before the crowd started lining up. I wanted a shot of the Captain America signage as it is the most recently added skit in the Coco Bongo string of shows.

Even with the staff bracelets, seated table and drinks on the house; I had no idea the craziness that was in store for me. So... Coco Bongo opens at 10:30pm and it's like a studio 54 with huge screens playing the music video's. People are dancing and drinking and having a blast. Then at 11pm the "shows" start. They range from skits from movies like Passion of the Christ, Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Spider Man, Tron and Captain America to mini shows from vocalists like Elvis, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Usher, Beyonce and more. In between the music video's keep the crowds dancing all night long! The place doesn't close! INSANE FUN! The main bar on the center of the floor has many purposes, including but not limited to an actual bar for serving drinks, a place for dancers to perform, a place for partiers to get up and dance as well as a stage for the skits and high wire acts that come flying in. Here's a picture from prior to the skits starting when the crowd was still filtering in from outside and we were all just dancing and getting drinks.

There was also a main stage which had two huge screens playing the music video's and also served as the background for the various shows. Here's a picture of the main stage with a countdown showing of when the shows started.

The opening sequence was breathtaking. It was a tribute to the music of the 60's and specifically for the Beatles. It was at this point I realized the huge range of show this place had. The background had images and visualizations flying by while there were actors, dancers and performers on the main stage or flying overhead on high wires, rings and curtain dancers all choreographed to music. Amazing.

Here's a couple pictures to show what the club was like. Here's one of a large part of the crowd after the clown balloons had dropped from the ceiling and everyone was waving and dancing with them.

Here's a picture of the same area when the middle bar was converted to a stage (they do it so quickly you don't even see it happen). This one is during the spider man versus the green goblin show.

The pictures are all posted on my photobucket page and the video's are all posted on my YouTube page. Click the links to check them out. I will keep uploading videos as I have time- they take forever and so far I only have about 6 of the 20 uploaded.

I would definitely make a trip just to go to Coco Bongo in Cancun. Phenomenal. Sometime around 4am when the shows stopped and the lights had gone down and glow sticks were being passed around and thrown to the crowed Erik and I made our way out of the club to start the journey back to the island of Cozumel. Sorry, no pictures because my iPhone had long since died. I think we found a cab back to the local van route stop where we took that back to Playa Del Carmen. Then we took the 7am ferry back to Cozumel and I went to bed sometime between 9am and 10am only to wake up around 11am, pack and catch my 1:30pm flight back to the US. Best 24 hour birthday extravaganza ever!!!! Thanks ERIK!