Six Hours in Mexico

Six Hours in Mexico

CHRISTY FLEMING (journalism student) writes:
I have only been to Mexico once. I was only there for maybe six hours while I stopped there while on a cruise over winter break of last year. The day was alright, not horrible, but not particularly good either. I didn't really step back and learn to appreciate it.

The story of my Mexican journey begins at home. When I was little, my dad used to own a bar called The Sports Page. He said that he would get customers coming in all the time telling him about The Sports Page in Cozumel, Mexico. One guy even said to my dad that if he gave him a shirt to give to the bar in Mexico, he'll bring one back for him.
A few months later someone was walking into the bar with one of the bar's shirts on. Wait a second...There were never white shirts with red lettering on it before. As my dad crept up closer he noticed that in tiny letters underneath the logo, it said Cozumel. They even stole the logo, and my dad just laughed.

The Sports Page has always held a special place in my family's heart, so when we heard that we were going to Cozumel my sister, my dad, and I promised that we would go there together.

So fast forward. We are in Cozumel. I just stepped off the the little motor boat and I was so excited. Our plan was to go to the beach first, then head into town for some shopping and a drink at The Sports Page. We were just about to go when my crazy aunt, Jill, announces that a family was coming with us. This family had been in contact with us since the start of the cruise and the rest of us weren't too happy to find that my aunt had invited them.

So while we were at the beach, we had a pretty good time. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining, the water was crystal clear and just the right temperature. I wasn't going to let one family ruin something that I have been looking forward to for about a year.

The beach was fun. My family rented a couple wave runners, I played in the sand with my younger siblings, and the best was yet to come. We were still waiting for that trip to The Sports Page.

"But we wanna stay at the beach all day!"

I cringed as I turned my head to see the mother of the family as she finished those words. How could someone that is joining us say what their plans were? Why did these people split a cab with us that was on its way back to pick us up? I was half tempted to just leave them at the beach to find their own transportation back to where our cruise was.

We simply told her that the taxi would be there soon to pick us up and that they were coming with or they were stuck. This moment was not going to be spoiled by outsiders.
So we are picked up and we finally go in to town. We would say to the vendors sitting outside of their store, "Sports Page?" and they would point us to the right direction. Wait a second. All we see is a bar called Sports Bar.

"Yeah, they changed the name about 5 years ago." The woman we found that could explain to us in English had no idea why all of our faces showed nothing but disappointment. We had about two hours left to go shopping or explore downtown.
My six-hour stay in Mexico wasn't all bad. I remember that all the people were very friendly. I think most of them were just trying to sell us something, but to me it was kind of cute. The last time I was in a marketplace like that, I was in the Bahamas and I was about 12 years old. I don't remember the people being so nice.

I look forward to going back to Mexico so I can see and appreciate how beautiful it really is and learn how to write about it. I won't let things that are small get to me like I did the first time.