Spring Break 2002 On Tuesday the 12th I went to Cozumel, Mexico with my girlfriend and her dad, brother, step mom and two little half sisters. She came to my house at 8:30 a.m. to pick me up. We were going to go to her dad?s house and meet them there, and take a big van to the airport. When we got there everything was ready to go the only thing we had to do was load all the bags into the van. That didn?t sound to hard, but I didn?t know at the time that her crazy step mom had 15 bags. I am not kidding when I say 15. One bag for day cloths, one bag for beach cloths, one bag for night time cloths, one bag full of make up, one bag full of bottled water, one bag full of first aid stuff, one bag for her two year old daughter, one bag for her six year old daughter, two bags for her husband and I don?t even know what was in the other bags.
Paul Stang
Cozumel Island, Mexico - May 1996
A group of snorkelers observing undersea wildlife....So after me and Paul (my girlfriends brother) got done loading up all the bags we were on the way to the airport. I started thinking we are never going to be on time because since 9/11 they check every bag at the airport and that is going to take forever. Once we got to the airport we needed two guys with dollies to bring everything to the check in counter. Everybody was looking at us when we were thru the airport. I don?t think I will ever forget the face the lady behind the counter made when it was our turn. I could tell she had never seen anything like this before. It took us about 30 minutes to check our bags in, and we got really lucky because they didn?t check any of them. I couldn?t believe that we made it to the Gate in time, but we did. We even had time to get something to drink before we got on the plan.
Once we were in the plan I started to relax a little bit, and I got out my magazine and just sat back. I was sitting next to my girlfriend and her dad. After about two and a half hours we landed in Cozumel Mexico. When we walked out of the plan it hit me I was in Mexico, at the beach and I didn?t have to worry about anything. We got another huge van that drove us to our hotel. The hotel was called the Paradises. And it really was paradise. That was the first time that I was going to stay in an all inclusive hotel. After we got our rooms, I was chairing a room with Paul we went to the front desk to get our wrist bands. I managed to get a purple one. That means you are 18 or older and you can drink. From that moment on I knew It couldn?t get much better. After we were all done unpacking it was about seven o? clock in the evening. We were all pretty tiered so we decided not to go out, we just stayed at the hotel and hug out and got drunk. We all went to bed quite early that night. We had only been there for like four hours and already I never wanted to leaf again. Our room had view of the ocean.
We got woken up by my girlfriend around eight o? clock. At first I was kind of upset that she woke us up so early but as soon as I stepped onto our balcony that was all forgotten because it was about eighty degrees and I was looking at the bluest water I have ever seen in my whole life. So Paul, Natalie and me went to eat breakfast which was really good. After that we got some towels and went to the beach. I couldn?t believe it white sand and blue water. The first thing we did after put down our towels we went to rent snorkel equipment. We snorkeled all day and just laid out. At around five o?clock we all went back to our rooms to take a shower and change cloths. When I turned on the shower the water was yellow at first but then turned into normal looking water. Everybody was ready to go at about six thirty. We had decided that we were going to go to Carlos and Carlies for dinner. So Natalie, Paul and me took a taxi and went. When we got there it was packet, I really thing we got the last table. All Carlos and Charlies really is, is a bar where people party 24/7. After we were done eating we went and danced and partied for about three or four hours and then went back to the hotel because we all didn?t brink enough money with us. We went to sleep at around three in the morning.
We woke up early again the next morning and just hung out at the beach all day. We eat dinner at the hotel and then went to a bar that was called senior Frogs. It was so bad ass. By twelve o? clock that place was jam packed with people parting. Natalie and me were dancing pretty close that a stage they had where a band plays during the day. All the sudden they shined a spot light on us and the DJ was screaming thru the microphone, you two need to get up on stage and dance. And so we did. We partied until like three or four o?clock and then went back to the hotel because Natalie was getting tiered. Once we got to the hotel I walked her to her room and went back to my room but me and Paul weren?t tiered yet so we went jumped in the ocean. But not much later we were tiered and went to bed. As I was laying in my bed about to go to sleep Paul jumps up, runs to the bathroom and starts throwing up. So of course good guy Tim got his ass out of bed and took care of him, luckily had to only puck up that last beer he drank and then was ready to go to bed.
We woke up around ten o?clock the next day, and since that was our last day that we were going to be there we just hung out at the beach all day. We went to eat dinner at this really nice restaurant. After that Paul said he was going to go back to the hotel because he wanted me and Natalie to be able to go party with out having to worry about him. So Natalie and me went to Senior Frogs again. It was even more crowed then it was the first night we were there. We started dancing and drinking. At about three o?clock that place was so packed that you couldn?t move anymore, so we decided to go to the bar and get another drink and then leaf because it was so packed. Once we got to the bar the bartender said I have been seeing you all dancing and I want you all to dance on top of the bar. At first we were like no way, but then he said we were going to get free drinks if we do. So we climbed up onto the bar and started dancing in front of about 600 people. Everybody started going nuts once they saw us up there and the all the 600 people watched us for about 20 minutes. They were all cheering and yelling, everybody was so pumped. Then everybody went and danced again, me and Natalie were going nuts, just dancing and dancing. We danced for about another three hours, that was when the bar closed. We were so drunk as we were leafing it was great. We took the taxi home and the cab driver asked us if we saw the people dancing on the bar. We told him that it was us and he didn?t believe it, was all over place people were talking about me and Natalie dancing on the bar. The cab driver said that he was talking to some of his friends and they said that 60% more people came jus to see us dance. At this point in my story I should say that me and Natalie have been dancing together for about two years. So we knew what we were doing. And since all we dance to is hip hop and that is all they played we were at the right spot. We got back to the hotel at about six in the morning, and went down to the beach to smoke a cigarette. After that we went to bed. We woke up two hours later and packed because we had to meet up with Natalie?s and Paul?s parents and then catch a plan.
I was so hung over all day that I barely remember anything about the flight home. All I know is that when I got home at about six o?clock that night I didn?t even talk to my parents, I just went straight to bed. That was defiantly that best spring break I have ever had, and I cant wait to do it again.
Cozumel aerial view
Waves break on the beach as the sun rises over the...
Sunrise over the beach on the windward (eastern) s...