In Search of a Jolly Beach

Posted by islandmoosie on March 30, 2014
Posted in: Beaches, Exuma - March 2014. Leave a comment

First full day on island and we wanted to just take it easy and lay low.  No planned activities other than heading to the beach and letting sand gravity do its work.  We read that Jolly Hall Beach is a beautiful stretch of beach that is a short walk from EBR.  Not having a car for the first part of our stay, it sounded like the perfect spot for us to lime the day away.

We stopped by the EBR front office to get directions.  LaTroy pointed us down the beach, and told us to go past Hideaways at Palm Bay and we’ll see Jolly Hall beach.  Alrighty, off to da beach we go!

Go down the beach past Hideaways at Palm Bay

 

Without a map, we are lousy with directions.  No matter, we moseyed on down the beach, stopping along the way to take a closer look at things that catch our eye.

From afar, I thought this boat’s name was Pure Ho! LOL!

 

 

We reached what looked like the end of the beach and scrambled on top of the limestone rock to take some photos.

Something about bleached driftwood always draws me in

 

Waaaaait a minute… as something caught my eye…

A big hole in the limestone rock.  Holy smokes!  “Look at all these conch shells!”, I yelled to Hook.  Wowza, did we discover a conch mass graveyard?  Someone call the authorities!

A conch graveyard. May they rest in peace.

 

Little did we know then that the number of shells in this grave was a mere pittance compared to the one by the conch shack at the fish fry.  LOL!

Conch shells galore by the conch shack at the Fish Fry

 

 

Just over the rock and a short wall, we see a second beach that was certainly prettier than the beach in front of EBR and Hideaways.  We take photos and admire the beautiful bay replete with the iconic coconut trees.

Hey Hook, whaddaya think this is, a S.I. swimsuit edition photo shoot?! Get outta my photo!

 

After the initial oohing and ahhing over the clear waters and nice sand, I turned to Hook and ask increduouly, “Is this it?  Is this Jolly Hall??  You’re kidding right?”  I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was a pretty beach but THIS ain’t all that! 

Convinced that this beach was indeed the much-lauded Jolly Hall, I started cursing posters on TripAdvisor under my breath.  Really??  This is it??  WTF?!

Hook, ever the enthusiastic walker (me not so much), urges me to keep walking down the beach and see what’s beyond the rocks at the far end.

Just as we were almost to the other end of this beach, we spot a road/driveway to the left and what looked like another beach on the other side.  “Let’s go take a looksie” I say.

Euuuuureka!  There lay in front of us was a dazzlingly beautiful beach.  Hello Jolly Hall Beach!!  You are indeed as lovely as others have described you.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqAmI-YHBF4

 

 

We found a spot just a bit down the beach and spent the rest of the day catching some much needed sunshine.  We were very pleasantly surprised that the water was not as cold as we were expecting.  We usually find the water in the beaches we have been to in other islands to be a bit nippy in March.

 

Beautiful Jolly Hall Beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stress be gone!

 

 

 

Oops, almost forgot, today was our anniversary!  Not too shabby of a way to spend it. 😉

Life is short, live it up!

 

Here’s to another 14 more years of having fun and discovering new places!  Cheers!

Hooked by the Vibrant Colors of EBR

Posted by islandmoosie on March 30, 2014
Posted in: Exuma - March 2014, Exuma Beach Resort. Leave a comment

When we had finally settled on Exuma as our destination for our annual anniversary trip, the next fun task was to decide where to stay.  We did our research high and low on hotels and villas on the island, but once I saw the vibrant-colored rooms of Exuma Beach Resort on their website, I knew we had found our spot.

EBR is a boutique hotel with just 9 rooms around the property.  Perfect for our style as we are not fans of mega resorts when traveling in the islands.  A small, intimate hotel where we can get personalized service is what we seek.  The hotel is about 15 minutes southeast of the airport.  George Town is about 5 minutes away.  A convenient location.

Low key Exuma Beach Resort

 

Loungers a few steps from the bar

 

There was a bit of a mixup with our reservation and we ended up in a garden view room for one night instead of the beach view room that I had reserved for our stay.  LaTroy at the front desk was very apologetic and promised to move us to a beach view room the next day when it opened up.  SAY WHUUUT?  …I said, “Hell to the NO!” and threw a temper tantrum like no 2-year old can 

… Kidding!  JUST KIDDING!!!  It was really not a big deal…  we don’t stress over these small hiccups.  Ya gots to go with the flow when you are on vacation! 

 

The Hibiscus is a garden view room with no neighbor upstairs. The room was nice, brightly decorated, with a king sized bed, and a small fridge to keep your drinks cool. The bathroom is a bit tight, but the water pressure in the shower is very good. The bed was a bit firm for my taste (I am very picky about bed comfort!).

 

Hibiscus room – bathroom

 

Wifi reception was a little weak in the room. There is an ethernet jack in the room but it was non-functional… I tried… yeah, I am too much of a geek that I travel with my own Apple Airport Express router and ethernet cable.  Hey, don’t judge!! 

The next day we moved to the Three Sisters room, a ground floor beach view room.

Hibiscus room (left) …. Three Sisters room (lower right)

 

The room felt a little bit roomier than the Hibiscus room.  The bed was also much softer (hooray!) and the wifi reception was very good (triple hooray!).  The rest of the furnishings and décor were pretty much the same.  There is a room upstairs and we could hear the guests above us when they walked and when they were moving things around, and boy did they move things around!  We kept wondering if they were re-arranging furniture everyday or what?

Three Sisters beach level room (lower left)

Vibrant-colored rooms to wake up your senses! Anyone recognize the Ikea furnishings? 😉

Sliver of a beach view from Three Sisters room

 

Continental breakfast is included and served 7 – 11am which was nice for those of us that like to sleep in on vacation.  The spread includes bagels, toast, pastries, cereal, fresh fruits, orange juice, coffee and tea, all self-served.  More than an adequate selection.  You can also order a hot breakfast should you need something more substantial.

The beach in front is not really a good beach for lounging.  But fear not!  Jolly Hall beach is beautiful and a few minutes walk from the hotel.

Beach in front of EBR

 

If you like to snorkel a bit, best bet is to snorkel by the Augusta Bay dock next door.  We saw french grunts, dog snappers, a puffer, damselfish, a couple of lobsters hiding, a barracuda, and a banded shrimp (an exciting discovery for me as I have not seen one of these in my other snorkeling adventures)!

Snappers under the Augusta Bay Hotel dock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do watch out if you walk in the water as there were many cassiopea (aka upside down jelly fish) on the bottom.

Casseopia (upside down jellyfish)

 

 

The staff here are all very nice and had a smile ready for us each time we saw them – LaTroy, Antoinette, Brandi, Kasey, Alex, Garfield, Sarah to name but a few.  Most notably LaTroy always had such a cheerful attitude that it was infectious and just made our day brighter to chat with him.  He found out we were celebrating our anniversary and surprised us with dessert and candlelights arranged in our room when we came back from a nightcap at the bar.  A very sweet gesture and truly appreciated.

A sweet surprise!

 

He was also a great source of local info.  Anywhere he steered us to, he was spot on with his recommendation.  If you stay at EBR, seek out LaTroy’s recommendations! 

If there are a couple things that can be improved at EBR, I wish they had…

  • Coffee machines in the room (would be nice to drink coffee before getting dressed up to go to the restaurant)
  • A tub of water to wash your sandy feet by the door would be helpful to minimize tracking sand in the room
  • An online booking available rather than having to call the hotel or trade emails with credit card info!!

Overall a great stay.  We will be back!

Stocking Island in the distance

Cozumel Eats – Pa’Los Tacos

Posted by islandmoosie on June 16, 2013
Posted in: Cozumel - June 2013, Cozumel Eats, Pa'Los Tacos. Leave a comment

Pa’Los Tacos
(located on Ave 65 and Calle 2 Norte)

It was on our first trip to the island two years ago that we tasted our first tacos al pastor, freshly shaved from the stacks of meat being torched to goodness by the flames of the vertical rotisserie.  We had gone to El Morro for dinner with our friends Andy and Wendi.  Like moths drawn to a flame, the guys spot this little taco joint on a street corner on our way back.  There it was… the flames of the al pastor rotisserie beckoning us to stop and have a taste.

Al pastor rotiserried right in front, enticing passersby

The guys decided we had to pull over and have some tacos al pastor.  It was, afterall, our last night on the island.  They had been hunting around for tacos al pastor the last several days and this was the first place we had seen it.

They order up a few tacos.  Wendi and I decline because we were really stuffed from all the food and drinks we just had.

We watched them for a while, both of them making running commentaries on how good the tacos were.  After a few minutes I decided I might as well take a bite just to give it a try.  I took one bite … and mMmMmm … tacos al pastor my friend!

Hook and I have since been hunting for the same taste of tacos al pastor back home.  We have gone to many Mexican restaurants, even sought out lunch trucks that have become quite the fad in the Metro Wash DC area, but it was just not the same.

So Thursday rolls around and the stars are aligning.  We have a car when it is actually not raining!  Hooray!  We had a car for 2 days earlier in the week and all it did was sit in the hotel parking lot due to the torrential rains.  Plus, we had gotten our bearings around the immediate roads earlier that day and were now confident in venturing out driving at night.

Time to find that inviting flame of the taqueria where we first savored tacos al pastor!

Al pastor meat

This place is a definite local joint, family run, with the restaurant being in the front patio of a home.  There is a menu sign, but no description or translation of what the item is.  We try to ask our server what some of the items are… pointing at the menu… pointing at body parts.  The only answer we could get was it is meat.  Okie dokie then.  We better stick with what we know for now.

We order up a bistek (beef), a couple of lengua (tongue), and a couple of al pastor to round it out.  They serve us a sopa de res on the house.  It is a tasty soup with garbanzo beans.  Really quite flavorful.

Sopa de res

Tacos bistek

Tacos lengua

Tacos al pastor

The lengua we did not think was that flavorful.  The bistek was ok, nothing that special.

The al pastor meat was quite fatty, much better than when the meat is too lean and you don’t get that fatty burnt goodness.  Hook thought the al pastor lived up to expectations.  I seemed to recall it being better.  But hey, what do I know, I only had one bite last time.  Certainly better than any of the al pastor we have tasted back here at home.  Still glad we came as it brought back fun memories from our first trip to Cozumel. 🙂

Total bill for the 5 tacos and 2 sodas including gratuity was Mex$120 (US$10).  What a bargain!

Let the flame mesmerize you!

Cozumel Eats – Museo de la Isla de Cozumel

Posted by islandmoosie on June 13, 2013
Posted in: Cozumel - June 2013, Cozumel Eats, Museo Restaurant. Leave a comment

Museo de la Isla de Cozumel Restaurant
(located on the 2nd floor of the Museum which is on Ave Rafael Melgar – the main waterfront street – between Calle 4 and Calle 6)

 

On Wednesday, with my amigo Señor Sol still not gracing us with his appearance, I decided we should head into town for lunch and do some retail therapy at Los Cinco Soles.  We had the cab drop us off at the town square and had to navigate the gauntlet of shopkeepers trying to woo us in to their shops with promises of “bargain prices”… “come take a look señora” … “best price amigo”… “I have a cold cerveza for you here” … “How about some tequila?” …

Really, after a while, repeating “No, gracias” gets old and tiresome.

We later learned that what we should really say is “Mañana” … and everyday when they see you, you just say “Mañana”.  And soon they know that you know the real deal about this concept of “mañana” … which, apparently does not really mean “tomorrow”.  😉

Back to the hunt for a lunch spot….

I had a plan.  I knew where I wanted to go.  With my Mapchick Cozumel map in hand (An invaluable reference to have.  Get it!  Best money spent.), I told Hook, “Let’s go see if we can have lunch at Sabores.”

Hook responds, “Do you mean ‘Seabirds‘?!”

  Ha ha… reeeal funny.  Man oh man I will never live this down!  … I was replying to a post about dining on a budget on the Trip Advisor Cozumel forum (I am known as Pigsterz there) and the ever-so-helpful auto correct on the ipad took it upon itself to correct what I had typed.  It corrected ‘Sabores‘ and changed it to ‘Seabirds‘ and I did not notice before submitting the post.  (I am a horrible touchpad typist… it’s just not the same as when I bang away at my clickety keyboard!)

Well wouldn’t you know it, Hook, who never really reads these forums, decided he would start reading posts prior to this trip and saw this particular reply.  Ever since then, ‘Seabirds‘ has been the running joke.  Hardy har har!

Anyhoo….

Alas, Seabirds… err … Sabores is not open for the day… or not open for the season … or no longer operating?  Their sign was no longer up, only the little Trip Advisor sticker was there.  Boohoo.

No worries, I have a list of restaurants in my notebook.  Since we were heading the direction of Cinco Soles, why not stop and have lunch at the Museo restaurant instead.  Perfecto!

We entered the museo and told the guard we were going to lunch at the restaurant.  And with that, he waved us upstairs.  No need to pay the museum admission fee.

Gee, take a guess on what we ordered?

Anyone?  Anyone?  … Tacos, but of course!

I had the pork tacos and orange Fanta.  Hook ordered the chicken tacos and a Coke.

Chicken tacos

Nummy yum!  Each order came with 3 tacos with a pile of meat in each.  Very good and very filling.  We were stuffed to the gills.

Total la cuenta dos policias (ha!) was Mex$250 (around US$20) including the gratuity.  Not too bad and still leaves plenty of room to do damage to the pockets at Los Cincos Soles.

View looking towards town (south)

View looking towards north