Looking for something different in Cozumel, Mexico?

We recently returned from a 7 night Western Caribbean cruise on board Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas. While on this sailing, we visited Royal Caribbean’s private island, Labadee in Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico. Having done these ports a few times before, we were looking for something different to do, and we certainly did find that while in Cozumel, Mexico!

Royal Caribbean offered a shore excursion called Salsa and Salsa. The excursion description was learn to make two different fresh margaritas (lime and strawberry) and seven different salsas. Sounded like fun, so we signed up. After arriving in port, we met our tour guide and were taken to a hotel in Cozumel, where we went into an open air room with about 10 round tables. Each table was set with tomatoes, avocados, onions, garlic, tequila, salt, sugar, cutlery, cutting board, and everything else needed to be a salsa and margarita chef for the day. We were even outfitted with aprons and chef hats!

We started off with a frozen lime margarita, which was great because it was really hot! Once seated, we began to make our own lime margaritas. I have to say, I normally do not like margaritas because I do not like to taste tequila. But the fresh margaritas we made were fantastic! We then made a strawberry margarita, which was fantastic as well. By the way, the margaritas were unlimited, which probably contributed to the fun we were having!

We then began making our salsa. We made a red salsa, salsa verde, guacamole, pico de gallo, melon salsa, tropical salsa and a dessert salsa with Rompope (a Mexican vanilla liqueur). The guacamole and dessert salsa were my favorite! This was such a fun (and tasty) experience!

After we were finished, we got a salsa dancing lesson which lasted about 45 minutes or so. By this time, the buzz from the margaritas was worn off, and we were ready to return to our ship.

I would recommend this experience to anyone! It was a fantastic time and our dancing chefs were wonderful!  If you would like more details, please feel free to contact me at kfreer@cruiseone.com or toll free, 888-882-5793.  You can visit my website for travel information and specials as well.