DAY FOUR

A special day long anticipated. One of my big wishes in going to Mexico was to go to the island of Cozumel and pay a small mark of respect in the area where Kirsty MacColl was killed while diving there in 2000. And today was the day.

We walked around the hotel grounds picking wild flowers, some big some small and set off for the ferry in the late morning. A 3-piece band played for our bemused amusement while O and I had the better idea of listening to Kirsty sing "Mambo de La Luna" on the trusty iPod. We arrived about 25 minutes later and I was amazed how, even in the dock, the water was crystal-clear with the sun shining on the rocks beneath.

We walked a bit down from the pier and could not fail to spot a 100m high flagpole with a huge Mexican flag blowing in the warm breeze which was guarded by two big eagle statues on a small promontory.
As good a place as any I guess. With O standing by I spoke a few words mentioning why I had come and how that this was also on behalf of Dawn and Chuffy, Alan and Graham, Eunice and Rose, Nathan, John and Kris... "This is for you Kirsty" I said and gently dropped the brightly coloured flowers into the water beneath. For a while they bobbed together in the clear green-blue water then slowly came apart and drifted out into the world. I am happy to admit I got a bit teary-eyed as the current started to take them down away from me in the direction of the Chankcanaab reef where the she was diving that awful day.

We walked around for an hour or so then got the ferry back to the much nicer Playa del Carmen. On the way back, watching the huge flag receed away over the dazzling blue sea, we listened to Kirsty's last ever song Sun On The Water:

"It was the place where she felt free
And Heaven lies under the sea
Hell is just dry land to me
When I'm dreaming"

It wasn't long before the tears flowed again.