6 year anniversery of Wilma...

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

sharky60

Contributor
Messages
3,326
Reaction score
639
Location
somewhere between Texas and Mexico
# of dives
500 - 999
...can you believe it's been 6 years since our little rock got a 52 hour pounding by Wilma?! :eek:

From my yearly Springtime assessments, the reefs keep improving and looking better with every visit.
I love diving in Cozumel and enjoy documenting the changes that come with every passing year
on the reefs.

Many friends ask why we don't go somewhere else and see "something new", I just tell
them I'm not done with Cozumel yet. After over a dozen visits to the island, I am just beginning to
really "learn" the reefs to the point where I can think, "ok, we are 'here' on the reef,
'this' is coming up next".

The jungle still shows signs of the beat down it took, then several months of very little rain to
wash the salt deposits off the plans, after the hurricane, but it continues to recover as well.
This past Spring "Tree", the huge Ceiba tree near Punta Sur, which to me is the symbol of the
island, looked better than had since Wilma. There were a couple years there I thought we had
lost it.

A buddy of mine who has had a 2 year absence from the island got back from a Labor Day
trip and commented on how "Americanized" the island had become. Stating that he didn't see
ANYONE using Mexican currency. Everyone he saw was using U.S. dollars. Of course in all fairness,
he stays at an AI and doesn't get off the grounds much.


Topside continues to grow and expand, despite us old timers wishing time, and progress, would stand
still.

I've been listening to the new cozumel radio online radio station and have heard of a lot of new
restaurants & places to shop, and that at least one old favorite has a new owner.

It seems to me the island is going through a transitional period, again, the last one was just before
Wilma, when we got more than one gas station and stop light, Margaritaville came to town and one day
a week we had up to SEVEN cruise ships!! (Wilma took out the Maya pier and slowed that down for
a little while anyway)

Again, most of us old timers would say the new changes are not for the better, but we are only part-timers
there and we can't stop it anyway.

The truth is, a lot of the changes that we think are taking the charm from the place are changes that are
improving the quality of life of the folks that live there 24/7.

So, don't fight it, just go with the flow and know that they can build as many hotels, shopping centers,
condos and beach clubs as they want, but we will always have the reef...
 
A buddy of mine who has had a 2 year absence from the island got back from a Labor Day
trip and commented on how "Americanized" the island had become. Stating that he didn't see
ANYONE using Mexican currency. Everyone he saw was using U.S. dollars. Of course in all fairness,
he stays at an AI and doesn't get off the grounds much.
Don't you just love it when people who never really get and see anything of Cozumel make those kind of statements?

As for all the changes, well, most of us wouldn't want the places we live to have stopped progressing 20 years ago, so why do so many feel that's a fair demand to make of their favorite vacation destination? Things change. The best is when you that as their facebook update, posted while on vacation. Really, you hate the modernization? :chuckle:

At least with an island there is only so much land available to be develop. In Playa and all along the Riviera Maya, there has been some series spread in the last 10 yrs and it's not stopping. Eventually Akumal and Tulum will just run together.
 
What's Mexican currency?

Yeah, I remember a few months after Wilma, island still looked half-destroyed when we landed. Lots of damage, but lots of rebuilding. Cruise ship pier was mangled, that was nice. Presidente still closed and I think the Fiesta was too. We stayed in the Suites Bahia, overlooking Carnival, a whirlwind few days. Shallower reefs were covered in sand, poor lobsters walking around in broad daylight with nowhere to hide. I remember an cheesy waffle-like thing cooked on a open flame by a food vendor in the Carnival parade intermission when all the bystanders flooded the street. I also remember huge cups of beer. Was I spending Mexican currency then? Who knows, who cares. Personally I prefer dollars, just like the Chinese.
 
Wow, while it does seem so long ago, it still seems just like yesterday. Another one of those "I remember where I was at when ------- happened." moments that define us all. If I were asked when it happened, I couldn't honestly tell you.
 
The anniversary of Wilma starting is actually tomorrow! MMM says it feels like it's been longer - to me, I still remember that horror very vividly! The 50+ hours of non-stop wind and horrifying noise will never escape my mind!
 
yeah, just like there's a demarcation line in human history (B.C versus A.D.) Cozumel's reef health is marked by B.W (before Wilma) and A.W (after Wilma).
 
I remember going there back a few months after Wilma, the shallows looked like desert dunes underwater. Good thing was that most shallow dives were in the deep end of the reef, and when we did wander to the shallower reefs, everything were out in the open since there were nowhere to hide.

I wonder if the carcasses of the big and small critters that hid in the overhang and crevasses came out into the open once the sand washed away, or did everything just swam to deeper water. I can't imagine the splendid toadfish coming out for anything.
 
I was stuck in Hotel Cozumel during Wilma... what an experience! I've been back every year since... and heading to Coz next week!

I had some stitches in my face (windsurfing accident) that were removed by headlamp with Swiss Army knife scissors during the gale...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom