Cozumel marina dispute leaves scuba divers without parking

[mstevens]

Last winter by 9 am you could barely even find room in the rather large parking lot that is now roped off.

Agreed.

What's really sweet is parking in the caleta viejo and getting picked up and dropped off there, literally steps from the car since the caleta FONATUR opened.

People who own cars or rent cars don’t want to pay for a taxi. Probably 50 percent of the people I dive with are either ex-pats that own cars or long time visitors who rent cars because they know they are going to East side , their favorite taco place and a couple of restaurants while they are here

This isn't the thread for that discussion, but it was after we started renting a car for each trip that we became hopelessly hooked on Cozumel.

Oh, yeah; there's also loading up the car the night before so we can just blearily stumble into the car, have a nice breakfast, and get to the boat without rushing.

Benefit themselves how? What is the point? Someone obviously spent many pesos on that fence; how do they expect to recoup their investment?

There have been all sorts of plans for that area, some of them fairly silly. I suppose they might be intending to build something like shops or restaurants in there. What seems more obviously likely is a plan to charge for parking.

El Graduado posted a ton of info about the new marina while it was being built. It makes for interesting (and somewhat bewildering, in terms of what the planners had in mind) reading.

 

[wgw04024]

Getting picked up at the Pier is the wtg imho.

 

[pauldw]

El Graduado posted a ton of info about the new marina while it was being built. It makes for interesting (and somewhat bewildering, in terms of what the planners had in mind) reading.

Yeah, here: The real story of the FONATUR Marina

A year or two ago Scuba Life tried to convince us not to take our rental car over to the island. It is a little cramped there.

 

[ChuckP]

Wow - reading the story of the marina makes the current parking issue seem like nothing..... I wonder how The Cays is doing.....

 

[Sloeber]

Your boats are at Abrigo aren't they? Have you been to Fontour during the day?

Of course I've been in Fonatur during the day. I've rented boats from there when mine were overfilled. I also had a slip in Fonatur for a bit with my second boat until I was able to get it also moved into Abrigo. I'm well acquainted with the disaster that marina is before the parking issue. I still contest it won't be that much bigger of a disaster than it already is. The cars are allowed to get close to the water where all but the driver can hop out. Then the driver simply enjoy a nice walk to/from their parking spot.

I suspect a few locals will seize the opportunity and as soon as business is back you'll have valet parking available. I also suspect divers will learn to take a taxi.