Some thoughts from our recent trip. It's our 5th trip to Cozumel over the last 10 years. Returned to a dark and cold snowstorm in Denver last night 
Our family of 5 - all divers (me, wife, 17, 19, 20 year old kids) planned a last-minute trip to Cozumel to warm up, get some more diving experience for the kids, and get out of Denver for a while.
Our friends from Denver with their son, niece/husband/2kids and another niece were there at the same time, same flight, etc. We elected not to share their villa to try and distance a bit for Covid, and rented a condo near the villa they rented.
ACCOMODATIONS
We rented 2B at Paradise condos. Nice place. 3BR, ocean view, small pool, great balcony, very clean. We'd rent there again.
Friends rented Las Ventanas villa (not the condos). REALLY nice place. Big pool, huge kitchen, outside shower, palapa/pier on the water, right next to Palancar dive pier. We probably should have stayed with them. Great place for so many things. Caretaker on site made tamales for us one night and mole / fajitas for us another nice. Papa Hogs picked us up each morning at the Palancar pier.
DIVE SHOP
We normally dive with Blue Angel or Aldora but decided to dive with our friends, and they use Papa Hogs. They got us all on one boat (10 divers on most days). I'm a creature of habit, so I was a small amount hesitant to use PH, but they really did a great job. Boat Captain, Pancho, and divemasters Rocky and Eddie were great. Excellent pre-dive briefings, very attentive underwater, spotted tiny things, big things, took good care of us. Especially important to us since we had our kids with us, that have about 25 dives in their career. Kids were pretty competent and very comfortable underwater, so that's good! Boats are a bit old, but clean and no issues there. Rocky has a very funny laugh and we had a lot of fun on the boats. I'd add them to my list of great companies to dive with. Only complaint was the $4.50 beers at Papa Hogs bar while we were getting our dives setup after we arrived on the island.
DIVING
First day was a checkout set of dives and all 10 of us were together with two divemasters, so it was a bit "crowded" on those dives. The divemasters split us into two groups for the next 5 days of diving and that worked MUCH better.
We saw about 2 nurse sharks and some of us (not me, darnit) saw a black tip the whole week. A few eagle rays, a few morays, a few turtles, a few grouper, and that was about it for bigger creatures. We were surprised not to see more sharks/rays, but maybe it was luck of the draw.
We did the Felipe Xicotencatl C53 wreck dive, which I was neutral about diving, but it turned out great. Very interesting and a bit creepy, as we only had one light for our group of 5!
Palancar and Columbia deep were fantastic as usual. All other dives were "typical" and I don't mean that as a bad thing. All enjoyable with good vis and a bit of current.
DINING
Blue Angel for dinner was very good. Waiter spent a lot of time with our kids speaking Spanish and teaching them some slang words, and it was very fun. Our kids enjoy trying out their Spanish and it really helped as they've had 2 years of high school Spanish, and I only speak menu-Spanish (taco/cerveza/bano).
El Moro was fun, as well. Ray is a national treasure!
On our last day, we went to La Choza for a late breakfast, and that's becoming a tradition for us. Love that place. Good coffee, chilaquiles, etc. etc. etc.
Ohana for peanut butter tequila shots one night. Chatted up Matt for a while. Good times.
Senior Iguanas for Baja tacos one afternoon was incredible. I heard that they only do that once in a while.
OTHER
We rented a car from Budget - $140 for the week. Smoking deal! Turned it in, and they pointed out the missing front license plate and were thinking I got a ticket and the cops took the plate. I was afraid it was going to be a problem and cost me $$$. Luckily, I snapped some pics of the car as I picked it up, and showed them the picture with the plate missing then, so no issue!
No cruise ships are there due to Covid and that's such a nice treat for us. Maybe not so much for shop owners, but it was a nice break from the crowds. Town wasn't empty, and there's still a bit of traffic, but not near as bad as normal.
Covid: they do a decent job on the island minimizing risk: hand sanitizer when you get on the dive boat, wear masks on the dive boat, hand sanitizer when you enter a restaurant, take temps at restaurants. But, as in the states, everyone is adjusting their masks, wearing them loose, or sometimes below the nose. Didn't bother us much, but it may cause some anxious people some concerns.
(edit to add...) I tried two ATMs at the MEGA to get $100USD in pesos. Both warned me about a $15USD fee for the transaction and had a "decline this transaction" button. After displaying that warning, I pressed "decline" and both of them spit out my pesos and charged me that $15USD. WTF??? Avoid those machines. I might try to dispute those with my bank.
Final thought: Cozumel is such a friendly place. Locals, restaurant servers, divemasters, gas station attendant, grocers, etc. All seem to be genuinely friendly. So refreshing!
Our family of 5 - all divers (me, wife, 17, 19, 20 year old kids) planned a last-minute trip to Cozumel to warm up, get some more diving experience for the kids, and get out of Denver for a while.
Our friends from Denver with their son, niece/husband/2kids and another niece were there at the same time, same flight, etc. We elected not to share their villa to try and distance a bit for Covid, and rented a condo near the villa they rented.
ACCOMODATIONS
We rented 2B at Paradise condos. Nice place. 3BR, ocean view, small pool, great balcony, very clean. We'd rent there again.
Friends rented Las Ventanas villa (not the condos). REALLY nice place. Big pool, huge kitchen, outside shower, palapa/pier on the water, right next to Palancar dive pier. We probably should have stayed with them. Great place for so many things. Caretaker on site made tamales for us one night and mole / fajitas for us another nice. Papa Hogs picked us up each morning at the Palancar pier.
DIVE SHOP
We normally dive with Blue Angel or Aldora but decided to dive with our friends, and they use Papa Hogs. They got us all on one boat (10 divers on most days). I'm a creature of habit, so I was a small amount hesitant to use PH, but they really did a great job. Boat Captain, Pancho, and divemasters Rocky and Eddie were great. Excellent pre-dive briefings, very attentive underwater, spotted tiny things, big things, took good care of us. Especially important to us since we had our kids with us, that have about 25 dives in their career. Kids were pretty competent and very comfortable underwater, so that's good! Boats are a bit old, but clean and no issues there. Rocky has a very funny laugh and we had a lot of fun on the boats. I'd add them to my list of great companies to dive with. Only complaint was the $4.50 beers at Papa Hogs bar while we were getting our dives setup after we arrived on the island.
DIVING
First day was a checkout set of dives and all 10 of us were together with two divemasters, so it was a bit "crowded" on those dives. The divemasters split us into two groups for the next 5 days of diving and that worked MUCH better.
We saw about 2 nurse sharks and some of us (not me, darnit) saw a black tip the whole week. A few eagle rays, a few morays, a few turtles, a few grouper, and that was about it for bigger creatures. We were surprised not to see more sharks/rays, but maybe it was luck of the draw.
We did the Felipe Xicotencatl C53 wreck dive, which I was neutral about diving, but it turned out great. Very interesting and a bit creepy, as we only had one light for our group of 5!
Palancar and Columbia deep were fantastic as usual. All other dives were "typical" and I don't mean that as a bad thing. All enjoyable with good vis and a bit of current.
DINING
Blue Angel for dinner was very good. Waiter spent a lot of time with our kids speaking Spanish and teaching them some slang words, and it was very fun. Our kids enjoy trying out their Spanish and it really helped as they've had 2 years of high school Spanish, and I only speak menu-Spanish (taco/cerveza/bano).
El Moro was fun, as well. Ray is a national treasure!
On our last day, we went to La Choza for a late breakfast, and that's becoming a tradition for us. Love that place. Good coffee, chilaquiles, etc. etc. etc.
Ohana for peanut butter tequila shots one night. Chatted up Matt for a while. Good times.
Senior Iguanas for Baja tacos one afternoon was incredible. I heard that they only do that once in a while.
OTHER
We rented a car from Budget - $140 for the week. Smoking deal! Turned it in, and they pointed out the missing front license plate and were thinking I got a ticket and the cops took the plate. I was afraid it was going to be a problem and cost me $$$. Luckily, I snapped some pics of the car as I picked it up, and showed them the picture with the plate missing then, so no issue!
No cruise ships are there due to Covid and that's such a nice treat for us. Maybe not so much for shop owners, but it was a nice break from the crowds. Town wasn't empty, and there's still a bit of traffic, but not near as bad as normal.
Covid: they do a decent job on the island minimizing risk: hand sanitizer when you get on the dive boat, wear masks on the dive boat, hand sanitizer when you enter a restaurant, take temps at restaurants. But, as in the states, everyone is adjusting their masks, wearing them loose, or sometimes below the nose. Didn't bother us much, but it may cause some anxious people some concerns.
(edit to add...) I tried two ATMs at the MEGA to get $100USD in pesos. Both warned me about a $15USD fee for the transaction and had a "decline this transaction" button. After displaying that warning, I pressed "decline" and both of them spit out my pesos and charged me that $15USD. WTF??? Avoid those machines. I might try to dispute those with my bank.
Final thought: Cozumel is such a friendly place. Locals, restaurant servers, divemasters, gas station attendant, grocers, etc. All seem to be genuinely friendly. So refreshing!
