I talked to our Divemaster today and asked him how he felt about us coming down there during Covid and that we had reservations about coming down, getting sick or getting anyone else sick.
To paraphrase: "you can only shut down so long. No work, no income. It's getting back to normal finally."
That's just one divemaster's opinion, of course. Dude has 7 kids. Read into that what you will.
Quite a lot of dive boats out today. Some of them packed with people with about 20% of people wearing masks on board. Walking down the pier past that particular packed boat and none were speaking english. Not sure where they were from. Not Spanish either.
Interesting observations while here - just to make a point that Cozumelenos are more careful, generally, but not immune to the same "risky" things that we do in the US:
- Dive captain kept pulling down his mask to talk to us. Didn't bother me a bit. 15 mph winds and he was downwind from us.
- Server at restaurant wearing his mask very loose and below his nose. Bothered me a little bit, but not enough to leave or say anything. He even took a selfie with us in the background (as a joke) with his mask down!
- Cook in the back of restaurant with a bandana, loose at the bottom. I hope my food is very hot to kill the virus(es)
- Nobody, so far, has asked us to step into the trays of shoe sanitizer. I didn't even know what they were at first. Just walked around them. I commented to the host that it was a good idea. He said "yea, someone walking down the sidewalk goes "schpitttt" (he pulls down his mask and simulates spitting) so we have to clean your shoes."
But, they are trying harder than my hometown in the US, IMHO.
Diving has been really good, so far. Only saw one nurse shark, though, a few eagle rays, very few eels. Couple of toadfish, pipefish, tiny quarter-sized flounder, the rest of the usual suspects.
