Cozumel Condition - What's Up???

[AllanHarr]

Many divers are headed to Coz over the next several weeks/months. With a lack of detailed information, people are likely to cancel reservations and make plans to go to other islands. Most major travel companies have already set up policies to do this, (I have first hand experience). This could destroy the short run economy of the island, that is so tied to tourism.

All of us are interested in the state of the diving community, or friends, and of course, the beautiful reefs. Can scuba board users in Coz give us any indication of:

- How much damage is major hotels really suffer?
- Any word on which hotels might be back in service, and when?
- What dive operators can book diving in November and December?
- What boats did not get destroyed and are in service?

I posted the following message as part of another thread. However, I think these general topic would be a great sticky thread for a short time. Left to the general media, none of us from far away distances will ever know of the real state of Coz.

Any comments?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is Fiesta Americana still standing?

I thought Thanksgiving would be a great time to take the girlfriend and kids diving in Coz... now why did this hurricane have to ruin my plans??

Since we are all flying from LA to Coz, we really need to know if the hotel is still standing and has any prayer at all to be functioning. Does anyone out there in the cyber world of scuba board know if the Fiesta Americana is standing and what conditin it is in?

I read good things about "Christi" - who ever that is. Is she an instructor/DM? I still need to book a dive boat, (assuming there are any left to dive on...).

Any input or information someone might have would be terrific. Thanks for helping a cold water diver get a little information...

AH

 

[ggunn]

Many divers are headed to Coz over the next several weeks/months. With a lack of detailed information, people are likely to cancel reservations and make plans to go to other islands. Most major travel companies have already set up policies to do this, (I have first hand experience). This could destroy the short run economy of the island, that is so tied to tourism.

All of us are interested in the state of the diving community, or friends, and of course, the beautiful reefs. Can scuba board users in Coz give us any indication of:

- How much damage is major hotels really suffer?
- Any word on which hotels might be back in service, and when?
- What dive operators can book diving in November and December?
- What boats did not get destroyed and are in service?

Have you even looked at the other posts on this forum?

 

[diveborg]

Is Fiesta Americana still standing?

The FA official website says reopening Dec. 15

I read good things about "Christi" - who ever that is. Is she an instructor/DM? I still need to book a dive boat, (assuming there are any left to dive on...)

Christi is a dive shop owner/instructor. Her operation is www.bluextseadiving.com


My advise is to be patient and wait until electricity is restored. Then people on the island can report direct observations and post photos.

 

[cxg31s]

Have you even looked at the other posts on this forum?

Gordon, I was thinking the same thing!

Allan, you ask "why did this hurricane have to ruin my plans?" Well gee, I'm sure the 20,000+ tourists who are still stranded down in Cozumel, Cancun, PDC and Mayan Riviera are wondering why the hurricane had to ruin THEIR plans. They spent their vacations (some were even on their honeymoons!) in dirty, dark shelters with limited water, food and restroom facilities, if any. And the residents who live in those areas are probably wondering why the hurricane had to destroy their homes and livelihoods. FWIW, I have a trip scheduled at Thanksgiving, too, and unless our charter cancels our flight, we are still going and have volunteered to be part of the reef cleanup crew.

To answer your question, your hotel is fine--people even took refuge there during the hurricane because it's a solid, well-constructed hotel. So quit feeling sorry for yourself--you have a lovely vacation planned with your family, so you're pretty darned lucky. It would be more beneficial to think about how you can help instead of worrying about a trip that's still over 3 weeks away--a lot can happen in that time and you just need to be patient.

 

[SadiesMom]

I read good things about "Christi" - who ever that is. Is she an instructor/DM? I still need to book a dive boat, (assuming there are any left to dive on...).

To add a little more to Diveborg's answer, yes, Christi is a PADI instructor and dive operation owner, who owns BlueXTSeaDiving. She runs a six-pack boat called Shamu which *did* survive the hurricane fairly well - at last contact, her captain and DM's were working on the engine, which appeared to have gotten a little water damage. I fully expect that she'll have Shamu ready to go shortly. Christi is a friend and I've been hearing from her regularly whenever she can phone out (as have several other of her friends) - when we hear any updates, we post them to the "Updates from Christi" thread.

Despite my friendship with Christi, I will vouch for BlueXTSeaDiving as a top-notch dive operation wholeheartedly. This has to do not only with Christi herself, but with her regular DMs (Pedro and Javier) and her boat captain, Hector (aka Mago). They are superb, safety conscious and equally as concerned with customer service as Christi is herself, as well as being excellent "critter spotters" and all-around nice guys. And as for Mago? I've never seen a captain who could put the boat right there to pick you up, have your gear onboard, you up the ladder and be handing you a dry towel and offering you a warm shower all in the space of the time it took you to get to your seat! And let's not talk about Christi's homemade muffins for surface intervals!

Anyway. That said, while I understand your desire to schedule a vacation to Cozumel as soon as possible to support the dive community there as well as to get into some gorgeous diving in warm water , give the folks down there a chance to regroup a bit. Right now, they're barely out of their boarded up homes and they still don't have any power for AC, refrigeration, computers, banks, etc. They're starting clean-up efforts, but they're running low on food and water, since the ferries have had a hard time bringing in basic supplies. They really aren't SURE if things will be up and running by Thanksgiving yet. Not that they don't WANT them to be...God knows they do! Tourists and divers mean they can pay the bills...they literally have NO income without tourists! But they just don't know yet and probably won't for a little bit. (And they probably didn't schedule the hurricane just to screw up your vacation...not for nothing? Not the most sensitive of comments I've ever read...)

Just be a little patient and keep checking back here. Read the boards and you'll find out more as those of us who know dive operators hear more from them about what's going on. You CAN be sure that they'll be working as hard as possible to get us all back as quickly a possible.

In the meantime, if you can spare some $$ to help, please consider donating to www.cozumelrelief.com - that's a grassroots fundraiser where 100% of the funds donated will be going to dive industry workers who have NO income due to Hurricane Wilma. Any amount will help....

Best of luck on your vacation planning...and I'd definitely recommend diving with Christi - even if I weren't her friend

 

[RonFrank]

FULLY read other threads on the subject. I think there is more information contained in SB threads on the State of COZ than is available in the News including a LOT of photo's that make it clear that many parts of COZ were destroyed, or damanged beyond easy repair.

In short COZ is a major disaster.

While supporting tourism is certainly a good way to help COZ, COZ appears to be in no position to support tourism. At this time a better way to help is with aid. If any Sticky should be Stuck, it should be an organized list of ways help those in need.

Food is in great demand, flooding continues to be an issue, and I'm not clear if any aid is available or reaching the island yet. A list of organizations that will make SURE that funds donated actually made it to COZ would be an excellent resource.

Cancun is in just a big of a mess, and likely getting more of the governments attention at this point, but I doubt it is enough.

 

[SadiesMom]

While supporting tourism is certainly a good way to help COZ, COZ appears to be in no position to support tourism. At this time a better way to help is with aid. If any Sticky should be Stuck, it should be an organized list of ways help those in need.

One such sticky is already there, regarding www.cozumelrelief.com - the divers helping divers fund - although that is clearly a very targeted fund. And, of course, those funds cannot be transfered until electricity is restored and the banks are re-opened. If you have any questions regarding that fund, you could e-mail Johnoly from the D2D message board at his contact on the website....

 

[Damselfish]

personally, I've unsubscribed from all the Coz threads and put the Coz forum on my exclude list for now. Even though I was thinking of going there in Jan. I figure I'll check back in a couple weeks when there's something new to say ...

Does anyone else miss the days when a mod was merging all the hurricane threads related to the same thing?

 

[Moodiejeff]

Does anyone else miss the days when a mod was merging all the hurricane threads related to the same thing?

NO!!!

 

[Lisa0825]

Here are a buunch of pics from the cleanup in Coz:
http://eczm.com/wilma/Tuesday/index.htm