Ferry tix to Cozumel

[El Graduado]

Count your blessings, Dave!

Cozumel once relied on wooden ferry boats like the Vagabundo, José Alfredo, Fernando M., Cozumel, Claudio Canto, Cisne, Buenavista, and María Fidelia to take passengers to Puerto Morelos and back. Puerto Morelos was literally the end of the road back then. It was a dirt track to Playa del Carmen.

The Vagabundo exploded and sank at the Puerto Morelos pier when its cargo of LP gas tanks and gasoline caught fire one day in 1981. I don’t know what happened to the old Álvaro Obregón, but when a group of INAH archaeologists and I used it for an expedition to Chinchorro in 1983, it was on its last legs, or whatever saying you use to describe a wooden vessel when it is falling apart and is hardly seaworthy. We came within a hairs-breadth of being another of the many shipwrecks that litter to seafloor at the reef, which lies 30 miles off the coast of southern Quintana Roo and is now a national underwater park, just like the Cozumel Reef Park.

The Molinas started regular passenger ferry service to and from Playa del Carmen with the first steel hulled ferries in 1970. First with the Xaman Há (meaning “north water” and later renamed Sac Nicté, meaning “white flower”) and then with the Itzam. A one-way trip took an hour and a half.

Soon thereafter, the Barbachano family brought the boat Nohoch Kuch (“cargo carrier”, in Mayan) to Playa and began to compete with the Molinas. The Molina’s counter-punched with a newer and faster boat, the Cozumel, which could make the trip in 45 minutes.

I have a chapter on Cozumel’s ferries in my Volume 2 of the True History of Cozumel.

 

[DandyDon]

Cozumel once relied on wooden ferry boats like the Vagabundo, José Alfredo, Fernando M., Cozumel, Claudio Canto, Cisne, Buenavista, and María Fidelia to take passengers to Puerto Morelos and back. Puerto Morelos was literally the end of the road back then.

Lordie! How long did the crossing take?

 

[El Graduado]

When I took a wooden ferry from Puerto Morelos to Cozumel it took about six hours. They weren't known for their speed, or comfort. They often had a car sitting cross-wise on the deck at the bow. Later, the steel-hulled car ferry could make the trip from Puerto Morelos in a little over four (on a good day).

 

[mediumone]

I still believe that the competition from Barcos Marninos was the cause by them to blow up their boats, and reduce competition.

Dave Dillehay

Regardless of who lit the match, the only surprise to me was that it took as long as it did. One had to be positively unconscious not to have seen that coming.

 

[ReefHound]

I'm not sure but I don't believe the bus is much over $2. I've paid for groups coming out of Cozumel to Puerto Morelos a couple of times and it seems 9 or 10 people cost me in the $20 range. It is not an expense to think about.

Local bus is cheap. Colectivo is cheaper. I've used both up and down 307. From PDC to Tulum the colectivo was 50 pesos and I think I got charged a tourist price. Bus is a lot more comfy. I was stuffed in a colectivo van with 12 people coming back to PDC from Dos Ojos once... then we stopped for two more. People were squatting in the space between the seats and the door. Main reason to take a colectivo is you can get on or off anywhere on the route just about anytime you want. Just stand on the side of the road and wave at a white van approaching and they will stop and pick you up. Idk how often they run but I've never had to wait more than 5 minutes and there is usually a half-dozen waiting at the main station a few blocks from the ADO station. I've never seen much less checked a colectivo "schedule" and I've never used one at night. Don't expect the driver to understand English.

 

[mediumone]

From PDC to Tulum the colectivo was 50 pesos and I think I got charged a tourist price. . I've never seen much less checked a colectivo "schedule" and I've never used one at night. Don't expect the driver to understand English.

You got screwed out of whopping 10 pesos.

No such thing as a colectivo schedule. They leave calle 2 when they're full, except for the last run of the day, which I'm pretty sure leaves at midnight.