I have photos but haven't yet figured out how to post them. And I'm too impatient to wait. So will share with you my trip report and if you are really interested, I'll try and get photos incorporated, or linked, or however the heck this all occurs. Please don't rag on me for no photos! And I apologize for the length...apparently due to format requirements, it appears I will have to serialize this.
=====
When I saw on the internet some of the post-Wilma photos, I began to think maybe I should skip a diving trip to Cozumel this winter and look at going somewhere else. But after a bit more thinking, I decided that the post-hurricane recovery was precisely why I needed to go to Cozumel. Ive been there more than half a dozen times before and I love the island. I love the way you feel so safe on the island even when Im travelling by myself. I love it that you continually run into people youve met in previous trips. I love the shy smiles you get from locals when you are walking around. In fact, I love the fact that I can pretty much walk everywhere (uneven pavement notwithstanding) that is, when Im not cycling. I love the fact that I can eat supper for $1.20 (if I bring my own beer). I love that I can pick between any number of superior dive operations and dive for a fraction of the cost of other locations. I love the fact that I dont need to pack too many clothes if youre wearing anything fancier than a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, you are likely overdressed. I love the people and the island so much that I could live there. In fact, some day I probably will.
I have been trying to teach myself Spanish on and off for about the past year. I dropped out of a Spanish class offered by our local community college because it relied very much on oral learning and I learn best visually (with oral reinforcement). So my latest effort consisted of a book with flash cards, sticky notes of Spanish palabras stuck on things throughout my house, and CDs that I played in my car during my work commute. I can now count, explain my basic needs, greet people, inquire donde estan los servicios, order food in a restaurant, and, much to my husbands dismay, ask the cost of, and buy things. However my limited vocabulary restricts me to buying things for which I know the words things like houses, dogs, cars, taxis, bicycles, hotels, restaurants, refrigerators, etc.
The days to our work fiscal year were ticking down and I had a truckload of unused vacation time. Last minute direction to attend a meeting in Toronto presented me an opportunity to tack a vacation on at the end and depart from a city that had many more destination opportunities. I was able to book a last minute trip directly to Cozumel for two weeks. My husband decided to join me for one week, flying out of Regina, and getting to Coz the way we normally do flying into Cancun, taking the bus to Playa del Carmen, and then catching the ferry to Cozumel. David said that the terminal that we used to arrive in has been condemned due to Wilma and he arrived at the larger terminal which made it easier to catch the Playa bus.
I must say that I really liked arriving on a direct flight to Cozumel there wasnt nearly the long waiting lists for customs that there is in Cancun! I walked down to the street past the traffic circle with my suitcase and caught a cab to Baldwins for 20 pesos so by lunch time I was sipping a beer with Dale and Kathy. I was also starving and tired (having arisen at 2 a.m. to catch a cab to Toronto airport and check in 3 hours prior to the 6 a.m. departure time). My husband was still full from Kathys big breakfast, so we went to Carlos fish shop on 50th and shared a single order of pan-fried fish with peppers, rice, beans and tortillas. Which was followed by a nap.
David told me he had arrived to some bad weather, and which continued briefly after my arrival also. So I missed diving the first couple of days upon my arrival but after that I had perfect weather and dived every day until the day before my departure I got about 21 dives in altogether. It was split among two ops that I have dived with in the past Living Underwater and Blue Angel. Most of the time I stayed at Baldwins B&B but because they were full for part of my stay, I spent the last two nights at the Costa Brava both of which places Ive stayed at before as well.
I know that I take my life into my hands by saying anything negative about the diving, post-Wilma. But Im an intrepid soul. The underwater scenery HAS changed folks and in some places, dramatically so. Some reefs are completely covered in sand several inches deep. The piles of broken pieces of coral lying on the ocean floor remind me of bones from a massacre site. Sponges, fans etc. have disappeared in many places probably along with the leaves from the trees. (I was told that there was not a single leaf left on a single tree after the hurricane.) But you can see recovery beginning there are sponges budding and small fans starting to grow again. I dived with and spoke to people who dived immediately post-Wilma and also while I was there and they said they have seen a huge difference colour is beginning to return and you can see the reef regenerating. One person told me that he would never again ***** about divers doing damage to the reef because that damage pales with what Mother Nature does and yet Mother Nature also recovers sort of like a giant house-cleaning. That said, I had some spectacular dives on sites that appeared virtually untouched. Chunchakab is in pristine, pre-Wilma condition. Punta Sur was very good, as was Columbia Deep and El Islote (on the east side of the island). Palancar Gardens and Horseshoe were beautiful and fun to dive. We took a trip across to the mainland to dive Los Tortugas and it was exactly as I remembered it pre-hurricane. I would point out that with the exception of the latter, these sites are very far south and not all operators routinely take divers to them. If you want to enjoy the best diving that Cozumel currently has to offer, check with the dive operator you are thinking of booking with to determine whether they dive these sites routinely (or whether they will charge you extra, or require a certain number of divers on the boat).
Topside, I was taken aback at some of the structural damage. Concrete walls pierced, crumbled, or ripped off. Entire buildings gone. Naked trees. Changed shorelines. But re-construction is moving at warp speed (for Mexico, that is). Piers are being re-built and palapas are being re-thatched. Many buildings have fresh coats of paint. And you can see some of the trees starting leaf re-growth. Landscaping is well underway and new palm trees have been planted to replace those that were damaged. And while I was there, the large flag at the ferry pier went back up again. The bird population was affected; I only saw two hummingbirds at Kathys the entire time I was there and there used to be scads. She has had to replant much of her back yard her banana tree was almost wiped out and a large coconut palm had to be completely removed others are braced up so they can re-establish themselves. Some of the jewelry stores on Melgar are still under construction (and it looks like workers are being brought in from elsewhere because I noticed stacks of mattresses in one). The average number of cruise ships in the harbour were about four which helps, I guess, assuming that people are disembarking at their normal rates (which I doubt as people need to get on tenders which can be a bit rocky, depending on the conditions of the seas and the peoples physical condition). But thats still a far cry from the 7 or 8 you could previously count on.
But mostly I felt very sorry for the local residents. They rely on jobs generated by the tourist trade and many of the southern hotels remain closed and fewer flights are arriving with tourists. During what is supposed to be high season, many dive ops report slow business. Yet I did not find prices inflated, as some people have complained. They were exactly as I remembered from my last visit a year ago, although I think Blue Angel may have increased the price of nitrox tanks to much the same as what many other ops are charging. I decided to patronize locally owned, mom and pop operations, I didnt dicker on price and tipped as well as was reasonable. I would strongly encourage other divers to put Cozumel back onto their location radar and spend some money there. I plan to return later this summer for a few weeks.
Now a bit about the diving, the dive ops, the accommodation and the food and beverages I enjoyed, not necessarily in that order.
Part 2 - next
=====
When I saw on the internet some of the post-Wilma photos, I began to think maybe I should skip a diving trip to Cozumel this winter and look at going somewhere else. But after a bit more thinking, I decided that the post-hurricane recovery was precisely why I needed to go to Cozumel. Ive been there more than half a dozen times before and I love the island. I love the way you feel so safe on the island even when Im travelling by myself. I love it that you continually run into people youve met in previous trips. I love the shy smiles you get from locals when you are walking around. In fact, I love the fact that I can pretty much walk everywhere (uneven pavement notwithstanding) that is, when Im not cycling. I love the fact that I can eat supper for $1.20 (if I bring my own beer). I love that I can pick between any number of superior dive operations and dive for a fraction of the cost of other locations. I love the fact that I dont need to pack too many clothes if youre wearing anything fancier than a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, you are likely overdressed. I love the people and the island so much that I could live there. In fact, some day I probably will.
I have been trying to teach myself Spanish on and off for about the past year. I dropped out of a Spanish class offered by our local community college because it relied very much on oral learning and I learn best visually (with oral reinforcement). So my latest effort consisted of a book with flash cards, sticky notes of Spanish palabras stuck on things throughout my house, and CDs that I played in my car during my work commute. I can now count, explain my basic needs, greet people, inquire donde estan los servicios, order food in a restaurant, and, much to my husbands dismay, ask the cost of, and buy things. However my limited vocabulary restricts me to buying things for which I know the words things like houses, dogs, cars, taxis, bicycles, hotels, restaurants, refrigerators, etc.
The days to our work fiscal year were ticking down and I had a truckload of unused vacation time. Last minute direction to attend a meeting in Toronto presented me an opportunity to tack a vacation on at the end and depart from a city that had many more destination opportunities. I was able to book a last minute trip directly to Cozumel for two weeks. My husband decided to join me for one week, flying out of Regina, and getting to Coz the way we normally do flying into Cancun, taking the bus to Playa del Carmen, and then catching the ferry to Cozumel. David said that the terminal that we used to arrive in has been condemned due to Wilma and he arrived at the larger terminal which made it easier to catch the Playa bus.
I must say that I really liked arriving on a direct flight to Cozumel there wasnt nearly the long waiting lists for customs that there is in Cancun! I walked down to the street past the traffic circle with my suitcase and caught a cab to Baldwins for 20 pesos so by lunch time I was sipping a beer with Dale and Kathy. I was also starving and tired (having arisen at 2 a.m. to catch a cab to Toronto airport and check in 3 hours prior to the 6 a.m. departure time). My husband was still full from Kathys big breakfast, so we went to Carlos fish shop on 50th and shared a single order of pan-fried fish with peppers, rice, beans and tortillas. Which was followed by a nap.
David told me he had arrived to some bad weather, and which continued briefly after my arrival also. So I missed diving the first couple of days upon my arrival but after that I had perfect weather and dived every day until the day before my departure I got about 21 dives in altogether. It was split among two ops that I have dived with in the past Living Underwater and Blue Angel. Most of the time I stayed at Baldwins B&B but because they were full for part of my stay, I spent the last two nights at the Costa Brava both of which places Ive stayed at before as well.
I know that I take my life into my hands by saying anything negative about the diving, post-Wilma. But Im an intrepid soul. The underwater scenery HAS changed folks and in some places, dramatically so. Some reefs are completely covered in sand several inches deep. The piles of broken pieces of coral lying on the ocean floor remind me of bones from a massacre site. Sponges, fans etc. have disappeared in many places probably along with the leaves from the trees. (I was told that there was not a single leaf left on a single tree after the hurricane.) But you can see recovery beginning there are sponges budding and small fans starting to grow again. I dived with and spoke to people who dived immediately post-Wilma and also while I was there and they said they have seen a huge difference colour is beginning to return and you can see the reef regenerating. One person told me that he would never again ***** about divers doing damage to the reef because that damage pales with what Mother Nature does and yet Mother Nature also recovers sort of like a giant house-cleaning. That said, I had some spectacular dives on sites that appeared virtually untouched. Chunchakab is in pristine, pre-Wilma condition. Punta Sur was very good, as was Columbia Deep and El Islote (on the east side of the island). Palancar Gardens and Horseshoe were beautiful and fun to dive. We took a trip across to the mainland to dive Los Tortugas and it was exactly as I remembered it pre-hurricane. I would point out that with the exception of the latter, these sites are very far south and not all operators routinely take divers to them. If you want to enjoy the best diving that Cozumel currently has to offer, check with the dive operator you are thinking of booking with to determine whether they dive these sites routinely (or whether they will charge you extra, or require a certain number of divers on the boat).
Topside, I was taken aback at some of the structural damage. Concrete walls pierced, crumbled, or ripped off. Entire buildings gone. Naked trees. Changed shorelines. But re-construction is moving at warp speed (for Mexico, that is). Piers are being re-built and palapas are being re-thatched. Many buildings have fresh coats of paint. And you can see some of the trees starting leaf re-growth. Landscaping is well underway and new palm trees have been planted to replace those that were damaged. And while I was there, the large flag at the ferry pier went back up again. The bird population was affected; I only saw two hummingbirds at Kathys the entire time I was there and there used to be scads. She has had to replant much of her back yard her banana tree was almost wiped out and a large coconut palm had to be completely removed others are braced up so they can re-establish themselves. Some of the jewelry stores on Melgar are still under construction (and it looks like workers are being brought in from elsewhere because I noticed stacks of mattresses in one). The average number of cruise ships in the harbour were about four which helps, I guess, assuming that people are disembarking at their normal rates (which I doubt as people need to get on tenders which can be a bit rocky, depending on the conditions of the seas and the peoples physical condition). But thats still a far cry from the 7 or 8 you could previously count on.
But mostly I felt very sorry for the local residents. They rely on jobs generated by the tourist trade and many of the southern hotels remain closed and fewer flights are arriving with tourists. During what is supposed to be high season, many dive ops report slow business. Yet I did not find prices inflated, as some people have complained. They were exactly as I remembered from my last visit a year ago, although I think Blue Angel may have increased the price of nitrox tanks to much the same as what many other ops are charging. I decided to patronize locally owned, mom and pop operations, I didnt dicker on price and tipped as well as was reasonable. I would strongly encourage other divers to put Cozumel back onto their location radar and spend some money there. I plan to return later this summer for a few weeks.
Now a bit about the diving, the dive ops, the accommodation and the food and beverages I enjoyed, not necessarily in that order.
Part 2 - next
