What do you wish someone had told you?

[mdb]

I like to read the Cozumel branch, and I recalled wildbill voicing his frustrations previously here. Anyway, after I posted that, I felt maybe I was missing the difference between that question and this one. In the previous thread, he asked about comparing Coz with other destinations that he had enjoyed, such as Cayman and Bonaire, and whether he failed to appreciate something about Coz. The question in this thread has a different angle. Fair enough.

Cozumel is now cruise ship drenched.

I first was diving their in 1976.

A sleepy town with great diving, great after dive food. fun.

Still decent diving, I suppose, no desire to go there again.

 

[nwflyboy]

Cozumel is now cruise ship drenched.
I first was diving their in 1976.
A sleepy town with great diving, great after dive food. fun.
Still decent diving, I suppose, no desire to go there again.

It's the way of the world. Travel has changed substantially over the past couple decades - populations have increased, things have become less expensive and easier, emerging middle classes in some large countries (China & India, to name a couple) have allowed access to travel by billions who could previously only dream of travel as a "rich man's" luxury - not any more. Popular places are super-crowded (been to London or Tokyo lately? I have - they're quite different than they were when I did my post-college backpack trips). I was in Palau last year at this time, and the place is very crowded with Chinese tourists. I spent a week at a tiny island in southern Thailand in October (hard to get to, not super well-known). There, too, Chinese tourists were everywhere, and development was booming. Cruise ships have become a mass industry. Like it or not, the world loves to travel. It is what it is. You have to work a LOT harder to find those sleepy little towns now (they still exist, but require much more work to reach them before the 7-11s and the cruise ship piers go up).

My first trip to Cozumel was in the mid-1980s. Yeah, it was wonderful. We saw one or two cruise ships in our time there. I've been back a handful of times since and the changes are obvious (I go every 5-7 years, so the changes are hard to miss). Is it still worth going? I'm flying there tomorrow, I'll tell you in a week, but it still is easy to get to, has lots of things to offer, and the annoyances are (I think) still below my critical threshold.

Every place is a mix of good and not-so-good. If there are any better (easy-to-get-to) places, I'd love to hear about them. But right now I gotta go pack my dive gear, my flight to Cancun leaves in about 16 hours...

 

[Lorenzoid]

It's the way of the world. Travel has changed substantially over the past couple decades - populations have increased, things have become less expensive and easier, emerging middle classes in some large countries (China & India, to name a couple) have allowed access to travel by billions who could previously only dream of travel as a "rich man's" luxury - not any more. Popular places are super-crowded (been to London or Tokyo lately? I have - they're quite different than they were when I did my post-college backpack trips). I was in Palau last year at this time, and the place is very crowded with Chinese tourists. I spent a week at a tiny island in southern Thailand in October (hard to get to, not super well-known). There, too, Chinese tourists were everywhere, and development was booming. Cruise ships have become a mass industry. Like it or not, the world loves to travel. It is what it is. You have to work a LOT harder to find those sleepy little towns now (they still exist, but require much more work to reach them before the 7-11s and the cruise ship piers go up).

My first trip to Cozumel was in the mid-1980s. Yeah, it was wonderful. We saw one or two cruise ships in our time there. I've been back a handful of times since and the changes are obvious (I go every 5-7 years, so the changes are hard to miss). Is it still worth going? I'm flying there tomorrow, I'll tell you in a week, but it still is easy to get to, has lots of things to offer, and the annoyances are (I think) still below my critical threshold.

Every place is a mix of good and not-so-good. If there are any better (easy-to-get-to) places, I'd love to hear about them. But right now I gotta go pack my dive gear, my flight to Cancun leaves in about 16 hours...

Come to think of it, what I think of as my first trip to Cozumel, with my wife about five or six years ago, was not. My real first trip was before I was married, when I was backpacking around the region, having made my way over from Belize. What I wish someone had told me before I disembarked the ferry onto the island of Cozumel was ANYTHING. I had done zero research and made zero plans. I knew Cozumel was an island renowned for diving, and that's all I knew. I was an inexperienced diver, and I do remember thinking the strong current was unpleasant. But I was in Mexico, and even a bad day loafing in tropical Mexico was better than a good day working.

 

[morecowbells]

Last month was our 10 year anniversary of diving in Cozumel. I wish I had known that the guys at the airport wearing the 'Tourist Information' tags were time share salesman.

 

[ggunn]

Cozumel is now cruise ship drenched.

I first was diving their in 1976.

A sleepy town with great diving, great after dive food. fun.

Still decent diving, I suppose, no desire to go there again.

My first Cozumel trip was in 1978, and yes, there have been many changes since then wrought in large part by the cruise ships. That said, it's not that hard to avoid most of their effects. The cruseros stay mainly within a couple of blocks of Melgar between Puta Langosta and Cinco Soles and around the El Cid complex, and by sunset they are mostly back aboard their BUB's. They don't patronize the restaurants much and the hotels not at all. It's not hard to find a calm place to sit and look at the water with a cold Leon Negra in hand. The cruseros don't as a rule dive, either (some do, but not many), so out on the reefs you are away from them. Unless I go walking around in town in the middle of the day I mostly just see them go past on their way in and out of port.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

One of the best things is when you realize those restaurants back off the water 10 or 15 blocks are unbelievably good, and so cheap you almost feel guilty. A plate of arrachera tacos and a margarita from Mission (even better was getting a kilo of arrachera at the old Parilla Mission on 30) will ruin you for life. Or pastor at Los Seras. Now I'm hungry....

 

[MMM]

That said, it's not that hard to avoid most of their effects.

I think that might be true in the "immediate" sense. But their long-term effects, according to some long-time folks I've talked to on the island, is that cruisers don't stay at the hotels in the down-town or eat in the restaurants in the evening. Plus the infrastructure needed to support cruisers in the day-time has attracted/required lots of non-locals to do the work. So they have changed the island culture...for better or worse.

 

[Arnold Brown]

Can't go wrong in Cozumel, however here are a couple of tips.

1. Learn what's happening under water and above ground & schedule accordingly. E.g:

• Sea Turtle nesting season is end of April / beginning of May so if you're diving then you'll see lots of turtles, which is nice.
• There's also a local "El Cedral" which is really a local culture event a little bit like when the carnival comes to town in the US except substitute Bull fights for Rodeo events, and Fuse Ball tables for Arcade attractions. It's wonderful.
• There is a season wherein Manta Rays school up I believe on the Northern end of the leward side of the island but details on that escape me.

2. Don't rent mopeds. Sunburn, like extreme sunburn is an inevitable outcome of doing that, and getting in an accident
would be a strong possibility as well.