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Cozumel Trip Report
Posted by Bruce E on 08/06/01

Travel Report

I just arrived back from a great time in Cozumel.  Staying in Alicia's B&B with my sister, I met a great crew of people who were extremely helpful and friendly.  Alicia and Chuco were fantastic at their stories and friendship.  Just be careful about asking for toast french (I guess they call it that in Cozumel)!  We stayed for 10 days total in an air conditioned room with two beds and hammocks.  We even had a nice fridge to keep drinks and foods throughout our stay.  Alicia's is near the back of the San Miguel off of 65th ST in a quiet of part of town.  We even went for walks at night.  Based on hints, clues, tips, and conversations with others staying at Alicia's B&B, not to mention Alicia and Chuco, we made our way through several great places to eat and swim.  We started snorkeling at Dzul-Ha where we met a buddy in the bartendar named Xevious at the far end of the three clubs. They had a small pool and perfect a place to rest in between trips out to the various areas of the reef.  Through our 10 days, we spent at least part of seven days there.  A great snorkeling area if one does not dive or take trips out on boats.  The currents sometimes were strong there but usually not terrible.  There we saw large barracuda, many starfish, lobsters, crabs, various marine species of fish, moray eels (we found ourselves being carefull around the bottom of the reefs!), something that kept on sting us continously (perhaps jellyfish but we couldn't see any around us), and large mollusks.   The biggest worry there were the boats and snorkeling tours on them.  For me this was definately a worry because I like to swim far out.  Although Dzul-Ha's reef only goes so far out, one can still spot some fish further out.  Perhaps the only downside was the abundance of the aforementioned snorkeling tours that come in from the shore. The clubs can suddenly become engulf with people with yellow life jackets clamoring with drinks, agusto, and alot of energy.  Whether not this is a bad depends on one's perspective.  I found it interesting to meet new people.  One cruise ship brought people on a tour from Italy.  Yet for the most part, Dzul-HA seemed quiet with a few snorkelers coming and going.  
Throughout our vacation, we visited other areas for swimming and casual snorkeling.  One beach club I liked for both swimming in a pool and a jaccuzi (Plus of course the sea) was Nocha-Kokum (Excuse the spelling).  The snorkeling was nonexistent but definately a great place to just relax and unwind.  We visited Palancar Beach Club at the more southern part of the island where we swam, ate, and chartered a small tour of the Palancar reef for snorkeling.  A great side trip, it cost us $25 USD for each one to see the reef.  We spotted a large turtle, two stingrays, numerous barracudas, various types of marine fish, and a large grouper.  It was just the two of us and the guide on the tour.   We also tried Mr Sancho's which had a nice jacuzzi with a waterfall.  A little loud for our taste, we found oursevles being blasted with music.   However the snorkeling was different there.  Although a beach club, they had some areas to see.  The club has quite a collection of old boats, vehicles, tires, and other pieces of industrial equipment strewn along the bottom.  Kind of like an underwater junkyard.  Different but interesting.  We also took a tour of the southern end of the island (forgot the name...). It was interesting but a little disapointing.  We took the a boat tour of one of the lagoons where we saw a small croc swimming wayside.  After journeying a couple of minutes, we were overtaking by about 20 people from a cruise ship and headed out to various parts of the lagoon.  While there some other sightings of some birds and another small croc, we didn't see that much.  Perhaps I was too limited in my vision of wildlife or it was a slow morning I don't know.  The lagoon itself was muddy brown with little life from atop.  (I still wanted to try snorkeling in it, especially after seeing the croc...Well maybe not) After exiting the boat, I watched the cruise tour walk to the snorkeling area where there was a reef out about 80 meters.  After watching the tour leave on their snorkeling, we followed suit.  My sister meandered through the waters near shore, seeing little fish and lots of sea grass/plants.  I swam out through a sand bar and kept on going.  Did see some activity inside flat rocks and a few reefs.  Finally I managed to turnaround to see that I had swam almost beyond sight of shore.  Even at this depth was not extremely deep.  (Perhaps it wasn't quite as far as the water was very turbalent on that day, blocking vision) Swimming back, I pondered the thought of trying to swim out to the Palancar Reef from Shore...Maybe a foolish idea but wandered if it was possible.  riding back to the main gateway/building, we found four tame racoons like animals eating and sleeping about the complex.  they were quite friendly and one managed to bite my ear (eh gods....don't tell my doctor!).  Very playfully if not energetic.  Then a female peacock came inside the building with the racoons and ate the cat food as well.  A sight to see.  Leaving finally, we happened upon a tame boar with quiver like needles.   My sister petted the friend fellow and he rolled over like a dog wanted further attention on his belly!  Perhaps it was worth the price of admission ($15 USD each person).  With the exception of several stops at various spots, we mainly stayed at Dzul-HA.  Although we did sneak into Sol Caribe hotel/resort and managed to snorkel around the waterfront restuarant.  Although the currents were strong around the area, there were quite a few fish to see right below the restuarant's water side.  

Our eating adventures took us from La Choca (forgive me for the spelling)where they had great virgin pina colodas and good food.  Prima's was another restuarant but it was more of a safe place to check since we had been there before and knew the fare.  We started to adventure some with the help of Alicia and other guest at her B&B.  Unfortunaley I couldn't tell you all the names of the places we visited but none were poor in quality or experience.  Mantis (hope I have the spelling correctly) was a great little restuarant that served, what I thought was surperior, italian food.  From our conversation with Alicia, the restuarant was not always open but we made it there when they were.  Definately liked it better than Prima's.  We ate at some of the smaller local restuarants located more towards the gas stations/eastern side of the city.  We found one that was a great little place sitting inside a neighborhood north of the gas station at the eastern side of town.  (Sorry about the description...I just can't remember the exact directions..) It was called El Morro I believed.  Definately had great mexican dishes that exceeded La Mission/La Chocha and other more pricier locales.  On the east side of the isle, we found coconuts for drinks, a great seaside seafood place which I regretfully forget the name, and some smaller clubs for thirst quenching.  I was disappointed in not spotting any roaming police boats looking out for drug smugglers.  The road that runs between the two coasts of the island was interesting as well.  We found ourselves stopping at a shop along the road with a lone man holding a sign spurting the words "Pee Pee stop".  At first I was little sangrine about stopping at a Pee Pee stop or anything remotely called it, we found ourselves drawn into an amazing conversation with this man who owned the establishement.  I believed his name was Neville.  He showed us his Avocado trees in the back and told us how he grew them.  Of course my favorite was a very large insect that looked like a cross from a cockroach to a beetle with working wings.  I almost ran out to get a camera but thought the better of it.  While he definatly wanted to sell us his wares of cours, he was very patiently told us of his life and family on the island.  He told us of the local dishes and various fruits one could eat from plants and even how to barbeque certain large lizard that he boasted tasted better than turkey.  He even gave us oral histories of Mayan customs and faith.  It was perhaps one of the more personable experiences we had on the island.  Although we did in fact buy some tshirts and like, we definately learned quite a lot from this man who we barely knew before stopping.  Anyway to wrap up this long winded, perhaps a little too boring to read report, we had a great time every time of the day we were there.  The people there were great.  Especially the residents of the island which never seem to amaze me with their friendly, outlook on life.  

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