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Cozumel Trip Report
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Posted by Elisa on 06/23/02

Hacienda San Miguel

Ok, here's a quick trip report starting with the UGLY - Smart Car (I told them I'd write this and they could care less)!!  We rented a convertible VW - what a joke - one mirror on the left side, windshield wipers didn't work (and it rained every day!!), no A/C, no radio, $269.00 for 7 days - they wouldn't take pesos - only US dollars or credit card - $27.50 per day, plus $8 for the insurance (that we knew wasn't covered by our credit card), 10% tax, 6% charge for using our credit card - I took pictures as someone on this board suggested - except I  never thought of taking pictures of the INSIDE!!  When we returned the car, they told us the inside mirror was missing - we said it was never there, that we had driven all week with one left side mirror...they refused to process our payment without adding the $15 charge which we refused to sign for. After much intense discussion, they tried to return the car to us to go buy a mirror... finally, my husband threw a $10 US dollar at them and said "it's this or nothing" and they finally accepted it.  Very annoying!!

The GREAT was our Nitrox instructor - Eduardo Echeverria (www.cozumelsports.com) - we would dive with him anywhere in the world!!  He can arrange any type of diving you want on the island and he'll dive with you.  He is so terrific - can't even describe how wonderful.  He is very educated, makes you feel completely safe and almost reads your mind as to what you're looking for, feeling, etc.  A true professional with a heart of gold.

The GOOD was Sea Urchins - Isidro Narvaez  of  Sea Urchin (Iidro@seaurchindive.com]. - He was really good.  Only 4 - 6 divers each day (we dove 5 days in a row) - very safety conscious, excellent diver, really cared about us having a good time and making it as convenient as possible for us (we can't say he was great because we have a standard which we compare everyone to - of our 9 years of diving the ultimate was Dive Makai on the Big Island of Hawaii).  

The GOOD was the Hacienda San Miguel.  Wonderful hotel.  Felt more like home away from home. The garden setting and fountain were lovely. Convenient to restaurants, nice, nice people.  Purified water in the room, etc. Unfortunately for us, Angela's last day was the day we arrived so we never met her.  Definitely our loss.  It was a godsend having breakfast (Mexican Sweetbread and juice) brought to our room every day. The bread was great for our stomachs as it was a little choppy due to the wind (I didn't touch the juice as diving and juice don't mix for me!).  Not to be used as a wake-up call but was fine.  The TV was a nice plus but I think we watched 1/2 hour for the entire week.  We dove, napped, ate and read.  It was great to walk all over and choose where to eat each night.  We felt like locals!  As I just finished a semester of Spanish, I tried talking with everyone.  Most people seemed to enjoy my attempts!  Our favorite restaurants for dinner were Primas, Manati, Sonora Grill and La Veranda (wonderful food, lovely setting and romantic) and above the Museum was excellent for breakfast/lunch.  Las Palmas was a neat local place for lunch which Isidro recommended. Island Gourmet was ok (very opinionated owner from Montreal); Azul Cobalto (we tried to order salads, they said it was included in the dinners; at the end of the meal we asked where the salads were and they said we needed to order them separately!), La Mission and La Morena were just ok. Cafe Europa was ok, Las Palmeras and Hard Rock Cafe were ok for a quick lunch when we were too tired to walk far. We tried a few ice cream places and bakeries, which were interesting.  The Coffee Bean was awesome for that chocolate fix I needed near the end of the week - wish we had discovered it earlier.  Primas actually suggested it and they were right!  Once we were done diving for the week (Sun - Thur), we had wonderful drinks and my hubbie indulged in a cigar at the Havana Club.  Friday evening we bought this incredible piece of chocolate cake with chocolate icing at the Coffee Bean and stopped at Kiss My Cactus to drink margaritas, eat the cake, and dance!!  Lovely, lovely way to end a great vacation.

Diving - due to the rain and wind, visibility was maybe 40 feet on a lot of dives.  But we still saw some great stuff - the highlights were: a reef shark swimming in the open and then settling under some coral and posing for our pictures (!), a turtle, lots of barracuda, 2 toadfish (!!), eels out in the open, gorgeous angel fish, some large deep sea fish and a HUGE grouper.  We have never done drift diving every day for a week so that was a challenge for our camera (our usual speed is slow and stop!).  We dove Palancar Gardens (4 guests on the boat with 2 guys sick and hanging over the edge!), Palancar Horseshoe, Santa Rosa, Paradise Reef (the best!), the wreck (C-53) and Chanakaab (I think I've included all).  Isidro said he saw 2 dolphins but none of us did (!).  We cancelled the night dive as we were freezing that day due to the driving rain and wind (I think Isidro was as happy as we were to stay in that night).  It rained so hard that night that our little kitchen at the HSM was flooded for 2 days (Not a problem, we just put our suitcases up on the chairs).  Very cool to be below the water and see the rain. My computer said the water temp was 80 but we definitely hit some thermoclines!  I used a skin with fleece inside and sometimes a shorty, too.  It didn't matter what I wore, I was always a little chilly on the second dive. So, I gave up on the shorty after a few days and enjoyed wearing less weight.

We dove with 2 great couples during the week - Frances and Noah from TX (stayed at Plaza Las Glorias) and Jake and Melanie from GA( stayed at the Allegro).  The TX couple commented (HSM, too) on the decrease in fish life over the years and the GA couple mentioned that the Allegro had changed many of their policies (e.g. the nice restaurants could only be visited once/trip and the dive shop would not rent them ANYTHING unless they dove with them).  In addition, the GA couple had a room with a thatched roof which the birds liked (woke them up bright and early every day) but when it rained, their room was flooded - all those rooms were so they were sent to the Iberostar to stay (along with a doz other couples).  

What else?  We drove to the other side of the island twice - the day before leaving to have Margaritas and Shrimp at Mezcalitos - neither were great (I prefer frozen margaritas) and the shrimp could have been if they were shelled prior to grilling.  They were a challenge to eat!  But, the view was absolutely gorgeous and we really relaxed for hours on the beach.  Wonderful.

One night in the Plaza del Sol, we were wandering around and heard chanting about Mexico beating the US...we found out the World Cup was being played at 1 a.m. in the morning.  The next evening, we went to those same guys (outside Cafe Europa) and found out the US had won.  What really impressed us was that they were happy because AMERICA (US and Brazil) still had a chance....we were so impressed....I think we tend to think too much of "us and them"...but we found the people in Cozumel think of us as being part of them as we're all Americans....really, really wonderful. We always felt safe...never an issue...

Our trip:  We were picked up by shuttle at our house in San Jose, CA at 3:15 a.m on Friday, June 14th, for a 6:15 a.m. flight from San Fran (on Mexicana) - we were flying on United frequent flyer miles so we couldn't  complain about much.  We changed planes in Mexico City and arrived in Cozumel at 4:20 p.m.  On June 22nd, HSM suggested we get to the airport at 8:00 a.m. for a 9:00 a.m. flight to Cancun.  That made us a little nervous but, as we had purchased  our ticket from Cozumel to Cancun, then used miles the rest of the way home, we got lucky.  Mexicana had put us on Aerocaribe for the 20 minute flight and there was no line.  As every bag was searched completely (including my wallet and make-up), that was enough time only because were not on Funjet or Apple or one of the other airlines.  Those lines were very long; we walked straight in to the check-out counter and were finished in 10 minutes.  We tried to make purchases in the duty free shop, but they considered our ticket domestic and wouldn't allow it.  As we had 2 separate records with Mexicana, we had to pick up our luggage in Cancun (at 9:20 a.m.) and get in a huge line to check in at Mexicana for our 10:50 flight.  At 10:30 we started getting nervous (they were checking every piece of luggage so the line had barely moved).  We shared our concern with one of the attendants and at 10:40 he took us straight through, no checking and gave us boarding passes to run to the gate.  

We arrived in Mexico City at approx. 1:20 p.m. with our next flight scheduled for 3:30 (to San Jose, CA).  Our gate was not assigned yet, but we were told we would be going to Guadalajara first.  So, we settled in and approximately 2:30, they announced our flight to leave at 4:15 (we confirmed it with the monitors).  We decided to have margaritas and get comfortable.  Well, at 3:05, I looked at the monitors and they showed 3:30, so we ran for our gate.  They were boarding (!), I asked one of the reps why the announcement and monitors had said 4:15 and his response was "what does your ticket say?".  We were told we'd be stopping in Guadalajara and we should stay on the plane.  They then changed their minds once we landed, bussed us to the terminal, let the locals board first, then bussed us back to the plane. We finally landed in San Jose at 7:20 p.m.  

Overall, it was a good, good trip. Our very first dive trip 9 years ago was to Cancun with a day in Cozumel...all I remember from Cozumel was incredible visibility (200 ft, easily), blue, blue water and incredible colors of coral.  This was a "little" different but definitely worth it.

Hope I haven't bored you to tears! Any questions, feel free to email me!

Elisa

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