Travelers Info
Air Travelers
Cruise Passengers

Cozumel Island
About Cozumel
Holidays & Events
Getting There
Cancun to Cozumel
Weather
Exchange Rates

Accommodations
Hotels
Vacation Properties
Bed & Breakfast
Rentals Online
Dive/Hotel Packages

Water Activities
Scuba Diving
Scuba Dive Shops
Snorkeling
Deep Sea Fishing
Reefs
Beaches
Marine Park Rules

Adventure Tours
All Adventure Tours
Jungle Jeep Tours
Horseback Tours
Snorkel Tours
Scuba Diving Tours
Deep Sea Fishing
Jungle Bike Tours
Jungle Trek Tours
Tarzan Tours

Tours/Sight Seeing
Special Attractions
Tours/Excursions
Island Tours
Day Excursions  

Island Guides
Beaches
Nightlife
Restaurants
Shopping
Food

Mayan Ruins
Chichen Itza
Tulum
Coba

Ecological Parks
Chankanaab
Crococun Crocodile Park
Tres Rios
Xcaret
Xel-Ha
Cenotes
Xpu-Ha
Sian Ka'an Biosphere
Punta Laguna
Garrafon

More Services
Specialty Services
Car/Vehicle Rentals
Getting Married
Real Estate
Travel Agencies
Tour Operators
Emergency Info
Great Links

Travel Essentials
Travel Tips
Packing List
Taxi Fares
Ferry Schedule
Spanish Lessons
Photo Gallery
Consulates

About Travelnotes
Contact Us

Rentals

Online Hotels

Car Rentals

Adventure Tours

Scuba Tours

 Cozumel Trip Report
Submit a Trip Report

Posted by Rachel on 03/04/02

Our plane leaves Dallas Monday morning, 2/18.  My husband and I are traveling with my Dad and Step-mom.  It is their 1st trip to Coz, our third.  We're (of course) really excited about the trip, and especially excited about getting to show the island to my folks.  It is my first chance to take a "real" vacation with them, and their first trip to a tropical island.  We're staying at El Cozumeleno.  It is our second time there.  It is just as beautiful as we remember.  We agree with the general opinion on the board.  The food is ok, but not anything to brag about.  My husband says it reminds him of the "dorm food" in college.  He says the dorm could make somethings very well, and some things very badly, and a lot of things right in the middle.  Thankfully, we don't stay there for the food.  The hotel is beautiful, the rooms are great and very clean, safe and comfortable.  And it's great to be able to relax, and get whatever you want without having to carry your wallet around.  Of course, we love leaving the hotel and enjoying the rest of the island.

On Monday, we get to the hotel around lunch time.  We get settled in to our rooms, and change into shorts and sandals immediately!  We eat lunch at the hotel, give Mom and Dad the tour, do some snorkeling in front of the hotel, and take a walk on the beach.  We can all just feel the stress melting away!  This is so relaxing and beautiful.  Too bad we can't bottle this stuff and take if home with us!  That night, we go to the dinner buffet and show at the hotel.  Of course we've enjoyed a lot of pina coladas, ameretto sours, strawberry daquires, etc.,etc.,etc....  We go to bed very relaxed, happy, and tired.  We sleep with the balconey door open, so we can listen to the waves all night.  Heavenly!

Tuesday morning, we're up early, and meet the folks at the restaurant for an early breakfast.  I told Dad that I love waking up in Coz.  As soon as I start to stir, I can't wait to jump out of bed, and start soaking up the fact that I'm in paradise again.  Cory and I are taking the Arrecifes tour today from 9:00 to 4:00.  We're looking forward to this tour.  We've taken the tour once before, and it was the highlight of our trip.  Mom and Dad are on their own for most of the day today.  I feel kinda guilty about leaving them on their own, but this is important to us, and I know they can handle it.  We leave the Cozumel map with them, and explain how the taxis work.  The Arrecifes tour is great, but not as wonderful as the first time.  Eduardo is not there today, so that takes away from our experience.  Also, we don't see near as much this time as we did last time.  I believe it might be the time of year.  Our last trip was in May, and there seemed to be a lot more "wildlife" around.  Maybe you guys can tell me if there's less things to see in Feb. than there is is May.  Also, it is really windy today, so a lot of water get splashed in to our snorkels, and there's more of a current.  So, where in May everything was easy, we kinda had to work harder this time.  The guys on the Arrecifes have no control over this stuff, and they still did a great job.  We would recommend this tour to anyone.  Our trip in May, we had our 7yo son with us, and it was perfect for him, too.  My folks relaxed at the hotel, did some shopping in town, ate lunch in town, and took the Atlantis submarine tour.  They enjoyed it all, although they were a little frustrated by the shopping.  They were not able to get very good prices.  I was kinda was like "duh!!".  I had tried to warn them that it was not a good time to go shopping because of all the cruisers being in town.  Mom couldn't understand why the prices were higher than she thought they should be, and no one would come down on their prices.  I told her we'd try again some evening later in the week.  They thought the submarine tour was really nice, and I could tell they were glad that they did it.  Although they did say that they thought they would see more sea life. After we got back to the hotel, and got cleaned up, I wanted to take them to eat in town, but I got out voted.  They were both too tired from running around all day, and they just wanted to relax the rest of the evening.  :-(  We slept with the door open again!

The last 2 days of our trip are even better than the first 2, but I need to finish this report tomorrow.  The hubby wants me to come to bed.  And after all, he pays for my Coz trips!!  :-)

Wednesday morning we wake up, meet the folks for breakfast again, and are very happy to notice that the waves are much smaller today.  We have reserved a VW with Alamo for $23 for 1 today, and we plan on hitting Dzul Ha, and then driving around the island.  After advice from this board, the plan is to get to Dzul Ha as early as possible to try to beat the cruise crowd.  The 4 of us take a taxi to Alamo around 8:15. When we get there, the guy gets on the phone for awhile, and seems to be trying to work something out.  While we're waiting, my Dad says he thinks he might like to take a jeep instead.  I tell him that it will be about twice as much as the VW, or about $45.  I also see on the counter, that they don't have "Jeeps", but they do have Trackers.  He says that would be great.  In the mean time, the Alamo guy has hung up, and walked off to another rental booth.  I follow him, and ask him how much it would be to just get a Tracker.  He looks a little relieved, and admits that he doesn't have a VW right then (despite my reservation, which of course I had a copy of).  He says the Tracker would be $45, normally it's $55 (ya sure, if you're from a cruise ship), and that if we'll bring it back at 8 in the morning, he'll even pay for our taxi ride back to El Coz.  Well, hey, that sounds great.  My Dad's excited about tooling around the island "topless", and we're saving on some taxi fare.  This is the Alamo location in the terminal of the middle cruise ship pier, so it was $12 for the taxi here from El Coz.  I think it's kind of amusing that the only way we can leave this terminal is to walk through all of the gift shops.  I mean, it's not even a straight shot, it's like a maze!  We get our (red) Tracker around 8:45, and we're off to Dzul Ha.  

Dad misses the turnoff to the old road, so we get on it by Chankanaab, and work our way back up.  We get there a little after 9, and grab the best table.  We're the first ones there.  Thanks for the advice, guys!  Mom doesn't swim well at all, so she's happy sitting at the table, under the umbrella, with a drink and her book, watching us.  Dad has never snorkeled before, and he tries for a while, but can't get comfortable enough.  I think it had a lot to do with his mustache.  He just couldn't get a good seal with his mask, so it was hard for him to relax.  He gives it a good try, and I don't want to spoil his fun by insisting that he make himself do it.  I tell him that once he starts seeing the fish, he'll have no trouble relaxing, but that's as far as I'll go.  He ends up just floating around in the water, and sitting chatting with Mom.  They both had a good time, so that was the important part.  Of course, Cory and I had a great time.  It is our first trip to Dzul Ha, and everyone sure was right about it.  There are fish and "critters" everywhere, and they're really nice ones, too.  I was especially excited about this since yesterday, when we came here on the Arrecifes tour.  We saw those really giant parrot fish that have been talked about on the board.  I thought you could hear the regular-sized ones chomping!  These guys are really loud!  They look like you could go ahead and saddle them, and go for a ride!  We saw a lot of really beautiful fish that we hadn't been able to see anywhere else!  If I could have, I think I just would have hovered over them, staring, the rest of the day!  It's a wonder we don't give these fish a complex!!  Some of the best fish we saw were:  Banded Butterfly, Queen Angelfish (gorgeous!), French Angelfish, and French Angel Juvenile (gorgeous, too!), Rock Beauty, Bicolor Damsel, Yellowtail Damsel Juvenile (Cory loves these! The spots are luminescent!), Fairy Basslet, Lots of parrotfish, Smooth Trunkfish, and 1 tiny Spotted Drum Juvenile.  Probably half of these we had never had the pleasure of seeing before.  The highlight was seeing the octopus.  He wasn't hiding, and he wasn't little.  He was a nice big one right out there in the open.  Cory and I watched him, and slowly followed him around for about 15 minutes.  Cory spotted him first, and called me over.  I looked for him around the base of the coral, and I couldn't find him.  I told Cory I couldn't see him, and he said,"He looks like a rock."  And then I saw him.  I just always thought they'd be hiding.  The way he changed color immediately was just mind blowing!  It was a relief when Cory and I came up, cuz we started laughing, and we both said,  "THAT was SOOO COOOOL!!!!" :-D  I would guess his head was close to 18 inches across, and he was missing at least 1 tentacle.  Maybe some of you guys have spotted him around there, too.  We left Dzul Ha around noon.  We made sure to buy quite a few drinks while we were there, and we thanked them when we left. We will definitely come back on our next trip. We were invaded by cruisers twice while we were there, but Dzul Ha was big enough that we just avoided them.  

We drove to the other side, and stopped close to Rasta's.  Mom and Dad were very impressed by the beaches on the East Side.  We got out of the Tracker a few times and just walked the beach, and stared at the water.  The plan was to eat lunch at Mezcalitos (I really wanted to try the super shrimp), but we were running pretty late, and getting really hungry, so we stopped at Chen Rio for lunch.  What an experience!  We got a table right on the beach.  I mean, the water occationally ran up under our table!  It was so great.  No where else but Coz!  Cory and I had the seafood platter for 2, and the folks got a Red Snapper platter for 2.  The snapper was rather intimidating! :-) Head, teeth, and tail.  I joked we should bring him home with us, and name him Fred!  It was a really big fish.  Our seafood platter was really good, too.  We did have quite a problem with the bill that I wanted to warn everyone about:  We asked for the prices upfront, as advised in the map, and the waiter said,"Well, the seafood platter for the 4 of you will be 600 pesos, which will be $70 US."  HUH???  I said, "No, that can't be right, that's not even a 10 to 1 rate."  He said, "Oh, we have a rate of 8.34, so it will be $70."  Warning bells!  I just wanted to forget it, but Cory and the folks wanted to go ahead and order.  While we were waiting for the food, I explained how screwed up that was.  Sure enough, when the bill came, we were charged that way.  My Dad was telling him that it wasn't right, and wasn't getting anywhere, so he only gave the guy a $5 tip.  Well, the waiter came back saying that it wasn't enough.  Dad explained since we were overcharged on the lunch, it was enough.  Ok, now the guy was ready to talk about it.  He took Dad inside, and they started talking to the folks in charge.  They adjusted Dad's bill, gave Dad back about $17, so Dad gave the waiter another 5.  What a mess!  I guess the waiter just figured we were some dumb tourists who wouldn't know any better.  Anyway, over all, the food, the view, and the atmosphere was great.  The service was good too, just watch out that they don't pull a fast one on ya!  While we were on the East side we also stopped at El Mirador, and I HAD to make Dad stop at Mezcalitos.  I got a margarita to go.  Boy it was great!  But really powerful, too.  By the time we got back to El Coz, I was feeling REALLY GOOD.  We stopped a San Gervasio, but they had already closed.  I thought that I had heard that they closed down at sunset, but they had closed at 4, so we missed them by just a few minutes.  We'll have to try again next time.  We got cleaned up at the hotel, and ate dinner there.  We had talked about going back in to town to find some music, etc.  But, everyone ended up way too tired.  We weren't feeling very tired at all, till we slowed down, and then it hit us.  What a wonderful day!  Definitely my favorite so far.

We slept with the door open again.  Ya know, the beds in Coz are hard.  But you always have such a full, satisfying day, that it's no trouble at all to fall asleep.  I'll finish the last part later on today.  -Rachel

Well, we got moving Thursday morning a little bummed that this would be our last full day.  I'm sure everyone can relate!  We have no real plans for today, except to run back in to town this evening and do Mom's shopping and eat at Pancho's Backyard (yum!).  We've gone to Pancho's every trip to Coz, and it's kinda become a tradition.  I had decided the night before to take the free Introduction to Scuba clinic this morning.  So, after breakfast I change and go to the pool at 9:00.  I try really hard to talk Cory in to taking it with me, but no luck.  He loves snorkeling as much as I do, and we've talked a lot about getting certified, but he says for some reason he's just not in the mood.  Bummer.  

I like the instructors right away.  They are Bess and Ron with Scuba Du.  That's the dive shop at El Coz.  The pool course is fun and very interesting.  Some of the exercises are a little nerve racking.  Ya know, clearing your mask, sharing air with your partner, "throwing away" the regulator and then finding it again (while blowing little bubbles, of course).  After reading things from all you divers out there, I just reminded myself to stay calm and it would be no problem.  And it wasn't.  I know this was just exercises in a swimming pool, no real danger, but I wanted to do it right.  Anyway, after the class, they offered to let me go on a shore dive with them.  I know that this is the standard procedure unless someone just doesn't take well to the class.  Anyway, I think about it for a little bit, and I talk to the hubby about it.  He tells me to go ahead, if it's something I would like to do.  I do think for a while about a lot of comments that I've read on the board about Resort Course Dives, and how they can be dangerous.  But, it sounds exciting, I felt really comfortable in the water, and I feel really safe with Bess and Ron.  They also tell me that the deepest we'll go is about 20 feet, so I decide "Hey, why not?!".  It's going to be me and 1 other beginner with Ron, and a couple of beginners and one certified diver with Bess.  I'm even more bummed now that Cory didn't take the class with me, cuz now he can't go on the dive either.  I ask Bess if Cory could come along and snorkel with us, and she says sure, no problem, and no charge.  She even grabs a set of fins for him from the dive shop.  Really nice folks.  

We go to Villa Blanca.  They give me the same equipment that I used in the pool, so I feel good about that.  When I released all the air in my jacket, I just went down deep enough to have the water just over my head.  I just looked down at Ron and shrugged my shoulders, so he grabbed my fin and pulled me down.  Cory saw him put a weight in my jacket, but I didn't even notice.  I was just glad that I was staying on the bottom!  I did have a little trouble with my ears.  It was nice that Ron kept checking back with me, and asking if my ears were ok.  Every time they weren't, he would motion for me to go up a little bit, and try to clear them again.  I couldn't get one to totally clear, so I just swam along for a little while about a foot higher in the water than everyone else, and kept trying to clear them.  At least I wasn't in pain, and I could keep up with Ron.  They finally popped, and I was able to go deeper no problem.  I was VERY careful about where my big, clumsy fins were going.  Ron would swim between the coral heads, but I would only swim over them.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't accidently kick anything.  See, you guys are such good influences! :-)  I must admit that they other girl was definitely getting on my nerves.  She was all over the place!  Sometimes she would just head off away from us, and Ron would have to stop and bring her back.  And other times, I would be swimming less that 2 feet from Ron, and she would swim right in between us.  I had to move out of the way quick to keep from running in to her.  And, I did see her get the coral with her fin once.  I imagine that ya'll can tell that I was very happy to know that I would never have to do anything with her again!  Anyway, enough of my griping.  We saw lots of really nice fish.  Actually not as many as we did at Dzul Ha, but I could see them close up.  That was just wonderful!  We saw a spotted Moray under some coral that I never would have seen from the surface.  He was a real beauty.  Ya know, one of those white ones with the black spots.  I really enjoyed the whole dive.  It was also kinda of strange to look up at Cory swimming 20 ft. above me.  Actually, I got no water at all in my mouth til I got to the surface and took the regulator out.  So, I definitely want to do it again.  I know what you've thinking:  Another ones caught the bug!  Well, you're probably right.  Like I said earlier, Cory and I have talked about getting certified.  The problem is Cory's work schedule.  He's on a rotating shift, where most of the time he works 2pm-11pm, and the rest of the time 10pm-7am.  It makes it really hard to schedule a class.  We're gonna keep trying.  He doesn't like his job, so we keep hoping he might find a better one with better hours.  

Trip Reports

Lodging Reviews
Mayan Tour Reviews
Scuba Dive Shop Reviews
Things to Do Reviews
Restaurant Reviews

Email us to have your review listed or removed. Thanks!

back to top