Cozumel = "hell on earth?!"

[miketsp]

:lol:

i spent a night in a swank hotel in fiji once.

in the morning on the way out i saw some tourists in the pool and getting ready to sit at the pool bar... when we got back 12hrs later they were still by the pool, sitting by the pool bar

i said at the time i dont get why someone would make an effort to travel but not actually leave the hotel/resort! you can sit around the pool in the backyard all day drinking if thats all you want to do

oh well - each their own.. i still dont get it though

"It's all in the mind you know", as Spike Milligan said...

 

[TCDiver1]

Coz is definately an acquired taste and to each their own is a great way to describe it. IMO it's a little harder to acquire since the invasion of the cruise boats but such is life. The good comes with the bad.

We love it because of what we make of it. A small group of friends, renting a in town home with a pool, a small compound really. Diving with a tight well known group in a small boat. Eating at the small, out of the way restaurants that we have learned over the years to be excellent.

I've been going there off and on for nearly 20 years and find something new and/or cool every time i dive there. Too many people get caught up (literally) in the current in Coz, it's easy to do. But if you can slow down by working into the current when the current is a little slower, the stuff you can find is incredible.

It's close to home, very reasonable and easy to get and stay there. Honestly, i don't get the people from the states who don't get it. So here we are at to each their own. I need vacations to relax and off-gas from a stressful life. Coz does it for me, big time. I'm not jaded with it at all.

 

[Diver Kat]

I said, "next time you go there, you should try scuba diving. That is what Coz is truly famous for."
She said that her husband doesn't like water. She likes laying on the beach and swimming up to the poolside bar, but the ocean creeps her out.

This one always gets me - why do so many people go to places on or surrounded by the ocean, that hate water? I have a BIL that has a time share in Florida, but doesn't like the beach, or water. I've known a number of people that go to beach resorts and sit at the pool the entire time.

She asked me if I spoke Spanish, to which I said yes. She said thats what made her mad, nobody spoke English very well, and she just couldn't communicate what she wanted.

And this one always burns me big. Why do you go to a foriegn country and expect them to speak English when their native language is Spanish (or whatever ... Italian, French, Chinese ...) And surprisingly I find, when you're being nice to people in Coz, it's amazing how much English they suddenly speak! And even if they don't, they are mostly very kind about trying to understand. I think they just don't bother to even try for the tourists with attitude (and why should they!)

As for food, the last thing I want is American food in any place I travel. I can have that back home! That's why I don't do the AI's ... too much Americanized food, and you miss all the lovely little places around town.

 

[chickdiver]

Frankly, I can understand why the Scottish couple was disappointed with Cozumel. I've traveled quite a lot- mostly to third world countries, and I, too, was disappointed with Cozumel. I found the diving medicore at best, and the service, etc to be poor. I like the beach- I grew up in a beach town and live there now- I found the beaches disappointing as well. Been there, done that, won't be going back. Mainland Mexico in the Riviera Maya is marginally better, but only because of the cave diving.

 

[ggunn]

Frankly, I can understand why the Scottish couple was disappointed with Cozumel. I've traveled quite a lot- mostly to third world countries, and I, too, was disappointed with Cozumel. I found the diving medicore at best, and the service, etc to be poor. I like the beach- I grew up in a beach town and live there now- I found the beaches disappointing as well. Been there, done that, won't be going back. Mainland Mexico in the Riviera Maya is marginally better, but only because of the cave diving.

Yeah, I agree; the place is terrible. Don't go there, especially on a cruise ship, especially between, oh, I don't know, say the 3rd and 17th of May... ;^)

Seriously, not everything appeals to everyone. Cozumel is to me, all things considered, pretty close to perfect. It's easy to get to, still fairly cheap when I get there, and has the best diving I have ever done (though not quite as good as it was before Wilma). I have friends who live there who welcome me with open arms whenever I go there, and most of the time I am meeting friends and family there whom I don't get to see very often. I love the restaurants, the east side beaches and beach clubs, the deep sea fishing (which was what brought me to Cozumel years before I was a diver), the views of the sunset over the Yucatan, the friendly people, the Leon Negra and Xtabentun, and the tiny little hotel which is like home to me. This is not the real world, that is.

It doesn't upset me that not everyone loves Cozumel like I do; if they did, I'd have trouble getting there and trouble paying for it when I did. DSFDF and YMMV.

 

[Diver Kat]

I like the beach- I grew up in a beach town and live there now- I found the beaches disappointing as well.

Well if you're looking for beaches, Cozumel is NOT the place to go, but then neither is Bonaire. I go to both for the water, and the diving. I grew up on the ocean as well, but I'm perfectly happy without having a perfect sand beach ... I just want to be in or near the water. (I'm not knocking beaches, I can be real happy on one as well!)

Yeah, I agree; the place is terrible. Don't go there, especially on a cruise ship, especially between, oh, I don't know, say the 3rd and 17th of May... ;^)

LOL! I can't knock cruise ships either. It was what got us to Cozumel the first time (and quite a few other times) and it got us to enough ports that we became interested in diving. Now if I have a choice, I'd rather be on island for a week doing as much diving as I can. But if it will get me diving, and to a few new ports to check out for future trips, I'll grab a cruise. I guess I'm an admitted part-time podder .... :11: (It's not my fault! The in-laws took us on the first one and we got sucked in!!)

 

[DenverDiverErin]

If Cozumel is hell, well, then I've just been to hell and back, and I'd choose Hell over these midwestern winters any day! Only one week in hell per year isn't enough for me.

 

[Divedoggie]

This one always gets me - why do so many people go to places on or surrounded by the ocean, that hate water? I have a BIL that has a time share in Florida, but doesn't like the beach, or water. I've known a number of people that go to beach resorts and sit at the pool the entire time.

And this one always burns me big. Why do you go to a foriegn country and expect them to speak English when their native language is Spanish (or whatever ... Italian, French, Chinese ...) And surprisingly I find, when you're being nice to people in Coz, it's amazing how much English they suddenly speak! And even if they don't, they are mostly very kind about trying to understand. I think they just don't bother to even try for the tourists with attitude (and why should they!)

As for food, the last thing I want is American food in any place I travel. I can have that back home! That's why I don't do the AI's ... too much Americanized food, and you miss all the lovely little places around town.

Yep!

I just kind of smiled while she told me her story. I realized that it was fultile to even try to point out the reasons why I keep going back to Coz.

The couple's only other travel experience was to Boston. She was kind of angry about that trip too because she couldn't understand what the locals were saying.

I did try to understand her perspective, so I asked her where she and her husband liked going to dinner locally. ??

She said that they really don't go out to dinner.
I asked her to just name one restaurant. She couldn't!:11:

One of my favorite things about living in Fort Collins is our great selection of excellent restaurants. We have to restrain ourselves from dining out too much!
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I whole heartedly agree with Gordon's assessment of Coz. I like the culture, the old friends, the diving culture, the restaurants that you have to know about or at least go look for, Gallaria Azul, the clear blue water, and the diving.
Coz isn't a tropical paradise like Fiji, Tahiti, or Hawaii, but...
Its a 3 1/2 hour flight from Denver. I can wake up in the morning at my own house and be diving later that afternoon in Coz, and enjoy a margarita and some camarones con ajo at Especias that night.
I've done 5 day getaways there for $500. That included flight, diving, hotel, and food.

Pretty much any other Caribbean destination requires a 3 1/2 hour flight to Miami, an inevitable delay or long layover at the strange country called MIA where nobody speaks English or any other common language, the people are mean, and the food IS horrible.

If I have more than a week's vacation, I will brave that trip. If I have a week or less, the obvious choice is Coz!

 

[scubawife]

I spoke with a couple today who just returned from their wedding at an AI near Playa del Carmen. They went over to Coz for a day and hated it. It was too hot, they were molested by peddlers, and it didn't get better until they went to Hard Rock and got a good American burger and some real beer.

I told her that I really liked it there, and that if you got off the beaten track and found a restaurant like 'Especias,' or went over to the east side they might find the charm.

I said, "next time you go there, you should try scuba diving. That is what Coz is truly famous for."
She said that her husband doesn't like water. She likes laying on the beach and swimming up to the poolside bar, but the ocean creeps her out.

She asked me if I spoke Spanish, to which I said yes. She said thats what made her mad, nobody spoke English very well, and she just couldn't communicate what she wanted. She said that even the Mexican food was strange, and that she couldn't wait to get back to the US of A to have some real Mexican food.

Moral? If someone thinks Coz is "hell on earth," consider the source and move on...

These are the sort of vacationers that choose their trips by the resort, not where it's located. I would love to send them all to places like Jamaica, New Providence (Bahamas) and just about anyplace else that the reefs have already been done in by poorly managed development and greed for the tourist dollar.

I've been going to the mainland (Akumal specifically) for several years. Diving used to be pretty darn nice by Caribbean standards. Sadly, not so anymore. There's more dead, diseased and algae covered coral then anything healthy now. The major contributer to the decline is land based development. No marine park = no real or enforced regulations. Yet from Playa to Tulum (and now to the north of Playa too) every 6 months there seems to be a new resort or expansion of an existing property. Not all, but most of the people going to these mega resorts only care about the beach, how many restaurants, pools, bars and if the food and drinks are good. Couldn't care less about where they are or that the developer (mostly European companies) ripped out acres of mangrove, altered the coastline for that nice beach and wouldn't cough up an extra $40K or so for a truly adequate sewage treatment system...

They should just go to FL and stay at one of the Disney or Universal Studios beach resort themed hotels and dine out at ChiChi's or Chili's. Epcot would offer them more then enough cultural experience.

 

[Divedoggie]

I've been going to the mainland (Akumal specifically) for several years. Diving used to be pretty darn nice by Caribbean standards. Sadly, not so anymore. There's more dead, diseased and algae covered coral then anything healthy now. The major contributer to the decline is land based development. No marine park = no real or enforced regulations. Yet from Playa to Tulum (and now to the north of Playa too) every 6 months there seems to be a new resort or expansion of an existing property. Not all, but most of the people going to these mega resorts only care about the beach, how many restaurants, pools, bars and if the food and drinks are good. Couldn't care less about where they are or that the developer (mostly European companies) ripped out acres of mangrove, altered the coastline for that nice beach and wouldn't cough up an extra $40K or so for a truly adequate sewage treatment system...

I've made five trips to Akumal, the last one in 2005. The diving was still good. Has it declined that much since then?