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It’s difficult for me to say anything new & different about a Coz trip as my home bud has been with me on a few of my earlier adventures there and agrees with my usual “eat, sleep, dive” approach with Caribe Blu and Blue Angel - still a nice, comfortable hotel with large rooms on the edge of San Miguel with super dive packages rates with their house operator using comfortable and fast 8-diver boats that have everything I want plus free shore dives: blueangel-scuba.com
I had worked out details pretty well on our 8 night adventure to include not only Coz but two days of Tulum Cenotes & Playa del Carmen turtle reef dives (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/248750-tulum-cenotes-playa-del-carmen-turtle-reef-dives.html) followed by a Yucatan end-run to Holbox west of Cancun for two days of Whale Shark snorkeling trips (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mexico/248751-yucatan-end-run.html), but then - “the Devil is in the Details,” always! Jer likes to take a “handle it Don” approach and I would like for him to get a little more involved in planning, but I did what I could - reviewing details over months of complex preparations, asking for input and gaining approval, the last week of hard suggestions too many overlooked by my dive bud, including “I don‘t really want to do any shopping there so I’ll pack a coffee maker & filters in my big duffle and let’s each bring water jugs, coffee and cups.” Good idea until we finished the first evening’s dinner and he wanted to pick up some smokes…!
“What?! You’re want your specific brand and you didn’t bring them?!” He thought he’d save money by getting them cheaper there. Grr! I found him some at the nearby liquor store, but he only grabbed a couple of packs - wanted to get a better deal on a carton at the big store. Grrrrr! Our next cabbie stopped by there on the way home, but they‘d just closed. “Ok, fine - it’s a short walk, so run down there after lunch and get one tomorrow, please.” Yeah, right.
He’s not much a smoker and this irritating project never made my priority list, but we made a few other attempts at satisfying his indulgence, finally stopping by there on our day-4 departure trip on the way to the ferry, waiting on him to walk around the big store to finally find them, and eventually getting to the dock when he mentioned another of my requests that “Since Holbox is remote and a cash only location without a bank or ATM, they don’t take plastic or travelers, checks so make sure you’ve got $600 cash when we head that away,” and explaining that he needed to run to the bank for a fast travelers check cash-in. Grrrrrrrr! So he left me to deal with the cabbie, luggage porter, and all while he learned how not fast a banking experience on Coz can be - and the driver hit me for $18! Huh? WTH…?!
He explained that he made 2 runs with us - hotel to store, waiting, store to dock, with a lot of luggage and that was the fare. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! I’ve never been charged extra for bags before and our cab experiences had been pretty nice for the previous 3 days prompting me to start tipping the union drivers for the first time since the usual 10-1 Dollar-Peso exchange no longer had a 10% built-in bonus for the drivers, and this demand caught me unprepared. I didn’t want to explode like the angry tourist I was so I asked for his rate card, which he didn’t have, so thinking he is trying to pull one on me in broad daylight at the worst place - I then asked for a nearby policeman, who brought in a Tourist Assistant. He was really nice about helping, talking to the driver, then another official, and I wish I had the correct name for his organization. Anyway, I was thinking $3 + $3 + $3 at most for this run, the driver wanted twice that much, and my new amigo got it down to $13. I was more satisfied with making what I saw as a rude driver wait for his money.
Live, learn, minimize the negatives….
In review, the rest of the island experience went good to great starting with day-1. I didn't work on pics during the trip this time, and then I got all involved with working on the videos - and that was a big project but fun (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sealife/248313-shot-some-videos-mexico-last-week.html#post3765033), washing gear, resting from the trip, etc. Finally went thru the pics tho, editing & composing and wanted to offer the slide shows if you'd like to see. Most of these are diving pics, but a few land pics mixed in, a few preview pics and notes below...
You can play the AOL slide show here; use View As Guest if it asks you to log in... [c]
AOL Pictures - View Share [/c]
I had rolled out of my house at 2:30am Saturday to pick up Jerry and get to the airport for the 5am plane. Got stopped by a cop for not watching my speed in Plainview, but she let me off with a warning - finally. We arrive in Coz before noon, fortunately the first plane and sitting at the front (ah the benefits of the Elite program) so we were toward the front of the Immigration line. It's funny how Mexico makes a big deal about letting you in their country...
One more game to play with filing the Vans as they do insist on filling one full before leaving the airport. Got to our favorite little seaside hotel on the edge of town and checked in quickly enough then.
With the new Stingray encounter designed to appeal to the cruise ship tourists next door. We caught a nap, then Jerry suggested we do a shore dive before supper - good idea...
There's always been a lot of Rays hanging out on the sandy beach there, as everywhere, which is why you always want to shuffle feet in the ocean, never walk. I think they're neat - and I am so tired of people asking if that's what killed the Croc guy. No ray has ever attacked anyone, altho a few have defended themselves when bothered, and he did kill himself on one but the ray was not to blame...
I was delighted to see Urchins making a come back after nearly being wiped out in recent years by a disease that started around Panama - saw a lot of babies in the nursery this time...
Got to town for dinner at one of my favorite little places popular with locals. They thot it odd that I wanted coffee with dinner, as did Jer, but I was still dragging. Americans often have coffee after dinner, but this was a local place; they had some but gawd was it old. Hehe, a few days later Jer developed a lust of Iced Tea, even harder to find and we did a lot of restaurant shopping that week based on which few had brewed ice tea. Next time, I'll carry my own coffee as I did take a maker for the room - and I'll make sure Jer brings bags of his favorite flavor...
This time we did make an afternoon trip to the Myan temple that the natives came from all over the Yucatan to visit in honor of the fertility goddess. The hotel owner suggested we not bother, but we never had so did - he was right, but it was interesting. Jerry hired a little tour guide who I really thot was making up half of his story, but they got along well. I shot ruin and iguana pics..
Haha and the cutie who begged us for mosquito repellent, but I didn't think her BF would like me shooting her all afternoon...