When was Puerto de Abrigo built?

[El Graduado]

Aníbal De Iturbide Preciat was the man responsible for building the Puerto de Abrigo in Cozumel in 1967, which he used to convince the Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans to make Cozumel the finish line for the Regatta al Sol instead of Isla Mujeres. To build the harbor, the multi-millionaire banker had a landlocked, abandoned, sascab (caliche, or limestone) quarry west of the airbase excavated and then opened it to the sea. The whole operation (dredging, installation of docks, benches, and access road took less than a year. Later, Aníbal retired to live full-time at his Cozumel vacation home to be able to dive whenever he wanted and built the "castle" at the north end of the harbor. Read more about this man and his connection to Cozumel's early dive industry in my book, "Cozumel's Golden Years," available on Amazon.