Our Coz Trip and Unforgettable Cab Driver

[DandyDon]

Pic albums link at bottom​

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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

 

[Rustydiver]

As always, great write up and awesome pics/video. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Christi]

Hey Don,

Just FYI for future reference.

The cabs do charge for each stop and for waiting...even though they are not SUPPOSED to wait for anyone. They can get in trouble for that from the union bosses, but given that you had luggage...there's probably some exception to that waiting rule. I agree though, even with that...$18 was inflated unless he waited for you for a long time.

Also, there is and always has been a surcharge for luggage...although some cabbies may not enforce it if you are tipping them too.

 

[ggunn]

Just for balance, here's another cab driver story:

My family has an old friend on the island whom we have known for more than 30 years. In the past several years he has been battling Parkinson's disease and his wife has died, and the younger folks in his family have been sharing the formidable responsibilty for his care. Every time we go to Cozumel, we attempt to find him to see how he is doing and to pass him a few bucks.

On a recent trip there my wife and I had an address in town where he was supposed to be, so we caught a cab at the hotel and gave the driver the address. He took us there, but our friend was not there. No one at the address spoke English and our collective Spanish was nowhere near good enough for us to communicate with them. The driver saw our dilemma and got out and talked to those folks, who gave us another address. He took us there, and we encountered the same situation and got yet another address. The third one was the charm. The driver took us there and patiently waited while we had our short visit with our friend and then took us back to the hotel.

I asked the driver how much, and he asked for $10. I gave him $20. He went way above the call to help us out.

 

[DandyDon]

We had pretty good luck with the cabbies this time, and since there is no longer a 10% bonus to them when we pay in Dollars we started tipping a little. One took us to town for lunch, then came back an hour later for us (we requested 45 minutes but he got tied up), then took us to the ruins east of town where he waited for a couple of hours, then back to Caribe Blu - all for a pre-trip negotiated $40. We gave him $45.

We didn't think we needed to negotiate this trip. I should have dropped Jer off at the store and said "I'll be at the ferry with bags," but then he put up a lot with me too. Too old farts traveling and diving with like we did for 9 days - we both were stressed at times and I can be a bit much to put up, I know. See summary in final trip chapter on Holbox.

The young fellow with the polo shirt saying "Tourist Assistant" or something like that was very courteous and helpful. Next time I'll drop Jer off at the store on the way to the hotel on day-1.

 

[Shepman]

I think all Coz vets have had fantastic times with great cabbies. Most of us have also encountered the odd "no cambio" cabbie.

The trick with the bags charge is an import from puerto Rico. Those cabbies in San Juan will charge you 3 different costs for your bags. Carrying 'em, handling 'em & in one case for the "storage" at the hotel I was picked up at!

I had to explode and get crazy to avoid my first $50 cab ride when not in NYC to get out of that one.

The worst Coz cabbie would be a little angel in San Juan.

 

[DandyDon]

Haha, New York City. Would you believe I once had a cab driver there tell me I'd overtipped him and gave half of it back. For real. I guess he was new too.

I suppose a charge for the bags is ok; never had one before so didn't know to ask - not that I was in a position to dicker leaving the hotel. $3 for the run from Caribe Blu to the store, $3 for waiting, $3 for the next fun to the ferry, $4 for bag = $13 I paid - I guess it was okay.

My dive bud was off at the bank, later said he would have just paid the $18. I started to say "If would have been nice if you'd packed for this trip, or done your shopping sooner," but like I said - he put up with a lot from me too.

Next time, I'll know to ask more maybe - and tip the nice ones more...