Worst of Cozumel.

[MMM]

Heh. I found the same guy and bought a pink day-of-the dead scuba diver from him. My brother was really choked because I haggled a better price for the one I bought compared with the 6 or so he purchased....

Sometimes the hawkers can lead you to something worthwhile. A few years back we encountered a guy outside of la mission. I told him I would come in and look later, after lunch, to get rid of him. An hour later, he remembered my promise and I went in. Behind the crappy trinkets, an artist named Carlos makes batik shirts and other clothing. His theme is dia de los muertos and the art of Jose Posada. All handmade, one of a kind pieces. I bought a few of his shirts and commisioned a diver in the style of Posadas. We designed the piece together and he made it in a couple of days. He now features the diver on some of his items from time to time. I got lucky this time, as I usually just walk past and say not today.

I just realized which thread this is in. Please ignore this positive information. Mods- do what you must.

 

[gopbroek]

Cruise ships. I understand the tremendous economic input they bring to Cozumel and any other port they visit, but the downside is the ‘pulse’ schedules they operate and the volume of tourists they bring. As I understand it, the Cruise lines operate on the principle of any dollar (or any other currency) spent in port that does not come back to their company is a dollar lost. This causes them to schedule the visits short so that they may maximize the time on board which boosts the bar and casino revenue.
This creates a boom / bust economy of desperate tourists always pressed for time, which in the long term is detrimental to any port. To handle the sporadic daily invasions of thousands of desperate tourists there is an overabundance of street vendors, cabbies, restaurants, rental scooters, to handle the boom cycle but too many to survive the bust cycle. I have watched the vendors during the bust cycles and realized these are actually decent human beings trying to feed their families, and they put up with a lot of crap from tourists. The individual cabbies are caught in a similar system made worse by their union and corruption. There enough (x2) to support the Cruise ship ‘pulse’ but way too many after the ships pull out in the afternoon or non-Cruise ship days, but since many rent their cabs from the Union/Mafia leaders they have to come up with a daily ‘Vig’.
This sucks for everyone, the cruise tourists, the vendors and the shore based Scuba tourists, Expats and residents. The up side is that the cruise ship lines seem to be working on creating their own totally owned and controlled artificial ‘resort/ports factories’ on various ecologically sensitive islands (think of Las Vegas for the authenticity factor), so that they can ‘keep the sheep in a controlled environment and shear them to the skin’ and avoid pulling into any non-company ports.

 

[lindenbruce]

I think it was my second trip to Coz. Went with a small group of friends and we stayed at some bungalows just up the street from either Aldora or one of the re-compression chambers. This was a few days after Thanksgiving and about three or four weeks after that big hurricane that laid waste to the area. I think it was Katrina but don't quote me on that. Anyway, the bungalows were nice except for one small detail. The hot water tank didn't work. So we were forced to take cold showers for nearly the whole week. I know it could have been worse. But it IS a real bummer to not have a hot shower you know. B.

 

[ggunn]

...that big hurricane that laid waste to the area. I think it was Katrina...

That would have been Wilma, later the same year as Katrina. That year is the only year I know of when they ran out of letters for named storms and had to go to Greek letters.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

That would have been Wilma, later the same year as Katrina. That year is the only year I know of when they ran out of letters for named storms and had to go to Greek letters.

Yep. I remember, I took direct hits from both of those storms.

 

[lionfish-eater]

Nice find 3M. The skull faces are day of the dead items. The skeletal drawings are different. They are a tribute to the work of Jose Posada, a Mexican artist/satirist/political commentator. He should be more famous. Many are familiar with the image of Catrina but do not know it was Posada's work. Here is a link to his more popular pieces.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jos...IpK5sQSChoHYDg&ved=0CJYBEIke&biw=1092&bih=533

http://www.inside-mexico.com/posada.htm

 

[Diver Kat]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish there was better shopping. I'm NOT a shopper, but when I go down I'd be happy to spend my holiday money on gifts, but there's not much quality. I've found a few shops for dishware, and there are a couple of honest jewelry places, but most of it's junk. I love how you can walk by some of the storage places and see them stuffed with boxes from China, all filled with the same 'handmade' Mexican trinkets.

Yeah, I have to mostly agree. About the only place I shop these days is the original location of Los Cinco Soles. If you bypass all the standard 'made in China' trinkets they do carry some great quality Mexican-made pottery, good quality jewelry, and even some very nice Mexican-made clothing. The other thing we brought back - that we both love - is some original artwork from a lady that sells her paintings in the Plaza in the evenings. She paints beautiful mountain village scenes from the mainland. It starts to look really sad when you're customs declaration list 2 bottles of liquor and maybe $20-$30 of other 'stuff' you're bringing back into the country, lol!

My biggest pet peeve is how much it cost to get there ,but that has nothing to do with Coz LOL

Since moving to AL, we've realized fares are much higher from here than TX, which really sucks. That, along with the general increase in airfare prices will probably limit us to one Coz trip a year .... which is really depressing! :depressed:

 

[bayeloi]

My worst experience in Cozumel was entirely my fault. We flew down to Cozumel just in time to get hit by Hurricane Wilma (don't ask...the hurricane center said it was going to Cuba before we left). Spent two days huddled in a hotel bathroom and 5 more days waiting on a flight home. I was amazed several times though by the different merchants we dealt with. Casa Mexicana ended up only charging us $6/day for our stay despite being one of the first places on the island to get their generator and water plant running. Lots of people would have willingly paid hundreds of dollars to get what we had at that point. Christi gave us a credit to be used when we came back for the diving. When we went to book to come back, she told us that the hotel rates were cheaper on our package that we booked through her than they had been when we originally paid, and tried to offer us a refund. I was amazed...I know times were tight for everybody down there after the storm and Christi was spending plenty to get her boats back in shape, and she wanted to give me money back if I came down to dive.

All in all, it was a difficult experience to go through, but watching the people pull together to get San Miguel back together was an entirely different experience than watching the aftermath of Katrina, and I gained alot of respect for the residents and merchants in Cozumel as a result.

The people of Cozumel are a hardworking resourceful group of folks. They can make something awesome out of nothing and even make it look good. But to compare Cozumel's experience with Katrina is just ignorant. I rode out Katrina and put our lives back together afterwards. Katrina destroyed and devastated an area the size of the United Kingdom. The VAST majority of people all the way up and down the Gulf Coast pulled together, worked together and helped each other out unlike anything I have ever seen before or after. Folks in St Bernard Parish were out rescueing their neighbors and bringin em to the Northshore LONG before any first responders showed their face. CNN and the other's did a fine job of making everyone in Louisiana look like hapless victims. It's a constant sore spot with me. I live in Houston now and SOOOOO many Houstonians are very judgemental about what went on during and after Katrina when they really don't have clue one about what they're talking about. These storms hurt and affect the very poorest of our citizens worse than anyone else. I can assure you that if a storm as bad as Katrina hit Houston (Ike wasn't even close) CNN and their buddies would make Houston look MUCH worse.

Now take it back or I'll put a crab in yer wetsuit!!!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

While few died (only one) the people of Cozumel all worked night and day (most without pay) for 30 days to restore the island. These two photos show it all;First the aftermath, then the sign on the Coral Princess which translates to--"We were in the eye of Wilma, now we are in the eyes of the world. Lets show them our great strength and how much we love our beautiful island".

 

[bayeloi]

Don't get me wrong Dave, I wasn't taking anything away from Cozumel. Ya'll earned and deserve every accolade that could be given for your recovery efforts. I know all too well what ya'll have to deal with. I just get tired of hearing people make folks from Louisiana look like a bunch of helpless blobs based on what they saw on the news. Back to topic, there's really nothing that I would call the worst of Cozumel. The best part of Cozumel is the people that live there. It's these people that make Cozumel the place that I always love coming back to.