December Diving in Cozumel--Island Time

 Island Time

Three days into the trip I decided to offgas and skip the afternoon dive. High winds were going to limit the choice of dive locations. I wandered around town with another diver from our group. Cozumel has four sectors. The only city on the island, San Miguel de Cozumel, and her beach area houses the hotels, while the center city caters to tourists with hundreds of small establishments that seem to sell the same things at the same prices, the residential areas, and the rest of the island. We visited two churches and wandered around the residential sector with its colorful houses that bordered the tourist area.

Many of the residences are surrounded by high walls capped  by broken glass bottles cemented directly into the wall.  I guess this acts as a deterrent to wall jumpers and seems much more aesthetic than barbed wire and probably just as effective.

The city’s Christmas pageant was planned for that evening in the central plaza which borders the ocean and bisects the commercial section. The plaza does attract performers and artisans. Its interesting to see American tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of the waterfront monument not realizing it is a memorial to those who fought the American invasion of 1847.  Other monuments dot the city.  We found on such monument to Benito Juarez Garcia, President of Mexico and leader of the resistance against the French occupation under Maximillian is also prominent.

 

I stop to observe an artist using stencils and paint spray cans to create "reef art"  The pictures are very colorful and attractive even if done in a paint-by-numbers fashion.  He charges $5 per picture, or 3 for $10.  He offers to make a picture while I wait. I accept his offer, amazed at how fast he completes the picture.  Nearly 20 years later that image enhances my home decor.  I did have a semi-custom frame made for it.  The frame cost nearly 20x as much as the painting.

As we stroll through the plaza, an American stops us and strikes up a conversation to gage our interest in buying time share condominiums on the island.  She offers the inducement of a free meal just to listen to a presentation at a nearby hotel the next day.  I say that I am not interested because I am diving all day and then packing for an early departure.  Time share or "fractional" ownership is ok for some people, but not everyone.  I also know from speaking to people that foreign ownership of coastal property is limited or require an arrangement with the Mexican financial institutions.  Even then, I recall that a few years before several U.S. citizens lost their homes near Ensenada when the court ruled the land had been illegally taken and returned it to the rightful owners.  The Americans lost everything with no recourse.  But, the bottom line is that I am not a time share type person.  It works for some, but not for me.

Cozumel, much like other islands, was a diver-driven tourist economy. But, a constant stream of cruise ships seems to be changing the economy to one that caters to a mix with an upscale emerging sector leaning towards servicing the cruise ship passenger. One night there were seven cruise ships at the port. Globalization is seen in the chain night clubs that have taken root including Senior Frogs, TGI Friday, the Hardrock Cafe (smallest one in the chain), and so on.  They even have a Pizza Hut that delivers, but from boxes bolted to the back of motor scooters rather than from cars. McDonalds completes the branding of the tourist area.  Luckily, we dined at one of local restaurants where the food was excellent and the pace slow.

End of the trip

We got blown out of diving on our last day on the island by high winds.  It reminded me of my Baja trip 14 years earlier. We took advantage of the cancellation to do "island stuff" wander around town, rent motor scooters for ride around the island, and just hang out.

We left the island on Thursday morning and went diving in the cenotes on the mainland that have been developed for diving (that is, with permanent guide lines installed and ladders down into the cenote to reach the water). We went to Hidden Worlds Jungle Adventures. This freshwater diving was fascinating. We did two tanks. The shorter dive lasted about 40 minutes the longer dive lasted about 50 minutes. It is much more interesting than cave diving in Florida because of the stalagmites and stalactites. These are guided tours, more a matter of keeping the small group (four divers per guide max) from getting lost. I found this diving most intriguing, not having done anything like it before.

Returning to Anchorage

We left Cancun on Friday, getting into Anchorage early Saturday morning. Apparently, it had snowed every day we were gone. The morning’s paper indicates that the storm that dumped up to 10 inches was unexpected. Luckily, I managed to avoid must of the recent activity. On my way home from the airport as I drove up the street toward my house past the mounds of plowed snow I wondered "how much higher can they pile it before it has to be hauled away?" A lot higher I found out.