Isla Cozumel

Cozumel is Mexico's top diving destination. It's got some great dive sites, very competitive pricing, and high safety standards which makes this a great place to get that diving qualification on your way down South. To add to that you can rent a Volkswagen Beetle for the day and drive around the island. What's not to love?!

Getting There

To get to Isla Cozumel you need to take a ferry from Playa Del Carmen. Because there are a few companies that run there is a little more competition and therefore the prices a little cheaper. The closer you get to the ferry terminal the less likely you are to get ripped off. We got the Ultramar ferry for 150 pesos return each (don't lose the tickets for the return journey!). They have air-con on the boat and on the way back we even got a live band! The ferries are every hour til at least 9pm. Weirdly the competing ferries all leave at the same time, you'd think they would both do better if they went for different times.

From Piste we got a 12 o'clock Oriente bus to Vallidolid and then from there we had to wait and hour for another bus to Playa Del Carmen. We could have actually waited at Piste and got the same bus that came through Valladolid, which may have actually been cheaper. The bus from Valladolid to Playa Del Carmen actually goes all the way back through Coba, and Tulum and takes almost 3 hours. We got the bus from Valladolid around 2:30 and didn't get to Playa til 5:30pm. The bus drops you off at the ADO alternate station so you then need to get a taxi to the ferry teminal. We asked the bus driver how much that should be, he said around 50 pesos. We got offered 100 pesos at first but as we told them the bus driver had told us the price and they quickly caved to 50. We booked on the next ferry at 6 and jumped on the boat shortly after.

Where To Stay

Cozumel is actually larger than we expected. With pretty much only one town where all the hostels and hotels are - with the exception of slightly further north (where we stayed) that has a few hotels and hostels dotted up the beach. It's worth noting that the town doesn't have a beach! To get to the beaches from the town you will need your own transport.

We stayed at the "Beach Club Estate Hostel". It’s a hostel but more a family home which you share with the lovely Tina and Adolfo. Both are great characters, Tina will let you know how to behave around the house. She is firm but fair. Don't cause a mess and be open and honest, think of it as a shared home. Adolfo is great, he has his own dive school, and has some awesome stories too. They both have great advice about Cozumel and the surrounding area. It's a 110-120 peso cab ride from the main town though. Your own transport would come in handy. Tina can organise someone to drop a scooter or car off for you so don't worry too much.

Activities

• Diving - the number one place to dive in Mexico - and also very cheap
• Hire a Volkswagen Beetle!

Food

• The Museum Resturant - Great view and food
• La Choza - Awesome food, ask for "Menu Del Dia"

Journal

We were later than expected getting in to Playa. We were a little worried about getting the hostel late and Tina (the owner) really wanted to know what time we would get there. In hindsight this was because people often don't show up - her and Adolfo are the only people who work there and they have their own life to lead.

As we were getting on the boat the clouds started rolling in over Playa Del Carmen, the boat pulled away towards Cozumel and we were treated to a huge fork lightening show! The clouds were slowly coming towards Cozumel too so hopefully we'd get to the hostel before the heavens opened.

We got to the hostel bang on 7, and just as the heavens opened - we timed it perfectly. As we'd been in a rush to arrive we hadn't had time to go to a supermarket and stock up on food. The hostel doesn't have any shops or resturants nearby so it's well worth doing thing. As we hadn't had time to do this Tina suggested that we get takeaway delievered. Our options were sushi aaaand that was it. We were happy with Sushi though - anything but Mexican! Tina called the resturant for us - there is no way our Spanish was up to ordering food yet, and the food was delievered within about 40 minutes. It was nice to have something a bit different. Strangely they put cream cheese in everything though!

Day 1

The next day we decided what we wanted to do, the island is famous for diving and I was thinking of doing some but hadn’t decided yet.

We’d seen it was possible to rent Kate’s dream car (a Volkswagen Beetle) so we looked in to doing that for the day. Tina and Adolfo have some recommendations for people they like to use as they look after their cars a bit more and are less likely to rip you off. We used their recommendation but looked in to Isis rentals who are also apparently very good and cheaper, though the service we used included delivery of the car to the hostel which was a great bonus. We spent $50 USD which with the current exchange rate was $900 pesos. The man brought the car to the house which was very useful. It was $35 for the car and $15 for full insurance. Just remember you need to be able to drive a manual!

A very excited Kate

By the time we had sorted out the car it was already almost midday (it's amazing how quickly you get on to island time). We packed our bags and got going. Driving the car was fun, it was a convertible and sounded just as you expected - like it was going to breakdown at any second. You need the roof off as the petrol fumes seem to come in to the cabin. This was the case with Adolfo’s car too so it must just be a beetle thing… I drove because Kate hadn’t driven a geared car before.

We parked at MEGA supermarket in town first as it has free parking and went in search of breakfast and a coffee for Kate. It's about a 15 minute walk from MEGA to the town square and if you follow the road along the sea you will get accosted every two seconds to look in a shop or to buy a cigar. Reasonably annoying but they usually respect a "No Gracias".  We got breakfast at Cafe de Olla just off the main square - it has a big sign above it saying "Coz Coffee Roasting Company" that caught our eye. The food was good, and the coffee too. Though I still haven't found a good latte as every one uses long life milk. Walked around a bit more and got heckled by stall vendors before heading back to the car to drive around the island.

Exploring the main town

We started driving around the island and quickly thought we'd become lost - most of the maps aren't really to scale and it's a deceptively long drive until you find the coastal road on the other side of the island. Before we got there we stopped off at Playa Palancar. A lot of the beaches along the western side of the island have been turned in to parks that you need to pay for entry. Think waterparks and dolphin attractions rather than anything. We weren't interested in that so Playa Palancar was the one for us. It's free (though they say you need to be a paying customer), we just got a bottle of water and sat on the beach for a bit.

From there we went back to the road and followed along until we hit the coastal road, which is about another 10-15km. You get some great views with the car, but there is a cycle lane all the way round so you can’t get as close to the beach as you’d like. We stopped every couple of kilometers to get photos, though there weren't many people around to take pictures of us together so we had to just get pictures of each other.

We decided to wait and eat at "Coconuts Bar and Grill" which is one of the last stops before the turn off to get back to the town centre. It has a great view but the food wasn’t great. Again, I got a cheese burger as my stomach still wasn’t up to Mexican food. That was a late lunch, early dinner. We managed to get some cheesy photos of us and the car at this point...

On the way home we made use of the car and stopped off at the MEGA supermarket to get some food for breakfast and some snacks. On the way home the heavens started to open, we had to do some emergency maneuvers to stop and put on the roof!

We got back to the hostel and had a few beers while quizzing a new guest about the rest of central and south america. Very useful indeed.

Day 2

On the morning of Day 2 - and supposedly our last day we had some mango, melon for breakfast with yogurt, it was extremely tasty and cost effective. We'd spoke to Adolfo about Kate doing a taster dive to see if she's be interested in doing the open water certification. He allowed be to come along too for an extra 20 dollars. If Kate enjoyed the taster he'd also deduct the price of the session from her course so it was definitely a good deal.



Before we went diving we had time to give Kate a lesson driving a manual car, as she'd never done it before. The Beach Club Estate is a very quiet block perfect for a driving lesson. She was up and running in no time, and bar a few screams and a stall I'd say she had pretty much got it by our second lap of the block! She seemed pretty relieved at the end of it though...

Adolfo had sorted out for the owner of our car to come and pick it up from the diving centre. This was great as it allowed us to drive down there and not pay for a taxi which would be about 220 pesos!
Adolfo gave Kate a quick run through the diving equipment and we were in the water in no time. Kate was a little anxious at first but she handled it like a pro - and I guess once she was underwater she didn't really have a choice but to breath! I was really impressed with the fish we saw off the beach, within about 30 meters of the beach we saw quite a few cool fish, including a puffer-fish, stingray and an eel!

After the dive Adolfo gave us a lift in to town where we decided to go for lunch at the Museum. According to the Lonely Planet there was a nice restaurant on the second floor which we went an checked out. It was a really nice place, and it's got a very nice view of the sea too. Also, it has good wifi! After the restaurant we walked back to Mega to grab some food for dinner before heading back to the hostel.

We got back and it was around 4ish by that point, we decided to go and check out one of the hostels main draws. It's private beach. The beach is accessed by code so anyone on the estate can use it however we pretty much had it to ourselves and a few mosquitoes. The beach is really nice and quiet and even the sea seems to be calmer than everywhere else on the island. It's a great place for a swim and to watch the world go by. As the sun started to go down though we were joined by more and more mosquitoes and we decided to head back for dinner.

On the way back we saw a Raccoon, which also happens to be an endemic species to the island of Cozumel. They are a lot smaller than their mainland counterparts, and have a short nose making them very cute looking. Though just like their cousins they like to get food from the local bins which make many of the island dwellers think they are a pest.

At the hostel we had our first cooked dinner of the trip. a vegetable & egg noodle stir-fry. It was pretty tasty, and very, very cheap. All up costing around $100 pesos including some biscuits for dessert!

Kate causing a stir - fry - making our first cooked meal

We had a chat about our plans and decided to book another 2 nights at the hostel and for Kate to take the course. It was to be a very busy few days so we got an early night.

Day 3

It was up early for Kate to begin her Open Water Certification! Adolfo favours the NAUI certification, while I have an SSI. The most famous of course is PADI. When I originally did the SSI course the main advantage was that you didn't need to buy the book - so it was therefore cheaper... and also you didn't have to carry a massive book for the rest of the trip. NAUI seemed very similar to SSI so it was straight to studying - even though it was a Saturday!

Coffee and a rather large book on diving - which for some reason included some useful tips on booking plane tickets.

Adolfo took us down to the diving area we had used the day before for Kate to her practical exercises (things like taking your mask off, sharing air, etc). All the scary bits! I on the other hand sat cafe overlooking the practice area and made full use of the WiFi over coffee and biscuits (kinda like breakfast muffins)

Good blogging fuel!

After Kate had done all her exercises it was time for some real diving! She was going to come with us on the boat in the afternoon and do one of the easier dives with us. We'd asked Adolfo about diving together and he did his best to make it happen! We were heading out with some of the other people from the hostel.

The boat we used was a lot smaller than I was used to - it looked like avery old fishing boat and only really had space for about 10 people. Kate was a little worried getting in but Adolfo and Carlos (who is Adolfo's assistant) did their best to help and calm her - before we knew it we were swimming around the reef coming face to face with turtles! At one point Adolfo even showed us a cave that went through the reef which we swam through avoiding all the bits of coral. I really enjoyed it and though Kate was a little apprehensive she still showed me up by using hardly any of her air, while I used all mine - she's very calm under pressure, either than or she just forgets to breath...

Kate was all dived out for the day after that dive - it's also quite dangerous to do more than two dives in a short space of time - especially if you're new to the sport. So, for the next dive Kate waited on the boat while everyone else went down to explore a ship wreck - which was sunk on purpose to create an artificial reef. As we descended we could see it was quite a large boat, with lots of hatches and holes with shoals of fish swimming in and out of. We did a loop around the boat and took some pictures - Adolfo had lent me his GoPro - and at that point I though we'd be heading back. Before I knew it we were all following Carlos and Adolfo in and out of the boat - practicing our perfect buoyancy so as not to bounce of things. We explored lots of the ship and the shoals of fish looked incredible when viewed from the inside of the boat with the light of the sea outside. It was great fun and the pictures don't really do it justice. We headed up after about 40 minutes. We'd all really enjoyed it- though If I were to go again though I think I would wear gloves!

We headed back on the boat which took about half an hour. From there we got a taxi to the supermarket again to get some more food for dinner. Tuna and Avocado pasta this time. By the time we got back to the hostel however the busy day had caught up with Kate and she wasn't feeling well. I cooked up some dinner for me while Kate had another earlier night - it was going to be another big day of diving tomorrow!

Day 4

Day two of Kate's diving course. For this we again got up early and were heading out to do two morning dives. This time it was two drift dives. Kate's nerves had returned as is natural when diving for the first time. There is so much to remember and worry about when you first start out - especially as you don't know what is an issue or not. She held herself together very well however and before long we were drifting past turtles and even a nursing shark!

We had used the same boat as the day before - the worst part about it being a small boat is the splash from the waves - there was nowhere to hide and everyone got absolutely soaked. There was no escape so not only did we all get rather cold - I also got very sunburnt!

We got back in to the Marina around 3ish and we decided we'd go for an early dinner - Adolfo drove us around the main town and gave us a few recommendations of which  we went for La Choza. They served Mexican food but it was pretty different to what we'd had so far. Adolfo had told us to get the "Menu del Dia" - menu of the day, which is exactly what we did! It had far more interesting food than just tacos which we were excited to try and we ended up having dishes that were more like Casseroles and Stews. The Hibuscus Iced Tea was also really nice. We would highly recommend it!

Day 5

We were leaving today, though Kate still needed to complete her test to get fully certified. Adolfo sat with her for a couple of hours taking her through anything she might of missed or not fully understood. Before looking she had all the right terms and was completing dive tables with ease. Kate was officially a diver!

With that, it was time to head to our next island destination; Isla Mujeres.