Isla Cozumel

Isla Cozumel lies just off the eastern coast of Mexico, surrounded by the jade green waters of the Caribbean Sea. It is actually the largest Mexican island - a full 53km long and 14km wide… not exactly a place to explore fully on foot! But to be honest, the main reason to come here isn’t to see the island itself, but to explore some of its spectacular reefs.

Well, at least that’s why a lot of people come to Cozumel (us included). But in reality we were startled to see on our arrival that most visitors aren’t at all interested in diving or snorkelling – or even visiting the reefs in a glass bottom boat to avoid getting their hair wet! No, most people simply shop. And shop. And shop. And have a beer. Before doing yet more shopping.

The only town on the island is called San Miguel de Cozumel, and the main focus of the place is to grab as much money as physically possible from the billions of US tourists that pass through the place every day from the cruise liners. We have never seen so many gigantic cruise ships anywhere before – in the middle of town a pier provides docking space for two boats, and a little to the south of San Miguel you’ll find another larger dock that can take four of the monsters at once! So if you wander through town in the middle of the day it is swamped by middle aged, overweight tourists (complete with silly caps and bum-bags) making their way from one jewellery shop to the next along the sea-front. They manage to migrate away from the cruise ports just far enough inland to see the central plaza (i.e. one block!), waste loads of cash in the oodles of tacky souvenir shops nearby, and then head back towards the ports to slump into a karaoke bar. After the relative peace and quite of our Latin American travels we weren’t quite expecting this!

The effect of the cruise ships on San Miguel is amazing. Touts are everywhere hailing the cruise-people, everyone speaks English to you rather than Spanish, and even the prices in shops and restaurants are quoted in US dollars – we got quizzical looks from the locals when we asked to pay in Mexican Pesos! But strangely most the touts seemed to be able to tell that we aren’t interested in whatever they are selling – we were given far less hassle than any other non-Mexicans wandering about. Perhaps we were a) too young, b) too shabbily dressed, c) too thin and d) wearing no jewellery – i.e. far too poor to be worth pestering!

Anyway, apart from spending a fair amount of fascinating time watching the tourists from the cruise ships get ripped off, we devoted two mornings of our visit to diving. Unfortunately the conditions weren’t exactly optimal – reasonable winds on both days made the sea really choppy, decreased visibility, and ensured that we froze on the boat after the dive. But fortunately Isla Cozumel has particularly good visibility even in adverse conditions, and the wind couldn’t chill us to the bone when we were actually underwater! Oh, and of course the reefs themselves weren’t bad either. One of them had by far the most spectacular coral formations we’ve ever seen – towering masses of multicoloured coral separated by narrow channels perfect for swimming through. As you passed around and under the formations it was even more like exploring a completely different world than usual when diving – utterly stunning.

The marine life was brilliant at times too. OK, we didn’t see the huge numbers of sharks and fish that we did in Tahiti, although four sharks did swim by in the distance once. But we found big gruppas, long barracudas, large lobsters, a cleverly camouflaged flounder, a turtle, and loads of sting rays. The highlight of the dives was when a huge spotted eagle ray easily 2 m wide from wing to wing swam slowly past us only a few meters away. We’ve never had the privilege to watch one of these elegant monsters so closely before. I think we may need to take up underwater photography…

Anyway, now we move back to the mainland, taking a one hour ferry ride to the lively town of Playa del Carmen. This will be our last stop before Cancun and the flight home – our trip through Mexico has been brilliant, but it is passing far too fast!