TravellingTiki: Isla Cozumel y Cumpleanos

Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico

TravelTiki Jobu / Marlin is happy to FINALLY get to go on a trip!

Originally, for Mark’s big-0 birthday, we were going to go scuba dive Truk Lagoon (site of many WWII wrecks of Japanese ships and planes.) But Linda messed with the schedule thinking, well…why don’t we hook that to our Asia travels since it IS half way across the world? (That pesky project management mindset again….)

Hmmm...Why not go to Cozumel again? We have been there together twice prior, and Linda’s first visit was in 1987. Before the cruise ships. The diving is among the best in the world, and hey…we live in Mexico now, so it’s easy. We invited our friends who dive and ONLY ONE decided to join us!? Randy came to do a scuba refresher course. Son John, also joined, as he was itching to break in his new passport.

So upfront admission: we’re not big cruise ship fans. It’s not that we’ve been on one or anything, it’s just that we’ve seen what happens to the character of a place (usually an island we’ve visited) when 6+ ginormous ships turn up and disgorge thousands of people in various states of undress looking to drink, ride jetskis and giant inflated bananas, and apparently shop at the same stores in every port. Ick. (That said, we do plan to use cruise ships in the future to “reposition” ourselves cheaply.)

And though we warned John that there is not much to do on Cozumel unless you dive, he was game. So we decided first to show him the cruise ship touristy places to get that out of the way. Yes, Senor Frog’s. Home of racy signs, and yard long margaritas.

We decided to stay in an Airbnb condo with a pool, that oddly enough we had looked at with a real estate agent 2 years ago. (Mark wanted to buy, Linda reminded him of our vow not to buy.) It was nice, well-located (walkable to much of the main town), and had air conditioning. Although the heat and humidity wasn’t too bad this time of year.

Yes, we had some good dives
(turtles, spotted eagle rays, sharks, some fish schools,)
though the algae is definitely making an impact. And on one dive Linda saw 5 lionfish, which is really not good, as they eat ALLLL the other little fish and reproduce quickly. They are not native to the Caribbean and we want ALL of you to ask for it at your next seafood meal!! It is a very tasty flaky white fish. That’s the best way to make a species endangered, we’ve found. [Picture credit ActionQuest and link to article]