A Better Cozumel, MX Experience

By Moez Sghaier

December 14, 2023 1:12 p.m.

Even though my experience travelling to Cozumel, Mexico happened some 10 years ago, it could have been way more interesting if more attention had been given to a few details.

Get you tip ready if you’re going to dive!

After a first dive in the hotel swimming pool, then near the seashore with a few meters deep, it was time to dive into the second most important coral reef in the world behind the Great Barrier Reef in Australia: Cozumel Coral Reef in Mexico. I went to the morning appointment to meet the instructor who was going to introduce me to the boat small team and to remind me to tip them. The tip was ready but there wasn’t any sort of box or similar on the boat to keep my belongings in when I was about to dive. So, there was no choice for me but to take the US$ banknotes with me under the water with the hope for them to stay dry under the diving suit!

No seafood on the regular menu!

I stayed a week in a hotel on the island of Cozumel, Mexico. I was very excited to eat some fresh seafood at lunch or dinner time; not even a single day, unfortunately. ‘Is there a reason why there is no seafood on the menu?’, I asked the hotel staff. They said, ‘If you’d like to eat seafood, you have to go to the à la carte restaurant.’ And my diving instructor gave me a bit of a similar answer: ‘If you’d like to eat seafood, you have to go to one of the restaurants located nearby your hotel.’ I dreamed to eat some fresh fish or seafood on my regular lunch or dinner while I was in Cozumel until I decided to go to the à la carte restaurant!

Long pants to get to the à la carte restaurant!

At this point, I was still hoping to eat some fresh seafood, but I had to overcome an obstacle: how to get to the à la carte restaurant without long pants? I pretended I was on vacation and didn’t have any long pants with me. ‘We can lend you long pants if need be,’ a staff member told me. It was 2012 way before the COVID time. ‘No need,’ I said. ‘I’ll do as if I’m travelling back to Calgary, AB and dress as if I’m going to the airport.’ I dressed for the à la carte restaurant and to my surprise, there wasn’t any fresh fish or seafood to be grilled. There was only some breaded fish if I wanted. Most probably because the fish wasn’t fresh enough to be grilled. So, making it breaded would hide some imperfections!

No touching the sea creatures while diving!

I wasn’t quite satisfied with not getting some fresh seafood at the hotel. Again, I was surprised while diving as well. A green turtle passed by, I just tried to touch its shell with my finger. The submarine photographer waved to me under the water to ‘keep my fingers for myself’. Of course, this underwater ‘incident’ didn’t undermine my diving experience facing a 20-meter high coral reef standing like a great wall under the sea surface! That scene was so majestic that all the other details and experiences seemed paltry!

Bring a team to play beach volley!

I discovered a spot on the hotel beach to play beach volley. I have always liked playing volleyball since my school days and was excited to play some volley on that beach. To my surprise, one of the staff told me: ‘To play, you need to bring your team with you.’ It was a real challenge for a solo traveler to gather a team of 5 players beside me to pretend playing some beach volley. I said: ‘I don’t have any other players with me.’ He replied, ‘Then wait until another team comes and if they need a player, you can join them.’ Luckily, I was delighted to finally find a team in that boiling hot afternoon to play some beach volley!

A passport was needed to borrow snorkeling gear!

Remember no touching of any sea creature under the water, obviously no fishing too. The only thing left was to borrow some snorkeling gear from the hotel and snorkel nearby the seashore. The question was: How to get the snorkeling gear? Anyone needed to have a proof of who they were to borrow the necessary gear. Saying or showing that you were a resident of the hotel, and your room number wasn’t enough. You needed to show an official document with a photo ID to the satisfaction of the snorkeling gear keeper. I wish I had my driver’s license with me as it wasn’t affected if soaked. But if you used your passport, it could be soaked in a place where the shopkeeper couldn’t guarantee it didn’t get wet. Luckily, the snorkeling gear keeper was careful enough to keep my Canadian passport dry so I could use it to travel back to Canada!

No sunscreen while swimming with the dolphins!

That was a real challenge for someone who came from Canada. Dolphins were kept in a closed space in the sea. And a few times a day, tourists were invited to swim with them. Of course, everyone had to follow some safety measures, which was quite understandable. But approaching the dolphins without applying any sunscreen beforehand was not so much understandable. The reason was that the sunscreen could harm the dolphins. So, what was the solution then? There wasn’t any this time as staying without sunscreen with your bare skin for someone from Canada wasn’t going to happen no matter swimming with the dolphins could bring of joy, excitement, and happiness!

No keeping the room safe key at the reception!

There was a safe ‘strategically’ hidden somewhere in the room for the hotel guests to keep their valuable belongings safe. That was a very nice idea as some of the hotel staff could enter the room while the guest was elsewhere. But once the valuables safely deposited in the well-hidden room safe, what could a guest do with the key especially if he/she decided to go swimming, snorkeling, or the like. So, the most logical idea was to go to the hotel reception to ask them to keep it along with the room key. And here came the surprise: The hotel reception staff was not allowed to keep any safe key from any hotel guest. What could a guest do then to keep a room safe key safe? Either swim with it or leave it hidden but unattended on the beach!