So we ended up in Cozumel for our spring 2004 vacation. The choices were tough, but in the end we knew someday we’d visit all of our choices so we weren't overly concerned by the details. We arrived at the Scuba Club Cozumel on Saturday the 22nd of May ready for a week of fun in the sun. Although we neglected to capture any photographs of the resort, the web site they offer does a good job of showing what it looks like. We liked the resort layout as it seemed like every room had a view of the ocean, and our room did have a quality air conditioner. That is always a bonus when in the tropics! For the die-hard divers the resort offers unlimited shore dives - something I quickly came to appreciate.

I’ll save the scuba reviews for the scuba page, but we did spend the majority of our time underwater or attempting to get underwater. We spent the late afternoons walking the streets of Coz or searching for and having lunch in the authentic Mexican restaurants we received directions to from the dive staff.

Evenings were most often spent relaxing at the resort or night-diving off-shore from the resort after watching the sunset. Although beautiful, Kim and I both agreed the sunset from the west end of Negril is superior. Often we retired to bed early in anticipation of an early day of more diving.

Late Saturday afternoon after unpacking, making a shore dive to test our equipment and refresh our skills, we noted that my camera strobe was not working underwater. We set off on foot with the camera housing in hand headed up the main boulevard of Coz in search of the camera shop. Along the way I became familiar with the heat of Cozumel, and that “not too far” spoken in broken, accented English probably means “rent a cab.” However, it did provide us the opportunity to take some photos of the shoreline.

Tuesday evening Kim developed a rash which reportedly was caused by jellyfish stings. Poor Kim ~ first the fireworm in Jamaica and now jellyfish in Cozumel. I’m happy to report the jellyfish stings cleared up in a matter of the days (compared to the fireworm of Jamaica which took 6 weeks!).

Her sinus cold which developed only days before leaving for the trip seemed to be getting worse, and now my right ear was bothering me from trouble equalizing during the Tuesday evening night dive. We decided to take Wednesday off of diving and we rented a Jeep to make the tour of the island with hopes that we would both recover from the rest. It worked for me and I even made late afternoons dives Wednesday, but Kim was still pretty much a mess - but a trooper the whole way. She didn’t make many shore dives, but she didn’t miss a single boat dive.

The island tour was rather enjoyable, although the Mayan ruins of Cozumel and the lighthouse and park tour are really nothing more than tourist traps.

If you have time to kill and are generally bored you may enjoy this, otherwise you are likely best off avoiding them. The highlight of the island tour is driving along the miles of uninhabited coastline.

Minus a few bars which bring the drinks and ice with them daily (no electricity!) there are no settlements along the shore. This makes for some breath-taking scenery and a good chance to take some excellent photos. We were tempted to pull off and walk the shore, but after passing a Jeep similar to the one we rented and witnessing 4 tourists trying to dig it out of the sand, we decided it was best to not stop except for at the bars.

Thursday evening was the beach party featuring bland Mexican food and a piñata. Some drunk fellow was chosen to go first, but this was only to mock him. The piñata was hoisted higher than he could reach while we all got a good laugh. A female was chosen second, and although she got a couple good whacks in, no real damage was done. For some reason I was chosen third.

I tried to talk them out of it, but I suspect they thought I was drunk after drinking a couple beers. After hoisting the piñata out of my reach at first, they finally allowed me a chance. Blindfolded, I felt for the piñata with the bat I was provided. It made contact with the bat as it swung away from me. I guesstimated the path at which it would return, reared back and took a hard swing. I made direct contact and with that swing ended the fun for everybody by splitting the piñata and dropping all of its contents onto the beach. I tried to warn them…

Enjoy the rest of the photos! ~ 2004 Photo Album

If you would like to see photos from the dives please visit the Cozumel scuba page.

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