We went to Cozumel in 2005 for our tenth wedding anniversary and instantly fell in love with the island. So much so, that when we had to opportunity to bid on a one week trip package during a charity silent auction, we jumped on it! For a mere $400.00 we got a week at the Coral Princess just north of town. We were shocked that airfare had doubled since our trip there last year though.

Getting there
It was like Planes, Trains & Automobiles. We drove from Jacksonville to Miami then flew into Cancun through MEXICO CITY!!! Look at a map. It's like flying from Miami to Atlanta with a stopover in Chicago. Saved us $400 per ticket though, and we've got more time than money. Next was the bus from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen. I'm pretty sure Cancun is not an island, but the bus runs on island time. It left 45 minutes late. We got off the bus in Playa and ran to the ferry just in time to see it leave...5 minutes early! So we got tickets on the next one (another company) that was supposed to leave in about 1/2 hour. It left 20 minutes late and was PACKED. What luck. At least they sell beer, so the spousal unit was happy.

On Island
The rest of the trip was as good as our first one. The hotel was spectacular. Very clean, comfy beds, great service with a friendly staff and some pretty cool snorkeling off their pier. We saw many fish and bunches of tiny crabs. My only complaint was location. We love being in town. After diving, we'd catch a cab back to the hotel, shower, change and head immediately back downtown. It was only a $3.00 cab ride, but it wasn't very convenient. It's nice to walk to the room, take a shower, walk downtown, eat, buy stuff, go back to the room and take a nap. Walk back, drink, eat some more, buy some more etc. I'm staying within walking distance of town here after. If this is unimportant to you, then I can highly recommend the Coral Princess, we loved the actual hotel itself.

Topside Stuff
We ate at all our favorites (La Choza, French Quarter, Prima, Guidos) and found a new one thanks to Christi at Blue XT~Sea, El Pique. What a great taco meal, and it was just this side of free. Excellent quality, friendly people (although none of them spoke English, so brush up a bit on your food vocabulary, I don't think I would have enjoyed the Cabeza de Rez tacos, even though they sound good in Spanish. We also took the obligatory trip to Mezcalito's and Coconuts. The square was quite in the evenings, but the weather was perfect to take a stroll.

Here's a video of some of our topside fun:

Diving
Hey, it's what we all come for, right? I dove with Blue XT~Sea again, and it was even better than 2005. Why? Because my wife had gotten certified since that trip, so we got to dive together! Everyone is pretty aware of all the great spots, so I'm not going to go into detail, but I did see my first eagle rays at Columbia Deep! I was so excited.

If you want to experience our dives a bit, here's the video (including the trip down...skip to 1 min 15 sec. to get right to the diving.)

Conclusions
Are you kidding? Go! Go right now, you won't be disappointed. I realize this trip happened a year ago, but I remember it like yesterday, and figure it's a good way to test out embedding video in the trip reports. Besides, I leave on Nov 17, 2007 to go back again and I'm stoked.