Isla Cozumel Warnings and Dangers

When swimming at the beaches of Cozumel, beware of the coral beds! I was coming out of the water on this very beach. The water was to my knees, so I stood up to walk out of the sea. When I did, I stepped on a coral bed - my big toe punctured the coral and stuck, my body lurched forward, and long story made short - I fractured my big toe in TWO places!

I'm not sure what I could have done differently - even wearing Aquasox wouldn't have saved me this time. Just be aware that the coral is there, and use caution when coming out of the water.

To whom it may concern:

On Saturday, October 23, 2009, my wife Kathy and I disembarked the Royal Caribbean “Enchantment of the Seas” at the port of Cozumel, Mexico. We rented a Jeep from EZ Car Rentals and toured the island. I was extremely careful and stayed on the secondary access roads most of the time. At about 3 pm, as we approached the city of San Miguel on the Cross Island Road, we were pulled over by a “policeman on a scooter.” He said he had poor English but communicated that the speed limit changed at a speed bump and that we were going 50 kmph in a 40 kmph zone. He requested that we follow him to the police station to receive a ticket. Well, cars and scooters were zooming by us before he stopped us, signage is very poor, and all he produced as proof of being a police officer was a dirty polo shirt he was wearing with a police insignia. A valid concern we had was where could he lead us? This could’ve been a bandit. My wife finally explained that we needed to get to the cruise ship to catch the departure. He finally demanded $40 cash to be paid to him for a ticket. Of course we received no ticket or receipt, never saw a badge, radar, or gun. This incident ruined our day and left us with a very poor impression of Cozumel. The entire beautiful ocean cannot wash away the stain of taking advantage of tourists. This behavior will ruin Cozumel’s tourist industry in the long run. Is that worth $40?

Patrick McNulty
plmcnulty@hotmail.com

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It appears that parking spaces are scarce, if not nonexistent. The main avenue was full and not spots, and secondary street in did not allow parking. Maybe some residential parking can be found some blocks back off the water beach area?

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The vehicles did not seem totally jammed while we were her-but this is February. Our taxi driver took some diversions and back streets to avoid the backup of traffic jam on the Ave Rafael Melgar (main street), both coming and going. Without not knowing how, a person may get caught up in a long wait

After 7pm you can not park anywhere near the beach front (not sure if it's just around San Miguel, Cozumel). We came back after dinner to find our scooter had been impounded by the police. To be honest I think they usually charge tourists whatever they like, as a local said we'd have to pay quite a bit to get it released but because by boyfriend had Mexican family they let us off.

This is common sense, keep yourself hydrated. It was unbelievably hot down there! My mom ended up having to go lay down due to heat exhaustion. so, drink water, if you start to feel wierd, sit down or jump in the ocean for a cool off.

This didn't happen to me, but my brothers best friend who was with us.
My bro and him rented jeeps to drive around the island, he ended up getting pulled over for not wearing a seat belt and the police were about to arrest him, he was going to have to stay on the island. this was horrible because we were with a ship, and he basically would have been stranded. but thankfully his wife knew enough spanish (and she cried) to get them out of it. So, WEAR YOUR SEAT BELT!!!!

I have never went to such a place where the men were so openly vulgar towards females. My sisters, my mother and I decided to do some shopping in the main square and were verbally assaulted left and right. We were not dressed in a way that would have invited these leering comments. We were even BARKED at by one man-YUCK!!!