While waiting for my plane conection at the IAH airport, here are a few
tidbits about what I noticed as "new" in Coz since I was there in July:

10.  The port has been CLOSED to big and small dive boats ever since
     I had stopped diving on this trip.  :-)  Norte has hit!  My trip was
     perfectly timed.  Caught the 4-day window of great diving.  It was
     rainny on the day of my arrival andays before.  And now ...  Chuck,
     Crusty, Bjorn, and John ... better ask Santa or the new Millennium
     to bring you some decent dive weather.   :)

 9.  You're now charged to enter just about EVERYTHING.  Even the ban~o
     on the Downtown Square had an admission fee.  :-)  Now it costs
     $10 pp USD to enter the Chankanaab Park.  It costs $5 USD to enter
     the Playa Sol beach from land (where our dive boat stopped for
     surface interval everyday, without charge).

 8.  It costs $5 USD pp to drive to the Lighthouse at Punta Sur (the
     LAND part, which is several miles from the Punta Sur dive site).

 7.  The 4-lane highway (starting from La Ceiba hotel to the southern
     tip of the island, now named Punta Sur) is mustly completed.

 6.  KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is gone.  So, you can no longer use the
     KFC sign as the point to locate the Bahia Hotel.  :-)

 5.  PRIMA restaurant has undergone a facelift last month.  New front
     with bar;  new tables and chairs, and other innovations.  Same
     old expense PRICE.  :-)  Almost felt guilty eating a Caribbean
     King crab (@275 pesos or about $30) there.

 4.  The eagle rays are coming.  The eagle rays are coming.  Saw at
     least one in everyone of the last 5 dives.

 3.  Judging from the boat traffic at the Pro Dive / Aldora piers,
     Blue Bubble seemed to have taken over the top spot in the most
     number of dive boats going out (during this admittedly low
     season for diving).  3 or more every morning.  No other shop
     had more than 2.  Black Shark had none during my entire stay.

 2.  Blue Bubble shop is now at where Scuba Du was at the Coz99NEDfest.

 1.  There is now a WRECK (sank a month ago) at the Balones.  Don't
     know which navy or what kind of boat it is (C-35 was all I could
     see in the label).  Hull at 70-75 fsw.  Huge openings cut for
     easy penetration from the top deck.  The first and only true
     WRECK in Coz!  The marine life is just beginning to show at a
     few scattered spots, but the wreck itself is in excellent shape,
     much better than the Russian Wreck of Cayman Brac when it was
     newly sank (before it was broken by the hurricane).