A time-share condo salesman, whom I don't recall having ever seen
before, was peddling his wares at the Square next to the Las Palmeras
restaurant.  Obviously not having much success with his pitch to us,
he said, "I know EVERYTHING on this island."

I ceased upon the opportunity and countered, "Do you know my name?",
to which he surprised me with a knockout-punch, "You're Mr. Ling."  I
was speechless.  :-)


The IVA tax is apparently back, by law.  The "Value Added" tax is one
of those ill-defined tax in Cozumel I thought restaurants only tried
to charge clueless tourists, as I had been charged that only twice in
14 years, and each time when I protested, the restaurant cashier/waiter
withdrew the charges.  Not this time, in La Chosa, a fairly well-known
restaurant.  According to Albert (PRIMA) whose menu now says the IVA
tax is INCLUDED in the menu prices, that it is ILLEGAL (for La Chosa)
to charge it as a separate item on the restaurant bill.  Whatever it
is, included or not included in the FOOD prices, it's apparently an
added cost for tourists (that is now enforced) since early this year,
according to the La Chosa waiters.


I saw several boats of Black Shark divers the past several days.  They
seemed to have adopted the recipe of several dive shops of starting at
10:00 am, and picking up divers from the ferry from Caucun and Playa
del Carmen.  The ferry pier how has several SMALL piers attached to it,
specifically built for diveboats and snorkel boats to pick up passengers
directly from the ferry as they disembark.


The turtles that had always been around Columbia and the southern reefs
have been fished out, according to some DMs.  A couple of them are still
there, but definitely not as commonly seen as before.


Paso del Cedral (and its big groupers and green eels) is no longer a
second-dive favorite.  The seahorses and their abundance seem to be the
current rage, for second dives.  The southern walls, the Palancar Reefs
and the Santa Rosa Wall are still the first-dive favorites.  I noticed
that the walls below 100 fsw (to 200 fsw and below) seem to have MUCH
POORER visibility than I had ever seen before.  They used to be crystal
clear by 150 fsw, but now they are worse pea-soup-like than their
shallower counterpart on bad viz days.  I haven't heard any theory
about this new phenomenon.  I hope it's a passing one.


These are among the recent surprises to me, in Cozumel.

So far, 8 consecutive days of near-perfect weather for diving (sunny
above; 83-85F water-temp below; mild current; good (though not great)
vis.  Hope this holds out two more days.  :-)

-- Bob.