Jimm Budd's World

Cozumel and the Moon Goddess

by Jimm Budd

Flat as a tortilla floating in a tequila-clear sea, Cozumel lies in the Caribbean about 20 kilometers off Playa del Carmen, some 100 kilometers from Cancun. About five kilometers wide, 50 kilometers long, it is Mexico’s biggest island.

         Debarking from the ferry, I hardly recognized the place. Even at noon, the malecón (seaside promenade) glittered. On the plaza, Morgan’s – my favorite elegant restaurant, the one named for the pirate –is gone, but now Cozumel has a Margaritaville, and if ever any place was Margaritaville it is Cozumel.

         The island is where the Mexican Caribbean began and, some claim, remains the Mexican Caribbean at its best. In the distant past, Maya maidens are said to have made pilgrimages to Cozumel where they would beseech the Moon Goddess to find them a mate. The custom apparently has been revived, although the maidens no longer are Maya. I overheard one young woman in San Antonio gush to another that Cozumel is where the hunks gather, “Good-looking guys, and most of them are straight.”

         Scuba diving is what lures in these studs. Beneath the tequila-clear waters lie chunks of the longest barrier reef this side of Australia. The reef chunks teem with life, everything from worms and lobsters to colorful tropical fish. Here the first underwater warriors trained during the Second World War and later dive guru Jacques Cousteau declared there to be no place better to view sea creatures than below the waves off Cozumel.

         Long before Cancun was a glint in any eye, when Quintana Roo was not a state and no one had heard of the Maya Riviera, Cozumel had a Presidente Hotel (now an Inter-Continental Presidente) with Mexicana flying in vacationers every day. Most of them came to dive. Today diving is but one of many attractions. During the winter months, three of four huge cruise ships arrive every day and the stores where their passengers shop are spectacular.

         Many years ago an individual I took to be an ambitious small businessman told me something of the recent history of the island. I had been told to look for this Nassim Joaquin, since he was, back then, in charge of operations for Mexicana Airlines on Cozumel. At the airport I found he was busy supervising the unloading of luggage. It would be better if I looked for him at the hotel Playa Azul.

         At the hotel I found him busy again, this time registering guests. He suggested I stop by later at his store, which turned out to be an emporium selling Danish butter cookies, American breakfast cereals and other duty-free items in this era before globalization. Don Nassim rang out the sales himself at the store and later, I discovered, he also sold tickets at his movie theater.

         As Nassim Joaquin explained it, the Americans built the airport on Cozumel for use in hunting German submarines during the Second World War. Noting the clarity of the water, they also trained underwater demolition teams on the island. These were the first scuba divers. After the war, they told others about this gem in the Mexican Caribbean. Although it began slowly, the rush was on.

         Nassim Joaquin, I later learned, was one of the dominant figures on Cozumel. He founded his own airline, which Mexicana later bought and eventually converted into the carrier known today as Click. A Joaquin son became one of the first governors of Quintana Roo (Mexico’s newest state), then tourism minister and later a senator. I believe a daughter is senator now. Cozumel, as you might gather, is in Quintana Roo.

         Chankanaab, the seaside national park, is an excellent place to try scuba for the first time, or simply to snorkel. The park now has its own Maya village, where you can see how many indigenous people still live, plus a facility where the daring can swim with dolphins. The Maya ruins at San Gervasio are not as extensive as those across the sea at Tulum, but impress nonetheless. And the golf course, which some warned would be an ecological disaster, has won a certificate as an official Audubon Sanctuary.

         Most hotels are either just north or south of the one island village and an increasing number are all-inclusive, meaning that meals and activities – sometimes even golf – are included in the price. This explains the limited number of restaurants and bars in town. The Hard Rock Café is said to be the world’s smallest and Neptuno is the only disco I saw. No one stays up late. Cruise ships depart at sunset while divers and golfers like to get started about dawn.