Most of hotels and resorts are south of San Miguel and are not within walking distance. However, there are numerous white taxicabs that are readily available. The larger and more luxurious resorts tend to be even further south of town along southwestern shores. This is actually not surprising since most of best scuba diving sites are southwest of island. An easy way to see 33 mile (53 km) by 9 mile (14 km) island is by renting a scooter or a 4x4. I once rented a scooter and zigzagged along most of San Miguel's streets to see neighborhoods. Then I went on main road leaving town and went south. After passing by larger resorts and going around southern tip of island, I found beaches along southeastern shores. The shores near San Miguel along crowded west coast are not known for beaches but southeast part here have some really spectacular ones. Even better is that there is very little traffic here so beaches are pretty quiet. Sometimes people can park their scooters and enjoy a beach all for themselves. There are a few stops with refreshments and more souvenirs at prices even better than in San Miguel. After traveling north again, there is a road about halfway up island that goes across and takes you back to San Miguel entering town's east side. My scooter tour of island took just over 2 hours and cost $25 US for rental. Cozumel has several ancient Mayan ruins but they are not nearly as large or spectacular as ones on mainland. After seeing some photos of them in advance of my trip, I didn't even bother to see ruins.

Cozumel is a nice port of call for cruise ships as there are many shopping opportunities. Passengers who scuba dive or snorkel can easily book directly with many dive shops in San Miguel without going through their cruise ships which will cost much more. For cruise ship tourists who do not intend to do any water sports and have some time after shopping, it is highly recommended to rent a scooter or 4x4 to tour island. This is also a nice way to spend last day of a scuba dive vacation in Cozumel.

Leopards in dark

While living in Johannesburg I decided one Saturday morning that I needed to get away from city and headed off to Krugersdorp nature reserve. Arrived there and found campsite in middle of reserve surrounded by a fence on every side. At reception I asked if I can set up my tent somewhere for night and I guess I should have noticed that receptionist was surprised about me wanting to sleep in a tent, but she didn’t say much about it. Drove around camp and, though there were quite a few caravans and people around, I was surprised to find what I thought was spot with best view unoccupied. So, I set up my tent and went for a drive around reserve. An ostrich attacked side mirror of my car and I saw a couple of rhinos, but for rest nothing too scary. When I got back to camp I found a whole crowd of people standing around fence in front of my tent, so I asked one of them what was going on. As soon as he found out it was my tent, he piped out “Hey, here’s guy sleeping in tent!!”. A couple of guys came up to shake my hand, showed me leopards not too far away that everyone was looking at and also mentioned that I must have a serious set of brass hanging to be sleeping in a tent right in front of only “spot” where fence had been broken down. Well, pride got in way and I decided not to pack up my tent and go home. But, I did decide that now was a good time for a couple of beers. That night I couldn’t sleep and I was convinced that every sound I heard was a leopard sniffing around my tent, but I’m brave and stupid and everything was fine until I heard a really loud shuffling in trees close to my tent. I lay dead still for a moment and quietly grabbed my keys in one hand. Heard shuffling a second time and my brass simply wasn’t big enough. I jumped up, completely destroyed my tent in trying open zip and ran out shouting at top of my voice into bush. I’m sure I could scare away any leopard, rhino or ghost lurking around, but only long enough to open my car and jump in. As uncomfortable as it was for a somewhat large, 6”2 male to sleep in front seat of my Opel Record, there was no way I was returning to tent. Anyway, next morning at swimming pool I heard a guy asking his buddies whether they heard that scream during night, but err, I just packed up my tent and disappeared quietly.

Having written these two stories, they now don’t seem all that interesting in print as it’s hard for reality to compete with Hollywood. However, I am just an ordinary city-dweller that happens to love outdoors without knowing too much about animals and wild. A blou wildebeest may not seem scary until you’re standing a couple of meters from it with nobody else around and you realize exactly how big those things really are.

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