On 2004-01-01 06:21:43 PST
Mediakzar (mediakzar@aol.com) wrote,

A small correction here, Joel.  The cruiseship (the Princess Line
anyway) DOES refer to it as Majahual.  It's the travel agents who
book the cruises who refer to it as Costa Maya, presumably because
it's too hard for the Gringos to pronounce Majahual, or get its
spelling from the correct pronunciation.  ;)

I just came back from the Grand Princess cruise (Ft. Lauderdale -
Princess Cay - Grand Cayman - Majahual - Cozumel - Ft. Lauderdale).

I'll be back on the IDENTICAL cruise on March 7, NOT because I was
so enchanted with the ports of call that I wanted a repeat in less
than a month, but because when I booked the cruise, and asked the
agent about the itinerary on the phone, he mentioned "Costa Maya"
(a name I had not heard before, EVER), I thought it must be a
different itenerary from my cruise on the same ship this month. :-)

So, I'll be diving in Cozumel around the Carnival (Mardi Gras) there
this month, and then from that cruise next month.  Cozumel THREE
times within a month -- that's a record for me.  :-)))

As for Majahual, there's time to do a preview of the tourist shops
on the next stop -- Cozumel -- that's about it!  

The venders there start the asking price FOUR TIMES what they are
willing to sell.   They get lots of happy campers thinking they
got a bargain for paying only HALF the asking price.  I bought an
onyx "Mayan pecker" (grande) for $15 even though I had already
bought several smaller ones (for gifts <G>) over the years in
Cozumel, for more.  When after a bit of voluntary haggling by the
vender himself and he finally asked "How much would you pay for
one?" and I said $15, pretty sure he wouldn't sell for what he
had asked for $60.   But he surprised me.  :-)  It was the biggest
onyx "Mayan pecker" I have ever purchased.  Nicely crafted too.

Consider buying more next month, for some Asian friends, when I
go diving in Bali after the ADEX trade show in Singapore.

That's pretty much my entire experience about Majahual, Costa Maya,
and cruiseships shopping there.

-- Bob.

If you were close off shore from the village of Mahahual, then the
reef would simply be the local reef.  It has no official complete name
that I know of.  If your boat went out about 1 1/12 hrs from the
shore, then you were on Chinchorro Reef...or Banco de Chinchorro. I
dove there this past August, staying at Maya Ha, just outside of
Mahahual.

Bob,

I'm very envious of 3 visitss on a month to Cozumel.  If you've got the time on
our next trip to Costa Maya/Majahual,  see if you can hire a cab and run down
to Xcalak to check out our house.  It's about 10 km north of Xcalak or 25 km
south of Majahual on the beach road.

XTC is a well organized dive op in Xcalak.  There wouldn't be time for a trip
to Chinchorro but I'll bet they could work out something for you.

Joel
http://www.mxtravel.com/xcalak/Cielosazules/
http://www.mxtravel.com/xcalak.html

Susanita,

The Mesoamerican Reef and it is the largest coral reef system in the Atlantic
Ocean. It extends more than 400 miles from the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan
Peninsula southward to Belize, Guatemala, and the Bay Islands, off the
Honduran coast.