Hello, A vacation was long overdue in July 99 and again we planned to go to Cozumel, Mexico. The little island captured our hearts on 3 previous trips and it seems to get better with every time. A lot was learned from various scuba boards and you almost feel home with the accumulated knowledge about Cozumel. Thanks Doc Vicingo, Gloriana, Seabum, Shell and all the others ! Not everything is perfect on the island, but its very close of being paradise. For our family ( all divers ) Cozumel simply offers the most bang for the buck. And what a BANG it is. The first time you descend to the wonderful reefs, which make Cozumel so desirable for us cold quarry midwest divers.  The next best thing on the island are the people ! Exceptions granted : mainly taxi drivers and the huge cattle boat operations and dive shops (you ain't get me with that service! "Del Mar or Aquaworld") The occasional  pushy vendor ! The Cruise Ship crowds, which seems to poison the saintness and character of the island ( not to mention the prices on the islands) The few misbehaving ugly Americans and European vacationers ( strange ??: most of them seem to have AI armbands, hahaha ). Without any more ranting, lets just start. Day 1. Actually the day before : After a long and hectic day at the office we drove the 3 hours to St. Louis. Arriving around 9 pm at the Airport Renaissance Hotel. Apple vacation has a great deal : $ 59 bucks for the night prior to departure and we can park the car for free.	That boils down to  $ 20 bucks for the overnight stay, compared to pay for the parking alone. Our flight with TWA / Apple leaves at 8 am the next day. Beats getting up in the midlle of night and drive to the airport in a rush.  We have coffee in the room and take the shuttle to the airport. TWA has a long line but it moves fast. At the counter I leisurely flash my frequent flyer status to the clerk and with a smile he uprades my wife to first class and I get a double seat ( at the emergency exit )in the otherwise full flight. My lady enjoys her 1. first class experience and I can sleep. Great Service TWA  ( I know you guys don't have to do that, when we fly with Apple ! ) We get a breakfast at the Airport Burger King and walk to the gate. The plane almost leaves on time and makes the little delay up during the flight. Arriving in Cancun  the dreaded red light goes on at the customs. I drag all 5 pieces to the counter and ask what individual piece they would like to check ? I have to open the camera case only ! We are passed the customs and immigration in no time . The Apple guy hordes all of us and makes sure we get to the correct counter to fly with AirCaribic/Cozumel over to San Miguel . Unfortunately the 1 o clock flight is full so we are scheduled for the 5 pm flight. Ouch, 5 hours waiting: so close, but still so far away. We simply have too much stuff to take the Airport taxi - to hotel - to regular taxi ( Playa del Carmen) to ferry to Coz taxi to the hotel trip, so we wait. Finally the time has arrived and the flight to Coz is short and sweet.
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Thorsten Schaette 4913N Watergate Road Olney, Ill. 62450 Tel. 618 392 6403