Puerto Vallarta, Jal. — The Vatican sought Wednesday to defuse a diplomatic tiff with Mexico after Pope Francis referred to the possible “Mexicanization” of his native Argentina from drug trafficking.

The Vatican said it had sent an official diplomatic note to Mexico’s ambassador insisting that Francis “absolutely did not intend to offend the Mexican people” with the remark or detract from the government’s anti-drug efforts.

Francis made the reference in an email over the weekend to an Argentine friend and lawmaker, Gustavo Vera, who is involved in combating the drug trade. He published the pope’s email on the website of his Alameda Foundation.

In the email, Francis wrote: “Hopefully we are in time to avoid Mexicanization.”

The Mexican government formally complained about the remark during a meeting with the Holy See’s ambassador to Mexico and in a note of protest, saying the government was committed to battling drug cartels and that there was no benefit to “stigmatizing Mexico.”

In a statement Wednesday, the Vatican said the pope’s words were contained in a personal, informal email to Vera and that Francis had merely repeated a phrase that Vera had used.

“The pope intended only to emphasize the seriousness of the phenomenon of the drug trafficking that afflicts Mexico and other countries in Latin America,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “It is precisely this importance that has made the fight against drug trafficking a priority for the government.”

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- The popular Mexican singer died on Wednesday morning after a car crash

Regional pop star Ariel Camacho has died in a car crash while on tour.

Camacho, 22, died in an accident on a motorway outside of his hometown, Los Ranchitos in Sinaloa. The artist, signed to Del Records, had been on the road promoting his album El Karma.

Tributes have poured in for the singer. "My heart is broken by the loss of Ariel Camacho," president and founder of the Regional Mexican label, Angel Del Villar, said. "I knew he was going to transform the genre in Mexico and the United States. Millions of people would have become fans and would have gotten to know the man I did."

Authorities seized 11 iguanas in courier packages in the western Mexican state of Jalisco and 101 animals at a private zoo in Puebla state, the Profepa environmental protection agency said.

The iguanas, all from the threatened Ctenosaura oaxacana species, were ready to be shipped from El Salto, a city in Jalisco, to Ciudad Juarez, located across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, when the express mail company discovered them, the federal agency said in a statement.

The iguanas, which are worth $2,000 each, are being sent to a conservation center.

Profepa personnel, meanwhile, seized 101 animals at a private zoo in Puebla, located in central Mexico, that were being housed in poor conditions and abused.

The animals, including 41 big cats, were seized during an inspection at the Club de Animalitos in Tehucacan, a zoo that had operated for more than 20 years, Profepa said. 

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- Mexico will send a protest note to the Vatican over purported comments by Pope Francis worrying about a possible "Mexicanization" of his native Argentina due to rising drug trafficking activity there, authorities announced Monday.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade said he had met with the Vatican's diplomatic emissary to the country, Christophe Pierre, to inform him about the note.

"We express sadness and concern with respect to the communications that apparently were made, referring to a private letter from Pope Francis," Meade said.

The pontiff apparently touched on drug activity in Argentina in a weekend letter to Argentine lawmaker Gustavo Vera.

"Hopefully we are in time to avoid Mexicanization," the letter said. "I was talking to some Mexican bishops, and it is terrifying."

Mexico's Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade said Mexico filed a formal protest note with the Vatican.
Vera told Argentina's Todo Noticias on Monday that Bergoglio "loves the Mexican people very much," but was concerned that Argentina not end up following a path of "undeclared civil war between cartels."

Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to confirm or deny the letter's authenticity, in line with longstanding policy of not commenting on what the Holy See considers personal or pastoral communications by the pope.

Various parts of Mexico have been plagued by drug violence for years, and Mexican cartels have extended their operations to other countries in the hemisphere and around the world.

Meade said Mexico has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to fighting the cartels, and there are more productive things to do than "seeking to stigmatize Mexico."

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- Years after playing 1980s rock music as a popular radio DJ in Mexico, film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was back behind a microphone on Sunday: To accept the Oscar for best director.

Inarritu — the creative force behind dark comedy “Birdman — became the second Mexican in a row to win Hollywood’s top directing prize, one year after countryman Alfonso Cuaron was rewarded for space thriller “Gravity.”

“All the work of these incredible fellow filmmakers can’t be compared, can’t be labeled, can’t be defeated, because they exist and our work only will be judged, as always, by time,” Inarritu said as he accepted his award, speaking of his fellow nominees.

Inarritu and his friends Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro have been dubbed the “Three Amigos,” heading a golden generation of Mexican film-makers who have scooped up the industry’s most prestigious prizes in recent years.

“Birdman,” starring Michael Keaton as a washed up superhero movie star attempting to revive his career on Broadway, marks a break from Inarritu’s somber dramas.

While he shot to fame with his 2000 Mexican drama “Amores Perros,” and earned his first Oscar directing nomination for the Brad Pitt-starring “Babel” in 2006, the 51-year-old Inarritu came late to the movie world.

‘Frustrated musician’

A music lover, Inarritu started working for WFM radio in the 1980s while he was still a communications student at Mexico City’s Iberoamerican University.

But true to his adventurous spirit — he traveled the world as a cabin boy in a merchant vessel at the age of 19 — he took his chances, trading the microphone for a camera.

“I think that I’m a musician before I am a film-maker — a frustrated musician,” Inarritu once said, comparing his films to musical genres.

“Amores Perros,” he said, is a rock song while the crime drama “21 Grams” is jazz, “Babel” amounts to an opera and “Biutiful” is a requiem.

Inarritu left WFM in the 1990s to make television advertisements and short films for his production firm, Z Films, while learning the craft from Polish-born theater director Ludwik Margules.

It was during that time that he met screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, with whom he made “Amores Perros” — a raw drama in which three stories collide after a car crash in Mexico’s sprawling capital.

His debut feature earned Inarritu a big ovation at the Cannes film festival, where it won the Critics’ Week prize in 2000.

From Mexico to Hollywood

“Alejandro is a visionary, virtuoso, multi-talented, obsessive, perfectionist,” actress Vanessa Bauche, who starred alongside Gael Garcia Bernal in “Amores Perros,” told AFP.

“He follows the emotions and psyche of his characters meticulously, making him one of the best directors of actors in the world,” Bauche said.

She recalled an anecdote on the set of “Amores Perros” that highlighted the “deeply spiritual” side of Inarritu, a father of two who lost a third child shortly after birth.

Inarritu had carts full of roses brought to the set, asked the actors to gather around the flowers and exhorted them to do “everything with love and passion.”

He capped the moment by tossing petals skyward as an offering to god, she said.

On the back of the film’s success, Inarritu moved to Los Angeles, where he directed other somber dramas packed with Hollywood stars.

But a bitter break with his film partner, Arriaga, was to follow. The screenwriter felt that his role in “Babel” – which earned an Oscar and six other nominations — was underplayed, and he vowed never to work with Inarritu again.

Inarritu went on to make “Birdman,” which some critics have hailed as a masterpiece, though the director doubts it.

“The more movies I make, the less I know and understand,” he said in early February. “And the less I know, the more I like movies. And the more I like them, I don’t want to know what it means to make films.”

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- The National Autonomous University of Mexico, or UNAM, has a wide-ranging collection of more than 1,500 crustacean speciess, biologist Fernando Alvarez Noguera told Efe.

"When something dies and falls to the sea floor, a good portion decomposes, thanks to crustaceans. They are the submarine vultures that recycle organic matter," Alvarez said.

At the base of the major marine food chain are plankton, which eat algae and are themselves eaten by fish.

Alvarez, who is a member of the UNAM Biology Institute, works with the National Crustacean Collection made up of some 1,500 specimens, some of them gathered in the 19th century by agencies that preceded the institute.

More than 30,000 jars preserve everything from rare specimens, such as the crab spider (Thomisidae), to the most common crabs, shrimp, prawns and blue crabs.

Crustaceans, in general, are characterized by a calcareous shell and articulated legs.

Most crustaceans, like shrimp and prawns, live in the ocean, but some of these animals, like the acocil (Cambarellus), have adapted to fresh water, and others, like the cochinilla (Oniscidea), can be found in humid ground under stones in any garden.

Scientific reports say that Mexico is home to 10-12 percent of the estimated 70,000 crustacean species in the world, or between 7,000 and 9,000 varieties, of which 1,500 have been identified.

Mexico has some 10,000 specific areas where crustaceans are present, with about 8,000 at the bottom of the sea and 2,000 on continental areas, Alvarez said.

"We have a pretty good idea of what is out there, not to settle on what we have achieved so far, but to encourage us to wonder what we still have to learn," the 56-year-old biologist said.

The scientific study of crustaceans in Mexico began in 1938-1939 with the arrival of Spaniard Enrique Rioja at the Biology Institute, Alvarez said.

"Before him, there was nothing," he said.

The institute's collection includes animals from marine coastal areas and lakes, some specimens that are edible and others that are not, Alvarez said.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- Coca-Cola's largest bottler in Mexico has temporarily suspended operations in the capital of the embattled state of Guerrero following attacks on its workers and its trucks.

Alma Beltran, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Femsa SA, says the decision to stop supplying Chilpancingo was to "guarantee the safety of our personnel" while the viability of operations in the area is evaluated.

The decision comes amid protests in the southern state around the disappearance of 43 students. Protesting students and teachers have regularly blockaded roads and taken over vehicles delivering everything from milk to snacks.

The conflict reached a new level on Wednesday when protesters temporarily detained employees of Coca-Cola in response to what they said was a theft report filed by the company. Ten people were injured during what police described as an attempt to attack Coca-Cola's offices in Chilpancingo.

The conflict ignited anger in a business sector already frustrated by struggles to operate in the social turmoil.

Since the students disappeared on Sept. 26, Coca-Cola has lost 250 trucks to robberies or attacks, according to the Employers' Confederation of Mexico in Guerrero. Protesters have also attacked other big companies, such as Comercial Mexicana department stores, Oxxo convenience stores and trucks for Bimbo, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world.

The students disappeared at the hands of local police working with a drug cartel, which killed the young men and burned their bodies, the federal attorney general has said. Relatives of students dispute the government's version.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- The chairman of Citigroup’s Mexico operations, Manuel Medina-Mora, is retiring in June, after a tumultuous year at one of the bank’s most profitable units.

Mr. Medina-Mora, who joined Citigroup in 2001 when the bank bought the Mexican bank Banamex, rose through the ranks to become co-president and head of global consumer operations.

But after a series of scandals rocked Banamex last year, raising concerns about lax controls in Mexico, Citigroup executives in New York began preparing for Mr. Medina-Mora’s departure.

In a memo to staff on Friday, Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat, praised Mr. Medina-Mora, 64, for helping turn the bank’s hodgepodge of retail banks across the world into a cohesive global bank.

“The turnaround has been impressive,” Mr. Corbat wrote in the memo.

The bank said that a replacement for Mr. Medina-Mora would be named in the near future.

RELATED COVERAGE

Enrique Peña Nieto, center, Mexico’s president, speaking with Manuel Medina-Mora. Citi’s chief, Michael L. Corbat, is at left.Another Scandal Hits Citigroup’s Moneymaking Mexican Division Oct. 14, 2014

The troubles in Mexico emerged nearly a year ago, when Citigroup disclosed that Banamex had been defrauded of about $400 million by an oil services company that had a long history of financial problems and questionable business practices.

That fraud prompted an internal investigation that uncovered other problems at Banamex, including some at the bank’s private security unit. Employees of the unit were accused of taking kickbacks and purchasing recordings of personal phone conversations.

Citigroup also disclosed that Banamex USA, a banking unit that operates out of California, is the focus of a federal investigation about potentially faulty anti-money-laundering controls involving cross-border transactions.

High-ranking executives at Citigroup were concerned that Mr. Medina-Mora was given too much leeway in running the Mexico operation, said people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Another worry was that Mr. Medina-Mora was stretched too thin overseeing Mexico and Citigroup’s sprawling global consumer business.

Despite the problems, Mr. Medina-Mora is considered among the most influential bankers in Mexico, and his connections are invaluable to Citigroup’s continued success there.

Even after he retires, Mr. Medina-Mora will serve as a nonexecutive chairman of Banamex.

But Banamex’s chief executive, Ernesto Torres Cantú, will no longer report to Mr. Medina-Mora, but directly to Mr. Corbat, according to the internal memo.

In a memo to bank employees on Friday, Mr. Medina-Mora said in his five years at the helm of the consumer business, he has worked to make Citigroup a “client-centric” bank.

“Together, we have built a strong foundation — a simpler, safer, stronger consumer franchise for Citi,” he wrote.

Citigroup also disclosed on Friday that Mr. Corbat received stock valued at about $3.5 million as part of his compensation for last year. With that award, Mr. Corbat stands to receive total compensation in 2014 of roughly $13 million, a significant cut from the roughly $14.5 million he was paid in 2013.

Last year was a rough time for Citigroup. In addition to the Mexican scandals, the bank failed to pass the Federal Reserve’s annual stress test last March and paid $7 billion to settle accusations about its role in selling troubled mortgage securities in the lead-up to the financial crisis.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- A Minnesota army national guardsman came to the United States as a child and earned his citizenship, but he honors his roots in a major way. He's currently working to put an end to challenges faced by families in his poverty-ridden hometown just outside of Puerta Vallarta.

With just a few hundred bucks at a time, the young people in Ixtapa Nayarit, Mexico have been able to get a freshly painted church, shoes, food, and school supplies. Now through a new non-profit, the Minnesotan wants to help a group of students get their basic medical needs met so they can access a real shot at a bright future.

“We crossed the border in the U.S. when I was 12, funny thing it happened on July 4, 1989,” Ulises Ayala said. “I learned the language, graduated from high school, applied for residency, became a resident. After a few years of becoming a resident I joined the National Guard, two years later I became a U.S. citizen, and then a commissioned officer.”

During captain Ayala's time in Kuwait, he noticed he had a little extra money in the bank. So he called his sister in Ixtapa Nayarit where non-profit help is scarce.

“We don't have those organizations,” Ayala said. “If you get through elementary school, you're really lucky. If you get through middle school, you have the golden ticket.”

The poverty-stricken town of just over 1,500 people is about 45 minutes north of Puerta Vallarta.

Eager to help young people there advance, Ayala started sending his extra funds to help -- $200 at a time.

"They don't have running water,” Ayala said. “Toilets are not like the ones we have here, it's just a hole of cement, that's it.”

With out of pocket support from his fellow guardsmen, Ayala has also sent hundreds of food baskets to hungry families and shoes to special needs children.

“It's a great cause,” Command Sgt. Maj. Brian Newcomer said. “It's amazing a little goes a long way there.

Ayala was able to help out even more after pooling his money with family members in California and Mexico.

“So 200 from them, 200 from California, and my 200 were able to help 72 students in Mexico get a dental exam,” Ayala said. “All the other projects have been funded out of pocket, just saving money here, not going out to eat, and making sacrifices.”

The 10-year army national guardsman now hopes that with support he can make sure middle school students in Ixtapa Nayarit have a real chance.

“If we get one student to go through the whole system, and that person becomes a dentist, a doctor, a lawyer, something, anything, then all the headaches is nothing,” he said.

Ayala said the money raised will allow middle school students to get dental and medical exams so they can advance to high school.

Here's more information, and how you can help:
http://www.gofundme.com/kbtov4
http://www.gofundme.com/lpah20
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005515697990
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ixtapa-Foundation-SC/335546699943570?ref=bookmarks

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- The Los Angeles Lakers needed a break more than ever. Despite over five months of dedicated and tough practices, including a training camp that was labeled by the majority as the most difficult that they’ve ever been a part of, 53 games in, the Lakers still have just 13 wins to show for it.

As Jeremy Lin put it, it’s difficult not to reap the benefits of your hard work. For Lakers players, trainers and coaches, the NBA All-Star break was the first time they’ve been given more than 24 hours away from basketball since the start of training camp. It was time to recharge the batteries, remember their love for the game, and relax.

Byron Scott chose Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico for a much needed four-day getaway with his girlfriend, Cecilia, accompanied by his son, Thomas, and wife, Kristen. Between a couple rounds of golf at Vista Vallarta Golf Course, sightseeing, gourmet dining and spa days, Scott was able to recharge his batteries for the second-half of the season.

It rejuvenated me,” Scott said of his getaway at Villa La Estancia Riviera Nayarit. “Just like it does to players. I went back, and had a great time and had a renewed sense of urgency to still get some things done.”

Lakers rookie Jordan Clarkson chose to go back home to San Antonio, where he watched his jersey retirement at Karen Wagner High School.

It was a blessing coming from where we’re from. There’s not too many people that make it out and make it to the league and stuff like that. It was cool to see that happen,” Clarkson said of the jersey retirement.

After spending time with his family and friends, Clarkson headed back to Los Angeles to get some work in. Clarkson worked out for several hours with Steve Nash at the Lakers practice facility on Tuesday, where he said the two focused heavily on improving his balance.

Nick Young chose a Hawaii vacation with rapper girlfriend Iggy Azalea before making his way over to New York to stop by Fashion Week.

I did it all. Zip-lining, flew over a volcano in a helicopter with no doors on it. I was living my life on the edge, even the volcano couldn’t mess with me,” Young said smiling.

Before the break, Nick Young suffered an injury to his peroneal tendon in his left foot, and, before the injury, Young was noticeably struggling to find his shooting rhythm. Young said the break allowed him to get his “mind right,” “relax,” and also chimed in that it was a much needed break from Scott’s tough practices.

Though Young’s fear of dolphins (due to an alleged dolphin attack experience) circulated through the media before Young’s vacation, he decided to face his fears head-on while in Hawaii. Surrounded by what Young referred to as a “gang” of dolphins, Young was able to gain a new understanding of the cetacean mammals.

“Got a chance to talk to the dolphins a little bit, now we’ve got a cool understanding, we stay away from each other, just give a little head nod and keep it moving.”

Plus, Young even managed to film an episode of Nick Cannon’s TV show, Wild ‘N Out during the break, which he said delivered some low blows, although remaining confident that he was able to hold his own.

Jeremy Lin also returned to New York, but not for Fashion Week. Lin went upstate to visit his family, experience his little brother’s Senior Night and laugh with his friends. Despite his little brother suffering a tibia fracture, Lin said said it was so great to be able to celebrate what his brother has already accomplished in his career

Lin also spent his fair share of time working out with his his dad, brother, trainer and shooting coach, “regaining his passion” for the game.

I got a chance to get away and it’s weird when things aren’t going that well, the one thing I like to do is get in the gym without anyone telling me what to do or how to play. I just like to go and hoop and so that’s what I did during the All-Star weekend. When you’re in it everyday, sometimes it becomes a grind. It was definitely good mentally, good physically.”

As far as what he’s focusing on basketball-wise after the break, Lin said he’s looking to cut turnovers and have more efficient play-making.

As far as goals for the end of the season, everyone seems succinct on one thing, competing and leaving everything out on the floor for the Lakers last 29 games.

How many games we win from this point on, that’s kind of irrelevant,” Scott said after the All-Star break. “We want to continue to go out there and be competitive every single night.”

The Lakers have 29 games left to give it all they’ve got.

Mexico at sixes, sevens ... eights and nines

Puerto Vallarta, Jal- For most British travellers, Mexico means Cancun: the resort that rises high from a strip of sand off the parched, flat Yucatán Peninsula at the nation’s easternmost extreme. For most Mexicans, though, Cancun and its surroundings comprise a land apart. It is somewhere for Americans to frolic in winter and for Europeans to scorch each summer. True, Cancun is not entirely without cultural significance. Some modest Mayan relics, Las Ruinas del Rey, can be found next to the Hilton Resort golf course towards the southern end of the hotel strip. But for the average citizen of Mexico City or Guadalajara, this “Las Vegas-on-Sea” might as well be on another planet.

This month, the resort and its hinterland took a first step towards that status by moving into its own time zone.

Mexico is now all at sixes and sevens. And eights and nines. Until now, Cancun – along with most of the rest of the country – was on Zona Centro (Central Time), the same as Dallas and Chicago. The western states, Zona Pacifico, are an hour behind, and the north of Baja California has its own little time zone so that Tijuana synchronises with the US state of California. Now the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, whose main economic driving force is Cancun, has decided to fall into line with the eastern US by creating Mexico’s fourth time zone.

I was alerted to the chronological confusion by the PR guru Paul Charles, who visited Cancun last week: “The local government has just decided to change the state’s time zone, moving it forward by one hour so that it is now five hours behind GMT and not six. But no one appears to have told Apple iPhones and the airlines. My mobile wasn’t showing the correct time, and flight apps are showing the wrong departure times.”

All of which could flummox the visitor, especially if he or she has over-indulged in the Wednesday night Foam Party at Señor Frog’s, where $60 (£40) buys unlimited tequila and a T-shirt. (See you there at 10 o’clock ... or 11.)

Here comes the sun

Cancun’s abrupt introduction of a new time zone is causing consternation, with inbound travellers arriving later than they were expecting. (No homebound flights have been missed because of the change, as far as I can tell, because they have been departing an hour later than billed.) The change has been made in order to boost the tourism appeal of Cancun just in time for Spring Break, when thousands of US college students arrive for rest and relaxation.

To understand why, go back to how humanity calibrates time. When most people were hunter-gatherers or farmers, activity, by necessity, took place between sunrise and sunset. So, the Maya who built temples in and around Cancun would have employed a similar local time zone to that which applied until this month in the resort: with the sun rising around 6am, solar noon at 12 almost to the minute, and sunset around 6pm. But apart from stragglers heading home from Señor Frog’s, the average 21st-century visitor to Cancun is still sound asleep at six. And probably seven. So the daylight is squandered. Far better to adjust the time zone to fit the main economic activity, says the resort’s tourism authority: “Tourists will enjoy extra time on the beaches, consume more at restaurants and cafés, and spend longer time in parks and on excursions found in and around the destination.” The Convention and Visitors’ Bureau also claims: “The destination will gain added sunlight each day.” That’s nonsense, but there are now more people around to enjoy the sun when it does shine. A 6-7pm Happy Hour, rather than taking place entirely in the dark, now concludes with sunset.

Mexico is the first country where tourism has spurred a time-zone change. But other visitor-dependent locations should do the same, starting with the Caribbean islands. Tonight, the sun will set in Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia shortly after 6pm. Moving from GMT minus 4 to GMT minus 3 will generate an extra hour of usable daylight for the islands’ tourists. It will also reduce jet lag for British visitors.

Spanish practices

Could it be time to adjust the clocks in the leading Mediterranean holiday destination for British travellers, Spain? While the mainland and Balearic Islands share the same time as Italy, Germany and France, the nation’s body clock is adrift from the rest of western Europe. Turn up for dinner at the only restaurant in a village on the French side of the Pyrenees at 8pm, and there’s a good chance you’ll be told you’re too late. But on the south side of the mountains, you’d be too early. (In plucky Andorra, pinched between France and Spain, you can dine whenever you jolly well like.)

In fact, Spain already manipulates time. The only fragment of Spanish territory as far east as Greenwich is the beautiful isle of Menorca. Should you want to be the first person in Spain to see the sunrise, it is an easy matter of wandering down to the shore a few miles east from the island’s capital, Mahon. The first rays will sparkle out of the Mediterranean at 7.30am, corresponding to 6.30am further north in Greenwich. But on the far side of Spain, the citizens of Vigo will stumble around in the dark for almost an extra hour before the sun appears. Since the Spanish insist that the evening meal is best begun three or four hours after sunset, this time shift at least gives the rest of us some chance to synchronise.

Puerto Vallarta, Jal.- Cozumel a quiet island off the coast of Yucatan Peninsula, beckons with white-sand beaches, world-class snorkeling, nature preserve and tranquil way of life. Here are some tips from us on what to do in this “tranquilo” island.

Only about 10 % of the island is developed and offers unparalleled marine life and low-key pace of life. But this secret destination will not stay secret for too long so visits as soon as you can!

Enjoy second to the largest of all “Great Barrier Rief” snorkeling and diving destination in the world. Book a private boat with “Deep Blue” for an ultimate experience, admire amazing reefs covered with electric blue sea fans, coral and pastel sea anemones. Enjoy amazing lagoons and wildlife on the island at Parque Punta Sur, where turtles, flamingos and other species made their home. Have fun at the Cozumel Country Club and amazing sanctuary home to the world class 18 –hole golf course. To relax snorkel, kayak and just relax go to Playa Palanca beach you can spend a fund day there and grab a nice lunch.

When it comes to hotels, choose to stay at one of the top 3 best hotels to experience more of this magical island. We like Secrets Aura Cozumel , a small boutique size hotel with only around 80 private suites with incomparable views of the Caribbean Sea, elegantly decorated suite that offer comfort and functionality. You will truly enjoy it. But if you are looking for more trendy, avant-garde, experience try HOTEL B Cozumel, artistic hotel who look for different experience and more laid back. This hotel only 5 minutes away from the center, placed next to the Caribbean ocean has a great private beach that offer entertainment through the day and give you a feel of a mix between Miami and Mexico.

Great cuisine and service, so speaking of which Cozumel Island may be small but certainly has a big flavor: Many simple and more upscale options to dine at, from breakfast at “Zermatt Bakery” for fresh coffee and pan dulce to lunch option at “Taqueria el Sitio” (liked by taxi drivers) where you can enjoy great tacos al pastor to an evening restaurants such as: “Kinta” or “Napa Grill” where you will dine under the stars and enjoy delicacies as fresh pastas with catch of the day, Goat cheese and Chaya salad ( similar to kale) and of course churros, dusted with sugar and topped with the chocolate and caramel sauce. We LOVE this place for its unique style with Mexican Soul, We will be back for sure!

Best time to travel – October – June (rainy season is at its peak in months of July – September)

Language Spoken – Spanish and English

Currency - Mexican Pesos and Dollars

http://redshoestravels.com/ 

Dorota Antoszkiewicz