Welcome to the Cozumel Drift, Scuba Shack and Village Tan Kah's newsletter keeping all of you up to date with what is happening here at the dive shop, and the hotel, as well as your favorite island - COZUMEL.

1st things 1st - BIENVENIDOS - welcome to anyone new to The Drift. We are thrilled that you vacationed with us, and hope that you enjoyed your time here. A big GRACIAS to everyone for coming. We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Did you hear? As of Monday, the northern part of the state of Yucatan (which includes Cozumel, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum) were now declared to be in the YELLOW category - meaning that we are doing something right here. The number of new cases is decreasing. The number of hospital beds that are occupied is decreasing. And the calculated contagious rate is also decreasing. YEAH !!!!!

One of the things that worried me the most when I went to pick up my niece and nephew was being in an enclosed airplane for however long.... and wondering about the quality of the air. Thank you to National Geographic and The Points Guy for doing the homework for me.

Did you know that the air on the plane is cleaner than most restaurants, bars and malls ... or even a friend's house? This is because of the HEPA filters that are installed in all airplanes. It captures 99.97 % of airborn particles of 0.3 micron in size or larger. And while it is circulating the air, 60% of the air inside the cabin is replaced with fresh air from the outside. Fresh air is constantly being instroduced to the aircraft.

I was QUITE surprised, ok quite PLEASANTLY surprised to learn that air was constantly being pumped in. You know, a pressurized plane and all. And that the air is REPLACED every 3-4 minutes. WOW! And with the mask requirements for all passengers, the air in that plane is really clean. One less thing to worry about while you are traveling. Now... the tray table and arm rests are another story, but that is easy to sanitize yourself.

So if you were concerned about the air travel, the plane is cleaner than we thought. I have not found an article but I am hoping that the airports as well are using the HEPA filters, making travel safer for all of us.

Here are the links to the articles -

As more and more folks are planning their trips back to Scuba Shack Cozumel, Village Tan Kah and Cozumel, and all the uncertainty around COVID I’ve been getting more and more questions about purchasing insurance prior to the trip.  Unfortunately, there is no straight forward, right or wrong answer here.  There are many many factors that come into play and you must consider. I have put together a full article with lots of information for you to consider when looking at trip insurance. Click the button below to read the full article... 

Just remember, when you first exit customs through the sliding glass doors, you will find a number of people greeting you. BEWARE - they are timeshare salesmen. If you don't want to speak with them, just turn to the right and purchase your shuttle tickets. CozuShuttle is on the left and Flex is on the right.

When you think of where mushrooms grow, the tropics are not the first place that comes to mind. But there are many species of mushrooms here in Cozumel. As a matter of fact, Dr. Tania Raymundo Ojed has been trudging around the mangroves and jungles here on the island and found over 85 special of mushrooms. And also identified 5 new species here that they had not seen before. And of those 5, 2 are endemic to Cozumel - how cool is that! The names are Hypoxylon Cozumelensis and Rhytidhysteron Cozumelensis. Another great reason for saving the mangroves here and all over the world actually.

Are you from the north? Have you been to Cozumel in the summer?? I know... OMG - it is way too hot to be there then. Well, that may not be so true this summer. Most of the country has been in the 100's this past week. And Cozumel is only in the 90's - with a bearutiful blue ocean to see. And so many other things as well. Many of our customers from the great white north only come during the winter months (understandably so), and have never seen Cozumel with everything blooming. It really is different than in the winter ! Enjoy the summer views.........

Mango Trees filled with fruits...

Full in bloom - LLUVIA DE ORO

Do you know how to translate that?? Golden Rain.... and that is exactly what it looks like. The trees are covered in cascading yellow blooms that make the tree look like it is covered in gold !

Spectacular sunsets with glasslike water.

Check out the Scuba Shack Website (www.scubashackcoz.com). With all this changing news and information, fun articles and interesting updates, sometimes it's hard to keep track of it all. So, we have been working hard to also update the Scuba Shack website. Here you can find our new FAQ page, newsletter archive page, COVID-19 status page, Travel info page, and much, much more.