Cozumel-Un Mundo Nuevo
Cozumel · Playa del Carmen · Cancun · Carnival Miracle
Foreign LandThe Documentary Cousteau Never Made
A famous reef, a repeated myth, a ferry connection, and a land-based chase for the next ship.
The Land Route
Chasing the Carnival Miracle
Cozumel is renowned for a vast reef and some of Mexico’s most spectacular diving and snorkeling.
But I was on land, chasing the Carnival Miracle out of New York.
The route ran by ferry to Playa del Carmen, then by shuttle to Cancun Airport—a reef destination converted into a connection problem.
Reef Mythology
Cousteau, Cozumel, and the Story That Became Fact
The field note says that in 1955 Jacques-Yves Cousteau made a one-hour-and-twenty-three-minute television special that launched Cozumel’s diving industry.
Then comes the correction: according to the Cousteau Society, none of the footage was shot in Mexico.
The story may have been confused with René Cardona’s Un Mundo Nuevo, associated in the source with the worlds of Sea Hunt and Flipper.
The claim was repeated so often that it became fact—even for me.
If you tell a story long enough, it does become fact.
The Myth Equation
Repetition + Authority + Time = Accepted MemoryCozumel Video
The Documentary Field Note
Set to Music
John Denver’s Calypso
Mexico Logic
A Grain of Salt, a Slice of Lemon, and a Shot of Tequila
They asked why I did not quit drinking. I told them I was not a quitter.
I had been to Mexico so many times that I learned to take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
You know when tequila is talking: you drink triple, see double, and act single.
Sublime is no longer something I choke on after one.
I had gone native in a Colonel Kurtz sort of way—tequila, a Hecho en México straw cowboy hat, and a willingness to let the calendar wait.
But not this trip. No more killing precious brain cells. The Mayan end of the world could wait. It was already tomorrow in Australia.
Corona and Tequila
Some Memories Need Assassins
A Corona in one hand and tequila glasses—shots to the head because some memories need assassins.
Tequila Voice
Drink Triple, See Double, Act Single
MexiCAN
Change Your Latitude
I used to be a MexiCAN’t. Now I am a MexiCAN.
You cannot be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. A football team helps. Nuclear weapons may help. But at the very least, you need a beer.
The Cliff Notes on Corona: a gold standard for Latin American lagers. Its category position was Mexican beer. Its slogan was change your latitude. Its mantra was vacation, no worries, relax.
Corona’s many slogans all sell the same product: the feeling of vacation.
Aquatic Life
Reef Archive 01
Aquatic Life
Reef Archive 02
Companion Stories
Continue Through Mexico
Mexico Archive
Mexico Trip Reports
More field notes from repeated returns to Mexico.
Cozumel Archive
The Aquatic Life
The underwater companion chapter to the land-based connection story.