Cozumel is just different - is probably the most Americanized city in Mexico.
Because it gets 12-15 million cruise passengers a year, they even have our slang terms down

the front 3 streets along the island is nothing but English speakers because of this, to cater to the tourists.
its location also makes it safe too, since its an island only accessible by a 45 minute ferry ride or plane.
Its only 29 miles around and 14 miles is developed ( some law they made)
you have to have means to do some dirt and get off the island.
only 100,000 people on the island but 30,000 ex-pats (immigrants), and that ran the property values up sky high.
They literally have a tourist police force that caters to North Americans/ Cruisers.
The business owners have an underlying agreement to not let crime get out of hand for tourists as well.
there was a crew running around robbing people at ATM's pre covid,
they were "found dead" in a car on a back street with a note saying they were sorry for the problems they caused.
its very family oriented, you see entire families out at night in the parks , at restaurants, kids playing outside,
reminds me of the south when i was growing up. We have been out all hours at night walking and never been bothered.
clubs cut off between and 1 depending on activity, since mot of their tourists are cruisers , they are gone by PM, but its live as fukk before that
someone told us a joke that Cozumel is basically your grandparent night club, Lights out at 9!
there are robberies, but its mostly with Snowbirds - people that come for the winter
they come back and their tv is gone or other electronics, it got worse during the pandemic
Cozumel's GDP is entirely based on tourist dollars , the ships stop coming in, Well.....nikkas is gonna be hungry.
But its funny, a lady down the street from us got robbed and the robbers literally fixed everything thy broke to get in her house, repainted her security closet door & replaced the window they took out to break in

, she didn't even realize she had a break in until she went to put something in the microwave and it was missing.
We have had supplies taken as well, but we are intentionally dragging this out for years to get tax breaks,
but you rarely hear of violence here, more scooter accident fatalities than anything else.
Tulum/Playa weird vibe there - its safe, but for some reason Canadian Drug gangs are waging a quiet war with the locals
you hear of Canadiens getting shot in Tulum and playa once or twice a year, then come to find out its dudes that had to flee Canada to escape charges,
but of course on the news its an innocent tourist out to enjoy the sun that gets violently gunned down( with Meth/crack and heroin on them)
Tulum will be very expensive because the airport just opened this week and there is a large influx of CACS there now .
so basically of you stay away from trouble in those spots , it wont find you.
Merida is the Second safest City in North America , their is a rumor that all the Cartel leaders families live there and its deemed a no violence zone
it got about 1.2 million people and its definitely the cleanest city i have seen in Mexico, but literally have not felt anything out of the ordinary since we got here.
we mainly stay to the south in Mexico and the smaller towns, because the north and west of Mexico is similar to the wild west.
and the news always plays up the violence, but fail to point out that about 80% of Mexico is uninhabited. so the drug route to the US is the hot spot for the action, everywhere else is pretty much tame. Cozumel has a .03% crime rate per year & that is all crime, not split up into subcategories
the cartels have been trying to push in on Cancun, but Mexico has a huge military presence to keep them out .
Anyways, hopping on the ADO Platinum bus to playa in a few, staying a few nights there, back to Coz , then a few nights in Cancun, then back to reality
was gonna take the Tren Maya ( Maya Train, the new high peed rail they are building across the south of Mexico ) but in true Mexico fashion , its not finished, and they are talking with Belize to get routes there as well.
But the platinum bus is nice , wifi , large seats male and female bathrooms, movies, music and infotainment system, Way better than greyhound.