by Dee Lewis Vivas
For the third year in a row, Cozumel 4 You is proud to host this weekly series, which features island residents – written in their own words, describe how they came to call the island home and what they love about Cozumel. Running from June – August, you can find the 2 prior years in our archives, 2013 & 2012.
I began traveling to Cozumel as a yearly family vacation in 1994. I fell in love with the people I met here. I was drawn in by how happy everyone was and how they seemed to appreciate the simple things we had forgotten in the US. Family time… family meals… hospitality between neighbors.
The year I was vacationing that was also the time I decided to divorce… We were already staying 3 weeks at a time. During my last day of vacation I was offered an opportunity to stay and house sit for an American who already lived on the island. It was only an additional month stay. I jumped at the chance to live among the locals and spend more time in the place I had come to think of as paradise.
So my family left for the states the following day and I stayed behind for an additional month. I worked in a local dive shop, met other wonderful people already living here, who friended me and made me feel at home. 6 months later I realized I hadn’t left, and probably never would. Once the island gets into your heart and soul, you can never imagine calling anywhere else ‘home’.
Dee Lewis Vivas has lived on Cozumel for 13 years. She works for Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club
This story originally appeared in the weekly Cozumel 4 You NEWS – the island’s number one source of positive information about our island! Be sure and subscribe to the weekly NEWS to find out all the island events!…
An ex-Connecticut Yankee who has called Cozumel home for over 18 years, Laura ran away to the Caribbean years ago, bumped around the islands teaching SCUBA diving, lost some time in Jamaica, and finally stopped in Cozumel for a 2 week vacation that hasn’t ended yet. With a degree in Journalism from a fancy private college she convinced her parents to pay for, Laura writes, edits, and creates the weeklyCozumel 4 You news,social media, and promotional articles about the island, as well as moderates the Cozumel 4 You Facebook group, which currently has over 25,000 members. Her long suffering husband, Fabian, has long since resigned himself to having zero private life, as he’s been involved in her various schemes and plots since his arrival. Proud parents to a variety of rescue dogs and cats, Laura continues to be the bane of her traditional Mexican mother-in-law’s existence, as she muses her way through life in the Mexican Caribbean.
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Una ex yanqui de Connecticut quien llama hogar a Cozumel desde hace más de 15 años. Laura escapó al Caribe hace años, desplazándose de una isla a otra dando clases de BUCEO. Se dedicó a perder el tiempo en Jamaica y finalmente se detuvo en Cozumel para pasar unas vacaciones de 2 semanas que aún no terminan. Convenciendo a sus padres que pagaran una elegante universidad privada, obtuvo su título en Periodismo y Laura crea semanalmente Cozumel 4You, medios sociales y artículos promocionales sobre la Isla y también es moderadora en el grupo Cozumel 4 You en Facebook que actualmente cuenta con 25,000 miembros. Fabián, s umuy tolerante marido, desde hace mucho tiempo se resignó a no tener vida privada, pues se ha visto implicado en los diversos proyectos y planes que urde Laura. Son orgullosos padres de diversos perros y gatos rescatados. Mientras contempla su paso a través de la vida en el Caribe mexicano,Laura continúa siendo la pesadilla en la existencia de su muy tradicional suegra mexicana.
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