What you can see on the San Miguel cam
From a hotel on the seafront, the view runs over a line of palms to the channel that separates Cozumel from the mainland. The water here is deep and clear, so its color changes with the sky: turquoise near the rocks, then a dark, almost violet blue. It is a good way to check how calm the channel is before taking the ferry, and whether the morning is bright or hazy.
The seafront north of San Miguel from Hotel B
This camera looks down from a hotel on the waterfront just north of downtown San Miguel. In the foreground are the tops of palms and a wooden deck with red chairs; to the right, a rocky outcrop at the water's edge has been turned into a terrace with its own small pool; beyond, the channel fills the whole picture, without a horizon in sight.
Looking almost straight down into the sea, it shows better than any other Cozumel cam how clear and calm the water is close to the shore. Webcams de México streams it, with the hotel's logo in the corner.
A town facing the mainland
San Miguel grew on the west coast because that is the sheltered side. The east coast takes the trade winds and the open Caribbean, and is still almost empty; the west coast, facing the mainland, has the harbor, the town and nearly all the hotels. The waterfront avenue, the malecón, runs along the shore for a few miles, with the ferry pier and the main square in the middle.
When to watch San Miguel
The mornings are usually the calmest moment in the channel, the best time to cross. In the evening the sun sets right in front of the waterfront, over the sea and the distant coast of the Riviera Maya, which makes the last hour of daylight the best one on this cam. On hazy days the mainland disappears altogether, and the channel looks like open ocean.
Nearby
The downtown waterfront, the main square and the ferry pier are a few minutes away. North of town, the road continues past hotels and small beaches toward the marina. Inland, the Maya site of San Gervasio was a shrine of the goddess Ixchel, visited by pilgrims from across the Yucatán.
Getting there
Passenger ferries cross from Playa del Carmen to the downtown pier in under an hour, several times a day. Downtown is easy to walk; taxis and rental scooters or cars are the usual way to reach the beaches of the south and the wild east coast. In the hurricane season, from June to November, check the official forecast before crossing.
