I brought in 2024 in a very unexpected way while staying in Cozumel, Mexico. The street that my accommodation was on became a block party complete with a band and (drum roll)—a drag queen!
The evening started with a beautiful beach sunset and dinner. Then, I celebrated at midnight with locals in a low key bar-restaurant setting in the main tourist area of San Miguel.
While I thought the night was over, I was both shocked and elated to find that the real party was right on the street back home with the neighbors. Furthermore, their support for the LGBTQ+ community was palpable, going against my previous held notions.
This goes to show that travel outside of the tourist areas really does produce some of the most unexpected and wonderful experiences that may even challenge your assumptions about a culture.
Sunset On New Years Eve
I had a friend, Creg, joining me from Chicago for 2 nights of my trip to Cozumel. This felt like such a great, balanced way to spend my time as a solo traveler: A couple of days with a friend and the rest of the time on my own.
We got to travel around the island of Cozumel on motorbikes all morning and afternoon. But we had plans for the evening!
I was determined to see the sunset to close out 2023! We went to get dinner at Alberto’s Beach—one of the few accessible beaches that doesn’t require a resort fee to enter.
We sat at a table right on the beach and I was able to set up my phone to capture a timelapse of the last sunset of 2023. See the video below!
A band began playing as the sun went down. We left Alberto’s beach just as they started playing the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We would have stayed, but we had plan to check out another location for New Years Eve.
Bringing In 2024 - The Planned Experience
The night before we explored the tourist area a bit to see if there was anything interesting going on. There wasn’t, but we hoped that would change for New Years Eve.
During our exploration, we found a really cool second floor restaurant called Chile Tequila. The lighting and design of the place was really cool. I figured that if we didn’t find anything else, we should totally come back here—and that’s what ended up happening.
Surprisingly, most of the tourist areas in Cozumel were pretty empty as we walked through at around 10pm. As it turns out, the cruise ships that stop over here go out to sea for New Years Eve because they can make more money keeping passengers on board.
When Creg and I went up to Chile Tequila, we were greeted not with a room full of tourists but a room full of locals!
There was only table seating—all of which was already reserved. So we found the only two spots at the bar off to the side: Swing seats!
I joked that we were “Swinging into the new year!”
This was an occasion to celebrate—Creg visiting, being in Mexico for the first time, and closing out was a pretty good year. So we got into it and had some beverages!
Drink #1: White Russian
Drink #2: Sangria
Drink #3: Prosecco Toast
The bar was playing an old football game on the TVs so we decided to take matters into our own hands. We pulled up a live YouTube feed of New Years Eve in Times Square on Creg’s phone and watched with it propped up on a water bottle.
All of this was (mostly) part of the plan. We wanted to bring in the new year surrounded by other people. Better yet, we got to do so in a room full of locals!
Next to us at the bar, there were many prepared glasses with 12 green grapes in each. I learned that this is a New Years Tradition from Spain called las doce uvas de la suerte or The Twelve Grapes of Luck.
We noticed how busy the bartenders were, so when midnight came and went we asked them what the plan was for the grapes. They smacked themselves in the head and said “So sorry! We forgot!”
Creg and I weren’t really concerned about it for ourselves but apparently it was meant to go to all the tables in the joint. Instead, the bartender grabbed one and gave it to us. We were the only ones there who got to bring in the new year in this traditional way!
There wasn’t much else going on at Chile Tequila. No dancing, no band, no locals up and partying. This was mostly intimate groups of families and friends at tables just drinking and enjoying each other. So Creg and I decided to call it a night.
What we didn’t realize is our night was only beginning!
On the way home, we caught a small party spilling over out of a restaurant onto the sidewalk. There was a band and people singing along and somewhat dancing. That didn’t really entice us.
In the distance, we also caught what appeared to be a small ship that people must have rented for a new years eve cruise—the ship was sparkling with lights in time to music.
We also walked by a bar that had some really cool lighting inside and a few people outside coaxing others to come in. They even gestured to us briefly. But we had already had our time at a bar with drinks.
I made a mental note to go back there, though—Pose. What a great name. Hmmmm! This name made me think of Queer Ballroom culture because of the show about it on FX called Pose.
The Aftermath - An Unexpected New Years Party
We made our way to our parked motorbikes and drove the back roads of San Miguel. We were on our way back to the accommodation I had booked for 9 nights. We were staying on the second floor of a local’s home, on a very residential street with no tourists around. I expected it to go back, maybe watch a movie, and go to sleep.
The entire ride home, these residential streets had no major parties going on. We mostly just saw some kids popping fire crackers in the streets. Occasionally, we could see some families gathered in someone’s home listening to music and drinking.
Then we pulled up closer to our street. We were actually unable to drive up to my host’s home because the entire street was blocked. A block party?
We parked the motorbikes around the corner and walked down the sidewalk. As we got closer, we saw all of the neighbors our on the street, sitting at tables that were brought along the sides. Some had fun disco lights set up and turned on. There was food and drink out on all the tables.
And that’s when we both heard and saw the most amazing and unexpected thing of all:
A drag queen.
I was completely flabbergasted! As a queer traveler, I always research places before I visit them to understand better the level of safety I should expect there. Everything I read about Mexico and Cozumel in particular said that this was a very Catholic culture and that any displays of affection were frowned upon—for anyone but particularly LGBTQ+ folks.
The last thing I expected was to see a drag queen on a microphone, doing karaoke in this quiet, residential part of San Miguel.
Creg and I initially began watching from up on the second floor, trying not to intrude on our neighbors party. As I looked around the street, I tried to assess how the drag queen was being received. Nobody was going up to her to tip her. I couldn’t imagine not tipping—this is simply drag show culture! So I got out a $5 and went down and gave it to her in front of everyone.
Creg captured the moment in the photo below.
She seemed happy to receive my tip but I still didn’t know what others thought about her or any of it.
Our host didn’t seem to have a table out on the street but Creg and I decided to grab some snacks from the room and sit down on the sidewalk to watch.
We were trying to stay out of the way and just observe without intruding. That’s when someone got up from the neighbor’s table next to us and one of the guys sitting there stood up and gestured toward two empty chairs.
“Come sit! Sit!” He said with enthusiasm. Creg and I replied, “No, no. Gracias!”
He insisted again and then the person who stood up came back with plates of food. They both gestured “Sit, sit!”
Well, now it would just be rude to turn down their hospitality. We got up and sat down and the others at the table passed 2 beers to us. Wow!
As the show went on, we soon realized the man who invited us to sit was clearly a major part of organizing this event. At one point, he came over to Creg and said in a thick Mexican accent, “He a man, you know? He gay, you know?!” Creg responded “Yes! Yes!” and we turned to each other and laughed so hard. Who knew this community would be so open and accepting of a drag performer!
Our neighbor in yellow stood up and interacted with the drag queen on occasion. He sang along to the songs with her. He was part prop, part side show, and he was clearly well respected and loved by his neighbors. Everyone laughed along—even the young kids sitting with their families—with both the queen and him and the moments they created on the street together.
At one point, he introduced his son and relatives to me. He even pointed out his dogs that were on the rooftop above his home looking down at us, afraid of the fireworks.
I turned to his son at one point and asked him, “Do people here support the LGBTQ community?”
He responded with an emphatic, “Yes, of course!” I asked him how this event was organized. He explained, “Every year, the community puts their money together to pay for the performer and the band.”
I was in absolute shock and so pleased at what I saw. It stood in stark contrast to the attacks on drag culture and LGBTQ+ people in the USA currently. With hundreds of bills across the states including drag bans and anti-transgender legislation, this “Catholic” culture that supposedly frowns upon public displays of affection was the last place I thought I would find any sort of acceptance of queer culture.
I asked for the name of the drag queen and I was even able to find her on social media. Her name is Jhoanna Roldan and her handle on Instagram is @jhoannaroldan.
She had the crowd laughing so much with her mic work in between songs. But Creg and I missed a lot because it was all in Spanish. We wouldn’t have it any other way, though. We became a part of the show because we had no idea what she was saying when she came up to ask Creg to participate in a beer drinking competition with her. This sent the crowd into an uproar of laughter. We just laughed at how white we are. Hahaha!
(By the way, she chugged a beer in front of us anyway and ended up being unbeatably fast!)
Jhoanna completed several lip sync performances and then the band started to play and people immediately got out of their chairs to dance in the street.
Now THIS was the party we had been looking for all night!
By around 2:30am, the band was still playing and people were dancing away. But Creg and I were tired and ready to turn in.
Check out the video overview below of our entire experience.
On our way back upstairs, we bumped into the people staying in one of the other rooms upstairs. These were two women, Ellen and Tori from Oregon who had been traveling for over a year. We all expressed surprise at seeing the drag queen on the street in front of our accommodation. They said they had just been watching but that this wasn’t the first drag performance they saw.
Apparently, that bar Pose is a gay bar where they saw drag performances all night! They said Pose is the first gay bar in Cozumel that only opened 3 months prior. Creg and I were absolutely astounded by this information. Who knew Cozumel was so queer?! I was now set on going to Pose at some point during my stay.
Creg and I went to sleep that night to the sounds of the party still going on outside. We also woke up to the sounds of the party still going as early as 6:30am! I did not mind at all that we were woken up by the ongoing party. It honestly made me smile and chuckle every time.
Ellen shared later with me the following photos from when the party smashed a piñata at like 5 in the morning! Mexicans really know how to party!
In Conclusion
We started off our New Years Eve seeking out a party in the tourist area of Cozumel. While we found a nice place to bring in the new year, it was more of a low key experience. Who knew that when we went back home, the party we didn’t even know we wanted was there the whole time.
As it turns out, our neighbors were hosting the best New Years Eve party in Cozumel! I just felt lucky to be there at the right place and right time to be welcomed right into it. This was so clearly a special experience that I never would have had if I had stayed in a hotel or closer to the tourist spots in San Miguel.
I am so grateful to the neighbors on our street for being so kind to us. And I am truly so proud to say that Cozumel was an entirely unexpected, welcoming place for me as a queer person.
What a brilliant way to bring in the new year!
