Cozumel is good place to learn

The visibility is excellent - that would give you more confidence.

My advice is - dont overlook those books and exercises - they are really important to understand, so you would be able to happily and safely SCUBA dive for many years to come.

I hope you will be able to overcome the psychological barrier - taking off your regulator and your mask are not difficult at all - especially you first would learn how to do these procedures in the pool - though during my time, when doing the Open Water Checkout Dives, those procedures are required and to be performed in "Open Water" - the definition of "Open Water" is, not in a swimming pool (closed, confined water).

Best of luck.