“…and I dream I’m on vacation, ‘cause I like the way that sounds,
it’s the perfect occupation…for me...”
Day 1 – Friday -
May 25th:
With a tip of the hat
to Joe Walsh and Eagles, the day was finally here! No more dreaming, we’re off
to our annual vacation home.
American Airlines flight 367, the daily commute to Cozumel, took off and arrived on-time to partly cloudy skies and much cooler temps than we expected.
Playa del Carmen
After the “all clear”,
we made our way to the taxi counter and purchased 2 one-way passes to Blue Angel Resort…Casa Sharky for the
next 2 weeks. A quick look at my ticket stub reveals, 96.00 Pecos per ticket,
about $16 U.S. dollars.
Riding down the Av. Milgar,
the ocean front boulevard and “main strip” of the island, I start my annual
census of the cruise ships during our stay and notice one Carnival cruise ship
at the downtown pier. I would take note later that day of another cruise ship
at the International Pier.
We checked into the
hotel to many “welcome homes”. The first night we spent in room 205, but were
moved to room 302 the next day, so I could accommodate my 6’-4” frame with a
king sized bed.
Room 205 floor icon
2 welcome strawberry margaritas were delivered to the room and we sipped on them as we shifted further into island time and watched the boat traffic pass by.
After stopping by the
dive shop and checking in with Pony and Martin, as our custom is, we walked the
full mile to downtown and picked up a Tracker from Less-Pay car rental. John
gave us the rate of $36/day including insurance, the same price we have paid
for years.
Less-Pay’s vehicles
are, let’s say, not the prettiest girls at the prom. But I must say, this year
we had probably the best one we have ever had. Well, at least all the gauges
worked, the tires were not bald, the doors & safety belts latched & the
head and dash lights worked. It also had an IN TACT roof and the windows
worked, with a little elbow grease.
Never the less, the
thing ran good and with all our running around we only used a little over a
tank of gas in 14 days of driving. We got the truck nearly out of gas and it
took $50 to fill it up. I added another $20 gas sometime later in the trip and
we turned it in with well over a quarter of a tank.
For our traditional first meal of the trip, we headed down
to Ernesto’s Fajita Factory for a
sunset dinner.
We decided on the
same thing, 2 traditional garlic fish dinners with rice and vegetables.
Now some folks,
including me, had reported that Ernesto’s had “slipped” a little in food
quality, but this dinner showed no sign of that.
The grouper was
cooked perfectly. Just through, very flaky, moist and seasoned to perfection.
The simple white rice was buttery and laced with carrot and peas. The veggies,
grilled, I believe, were very tasty as well and we both cleaned our plates as
the first of many incredible sunsets was framed by the open aired back wall of
the little restaurant.
After dinner we drove
around a little before going to Mega and stocking up on supplies. Yogurt and
granola for breakfast, along with plastic bowls and utensils, some Gatorade,
limes for cerveza, (my buddy Gordon Gunn had left us nearly a case and a half
of Negro Leon left over from their trip, seems they slightly over estimated the
“fishing beer”. So we didn’t have to buy any beer), and a foam cooler to keep
the beer on ice, making the in-room fridge available for soft drinks and any
food items we might want to keep cool.
Sunset from Ernesto's Fajita Factory
3 cruise ships at the International Pier and Maya Pier
complex.
I think the Museum is overlooked by many people.
We are often the only “tourists” up on the canopy covered, second story
terrace.
The food and service
are always top notch. Today we split what we consider to be two of their top
breakfast dishes. The egg, ham and cheese croissant is exceptional. A fresh
croissant pastry, filled with farm fresh eggs, thinly sliced ham and topped
with some very yummy white cheese.
The second dish
doesn’t sound like much, but for me, it’s quite possibly the ultimate breakfast...ok,
next to biscuits and gravy.
Back at Blue Angel it was getting near the time for the
reason why we are here. Time to get wet!
First dive of the
trip is always a “check out” dive at Villablanca
Shallows, (Max 23’, 42min.) out
in front and just to the south of Blue Angel.
After gearing up we
waded into the shallow entry between the break wall and the infamous Sting Ray
enclosure.
Trumpet fish with Stingray enclosure in background
My left knee had been bothering me so after helping her get her BC on and getting her into the water, I floated my gear out into chest deep water and donned my gear in the water.
After a couple days of diving, my knee worked its way back
into place and felt better than it had in weeks…I love diving.
I also love Villablanca Shallows, not much deeper than 25’,
unless you start heading out to sea that is, it is a hidden treasure for the
diving treasure hunter.
Lizzard fish at Villablanca Shallows
We found a Yellow
stingray, a Sharptail eel, a small spotted eel, several anemones, a trumpet
fish, arrow crabs, coral banded shrimp, a blenny, pincushion urchin, spiny
urchins, sea cucumbers and a flounder, all before clearing the fence…and that
was the first 15 to 20 minutes of nearly an hour long adventure poking around
the many small coral heads and buoy anchors scattered around the area.
We saw a couple more
Sharptail eels, both feeding in the sand, very cool. A small puffer, a couple
more trumpet fish, Flamingo tongues on the slowly returning gorgonian sea fans
and a few small spotted eels along with the usual variety of juvenile versions
of the adults we see on the big reef.
Sharptail eel at Villablanca Shallows
And they say Cozumel shore diving isn’t very good.
Anemone at Villablanca Shallows
Ok, everything
appears to be working from mask to fins. My trusty 31 year old USD Conshelf XIV
has a slight leak in the second stage on the surface, but under water is
working fine…love my reg.! Note to self, make a trip to ScubaToys & get
some maintenance done.
Day 3 – Sunday – June 27:
No ships on Sunday.
Don’t mess with it!
First boat dive of
the trip would be aboard my favorite BA dive boat the Chiquimax.
She has the most room
of the hotel’s 2 dive equipped Panga fishing boats; they type of boat that most
of the dive ops use on the island.
Dive boats prepare to depart at Blue Angel pier
There was a third
“fast boat”, but apparently Jabara finally had to be retired, someone said it
was literally falling apart on his last trip to the island. The hotel appeared
to be hiring one or two, extra boats on several mornings.
They also have 2
larger cabin cruiser style boats they us for the 10:00am dives that cater to
cruise shippers and folks coming over from the Yucatan.
With the always
smiling Servando as our guide and our buddy Captain Alberto, at the helm, we
point the boat south to the marine park and Palancar Bricks,(80’ Max., 50min.), one of four individual, but
equally impressive Palancar titled dive sites.
Palancar Bricks reef
Bricks, named for the masonry bricks that were dumped in the area by a ship that went down in the storm, many years ago. Although I’ve been told that most of the actual bricks are located closer to Columbia Shallows.
Bricks is a beautiful wall dive, with several large
swim-thus. Large grouper paralleled us out over the abyss as we made our way down
the reef in the extremely mild current.
Large French Angel
Sponges at Palancar Bricks
After the mandatory
surface interval and provided snack of melon and muffins, we headed for the
first of three visits to Cedral Pass or
Paso de Cedral, (71’Max, 50min.).
The dive site is
located directly off shore from the 100 year old town of Cedral, located a
couple miles inland off the main highway.
Hawksbill Sea turtle at Cedral Pass
Cedral Pass is a
mid-shelf series of reef ridges running from south to north parallel to the
shoreline. Maxing out around 65’, but staying closer to 45-50’ for most of the
dive we followed one ridgeline and occasionally moved over to a parallel one
along the way.
My lovely bride...perfect trim!
Every year we hit one
site that seems to be more popular with the Hawksbills than the other sites. We
call them “Turtle Town” sites, taking the name from a dive site on Maui,
Hawaii. This year Cedral fit the bill.
We saw no less than 7
of Cozumel’s most populous sea turtles, a couple very good sized and one that
was simply huge.
Hawksbill feeds at Cedral Pass
Large angels of all
three varieties, Queen, Gray and French were scattered all about. Some of the
Grays in particular were very large and almost always in pairs.
Scrolled file fish
also seem to be in abundance, on most of the mid-level reefs or even the top
side of the wall dives we dove on this trip. Hanging upside down as they search
the reef for whatever it is they eat.
Is there really an
upside down when you live in a suspended state?
Divers approach tube sponges
Back at the casa, we take advantage of the built-in lunch
with our hotel/dive package and eat at the Blue Angel Restaurant.
Eva’s Kitchen Sink Salad
for my dive buddy. A large salad with just about everything yummy one could put
on a fresh salad meal.
After lunch, we
jumped in the truck and pointed her south to circumnavigate the island.
I must say, that the
efforts of the Little Trashy Group,
(find them on Facebook), and others are nothing short of astonishing!
Not anymore. The
trash is almost non-existant, even in places where it made a long, continuous
strip with the sea grass washed up on the windward side beaches.
Even on the “tourist”
side of the island, the litter has been picked up and looks like the clean-up
is being kept up as well.
Kudos to that all
have had a hand in that…litter is a huge pet peeve of mine. There is no reason
for it.
The rest of the trip
was just site seeing, Playa Bonita, Chin Rio, Coconuts, Punta Morana,
Mescelitos and then a hard left back into the interior of the island back to
San Miguel.
…just a look.
We headed up to the
North Hotel Zone and were thinking about making our way up to Punta Norte, but
the mesquitos quickly changed our minds.
Once we got just a short way onto the unpaved road that leads up to the natural harbor, cove with a ringside view of Isla Pasion, the “skeeters” stated filling the open-aired vehicle and I quickly made a U-turn and tried to get some speed up to blow them out.
Anyway, we got the heck out of there and headed back to the hotel to freshen up a little before going to a Cozumel classic for dinner.
Casa Denis is Cozumel’s oldest and still
one of the best, traditional Mexican food restaurants. Most long time visitors
to the island consider it mandatory.
Casa Denis
One thing they do
very well is Mango margaritas…two of those please.
Cream Spinach soup and Mixed Seafood cocktail (cerviche) for
the boss and Mixed Mexican plate special for me.
I can’t even remember
what all was on the Mexican plate, taco, enchilada, skirt steak, fried
plantains, small quesadilla, rice, black bean frijois…maybe more. I know it was
more than I could do in one sitting, and very good to boot.
Steet performing fire jugglers at Casa Denis
Back to the hotel to
get the SCUBA equipment ready for the next morning, off to bed and….
One ship at the International Pier, the Carnival Conquest.
It’s the beginning of slow season for the cruise ships, when a lot of them are
being sent to Alaska and Europe, so we didn’t have as many in town as we are
accustomed to when we are here in late April.
Jorge took a vote of
where to go and somehow we ended up with Cedral
Pass, (83’Max, 1hr. 4 min.).
Again, turtle city. I
‘m pretty sure we actually saw a couple of the same turtles we saw the day
before, just by the size of them. There were easily a total of 7 seen again on
this day.
Large angels and
scrawled filefish along with a couple huge Nassau groupers cruised by.
Scrawled filefish with divers
My suspicion is that
they are looking for Lion fish handouts.
Queen Angel at Cedral Pass
We took our surface
interval at the little pier located out in the middle of nowhere, near Cedral
Pass and Jorge suggested doing “the rest” of Cedral, saying we only did half of
it on the first dive.
Sounded good to us,
so a short 5 minute boat ride and we were getting wet again.
It always amazes me
how the boat captains can find the dive sites by just triangulating between the
boat, landmarks on the shore and reef position below the boat, but Alberto
dropped us off at nearly the exact same place that we surfaced from the first
dive.
The second half of Cedral Pass, (71’ Max., 1hr 8min.), is pretty much the same as the first, the
finger-like ridges continue parallel to the shore with flat sandy stretches in
between.
King Crab at Cedral Pass
We saw many of the
usual subjects, lots of angels, Blue Chromas everywhere, a small spotted eel,
arrow crabs and a Splendid Toadfish, along with more large grouper and turtles.
Silver Grouper at Cedral Pass
2 very fun, casual
dives with lots to see.
For dinner, we went
up to the Blue Angel restaurant and split Caesar’s Salad and Fettuccini Alfredo
with grilled chicken. Both very rich and tasty, maybe a little too rich for me,
but flavor right on spot.
2 Carnival ships at the International Pier.
We headed out for a
morning dive with Jorge, this time on the somewhat smaller Blue Angel II fast
boat.
Cathedral was the
first choice of the day.
Cathedral, (96’ Max,m 47min.), is part of the Punta Sur dive sites, where
Devil’s Throat is found and is a spectacular wall dive with soaring pinnacles
and large crevices to move in and out of and explore the immense variety of
life that makes up the coral reef. Maybe Cozumel’s most impressive wall dive,
although Cozumel Deep is impressive as well.
A barracuda was
waiting for his close-up as we hit the top of the reef and slipped over the
edge.
Deep Sea fans
Arrow crab
Lion fish
Baracuda
Second stop, the
beautiful Francesa, (65’ Max., 1hr
9min.), another mid-level garden reef covered with sponges, soft and hard corals.
French Grunt in overhang
Orange spotted
filefish and tons of angels crisscrossed the reef, along with, again, more
Scrawled filefish, they seemed to be everywhere!
I found a good sized
Fire worm and made a couple shots. A Hawksbill paid us no mind as she continued
to feast on sea grass and algae.
Fire worm
Jorge found a
Scorpion fish, one of maybe one two we found on the entire trip. He also
spotted two Splendid Toadfish with his new “super eyes”, as someone described
them.
Scorpion fish
It’s true, Jorge had Lasik or some sort of eye correction
surgery, and the guy was spotting toadfish backed up into their holes from 20’
feet away!! My 51 year old peepers could had a hard time picking them out when
I was right on them!
After getting back to
the hotel, rinsing equipment and looking at the daily photos on the TV. (I plug
my camera into the A/V outlets on the room TV and we can look at how good, or
bad, I did during that day’s dive).
The Alfredo sauce from the night before, although very good,
had indeed been a little rich for me and my stomach had been rolling around all
morning, so back at the hotel I took a nap and ended up sleeping a good part of
the afternoon.
For dinner I drove up
to Rock-n-Java and ordered up some
dinner to go.
I kind of think
Rock-n-Java is overlooked by many people because they think it is a coffee shop
or internet bar and not a full restaurant.
It is not only a full
restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner; it is one of the best places
on the island to satisfy that sweet tooth.
The owner, Lisa, is
an incredible baker and always has a nice variety of wonderful pies and cakes
in the cooler as you walk in the door.
I ordered Potato
skins for appetizers, Grilled chicken breast with veggies and rice for the main
course and piece of New York cheesecake with cherry topping for dessert.
While waiting for the
food to come, a scuba diving legend walked in to get some change.
Renee “Apple”
Applegate has quite a story. It’s too much for me to get into here, but look
her up on the internet sometime. I snapped what turned out to be a very cool
ghostly image of her as she walked by outside on her way back next door to Dive
Paradise.
Ghostly image of a Diving legend...
The rain that had
been building up throughout the afternoon over on the Yucatan made for a
spectacular sunset as we enjoyed our meal.
Day 6 – Wednesday
– May 30:
2 ships in town, 1 Carnival at the I.P. and one Disney at
the downtown pier.
Wednesday was a
dedicated day off from diving. We slept in a little, had some yogurt and
granola in the room for breakfast.
We packed the soft
sided cooler we brought with us and jumped in the jeep, eventually ending up at
Coconut’s on the “wild side” of the island.
Coconut’s sits on a
cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea and for many years has been my
Margaritaville.
It is a large
open-air palapa with over flow seating of umbrella topped tables in the sandy
area beside the bar. Sirus supplied old school Classic Rock always playing over
the speakers and menagerie of domesticated and wild animals scattered about.
Not to mention the
“family albums”, a large collection of photo albums full of pics of women who
taken off their tops for a photo and a t-shirt…usually alcoholic induced, Brad
Paisley would be proud.
We found a table
under the palapa and ordered up two the nearly famous, and deadly, margaritas
and looked over the menu as classic rock filled the air.
I opted out of my
usual fish burger, a very good grilled fish sandwich with cheese, and went for
chicken fajitas. Fajitas just sounded good. While Lore had shrimp tacos…what
else. The girl could live off of shrimp and guacamole. Nothing wrong with that!
While we were waiting
for the food to come, I made the rounds to the menagerie, taking some photos of
the Blue Macaw, who I can’t remember its name, Lorenzo the Green Parrot, who’s
photos never seem to work out and my old buddy Chimichanga the gorgeous white
Cockatoo.
Chimichanga
She was acting a little wild, running all over her perch contraption, so I didn’t try and hold her. She usually puts out a foot for me to pick her up when she sees me, but I think she was too wrapped up in her sudden burst of energy to deal with me at the moment.
The weather was
amazing; warm, but not hot, humidity seemed low and the breeze knocked down
most of what was there anyway.
Luna, the little
mixed terrier, was holding court over the other two dogs. Although she’s the
smallest of the three, she’s the oldest and obviously the head of the
pack…pretty funny..
Luna
We sat back and
enjoyed the afternoon; people came and went, one of the employees climbed into
the rafters to hang the latest addition to the t-shirt collection in the rafters.
my business card on one of the columns
Later, back at the
hotel, we decided to go up to Blue Angel’s restaurant for dinner and ran into
Wayne and Anna from the dive boat.
They had made an
afternoon dive with Jorge and had done some Lionfish hunting.
This was the first
time either of us had tried the “nemesis of the Caribbean” and we were totally
impressed!
A light, flakey white
meat with an almost a sweet flavor. Quite possibly the best fish I have ever
had, even better the famed ‘Ono’ fish from Hawaii, who’s name literally means
delicious.
Day 7 – Thursday –
May 31:
3 ships at the I.P./Mayan piers; 2 Carnival and 1 Royal
Caribbean
The previous night
ended up being a late one, so we opted out of the morning dive and slept in a
little.
I walked around the
grounds and shot some photos. The Atlantis submarine was dry docked, well
actually it was just sitting on the ground near the pier next to Blue Angel
where they launch a lot of small craft from. So I wondered over there and took
a couple photos of the sub out of water.
Atlantis submarine in drydock.
Trans Caribe ferry coming into dock in background
Hybiscus at Blue Angel
We did the Atlantis
in Maui one year before my lovely wife became a diver. It was pretty cool, but
I kept wishing the entire time I was on the outside looking in, rather than the
other way around. I did take one of my
favorite vacation photos of the inside of the sub as we were exiting the craft.
Blue Angel lobby
I had made
arrangements to meet Annie from Cozumel Radio Online to meet her and make a
couple on-air promotional spots for the station. www.cozumelradioonline.com
She showed just as we
were headed to lunch, so we invited her to join us along with folks we had met
on the dive boat, Sylvia, Wayne, Anna & Jim.
Lore and I each had
BLT’s for lunch. Others had the diver’s lunch with fish which includes, a small
salad, a ½ of a small baked potato & rice; Chili Rellenos & ceviche…all
to favorable reviews.
After lunch, Annie
and I made our way down to the lobby and I made a spots for the radio station
and made arrangements to meet Annie again later in the trip to possibly make a
couple more. Tune in and listen for the “Sharky” spots!!
1 ship at the International Pier.
After a two day hiatus, we were more than ready to get back
to diving.
Back aboard Chiquimax
with Jorge and Alberto, we made the request for Yucab Wall, (92’ Max., 36min.), one of our favorite dive sites.
Lore’s computer
didn’t start automatically, as it was supposed to when she hit the water. She
didn’t notice it until we were at depth and it was too late to turn it on, so
we dove together, at a very conservative depth and cut the dive a little short,
but still were able to see a few of those huge Rainbow parrot fish, a large
Green Morey free swimming, a couple of Splendid toadfish and the usual parade
of Queen, French & Gray angelfish.
Don't touch!! A type of fire coral
Pez Leon, (Lion fish)
Green Morey eel
Yellow spotted stingray
Second dive was
another top favorite, aren’t they all?
Villablaca Wall, (65’Max., 1hr 3min.), is where the sand flats drop
off into the deep water of the channel and sits just off shore from basically
the International Pier, north, to…well I guess you could go at least to
downtown.
For some
unexplainable reason, we have only been diving this site for 3 years…don’t know
what we or our dive masters were thinking!
small spottted eel
This is an amazing
sloped shelf dive. I used to call it a true wall dive, because it doesn’t have
any in’s and out’s just a sheer shelf covered with tons of sponges, especially
Barrel sponges and mostly soft corals. Very few “coral heads”.
We usually don’t see
a whole lot large sea life on this dive. It’s a little more of a treasure hunt.
You have to poke around in the little crevices and overhangs along the way.
Lobster in overhang at Villablanca Wall
Taking this approach,
I found many Arrow crabs and brittle sea stars, in and around the tube sponges.
We found this tee-niny lobster backed down inside a purple tube sponge…you
could see the “aw” on several of the diver’s faces as we pointed it out to
them.
Baby lobster in tube sponge
Several Yellow Spotted sting ray glided down the slope
throughout the dive, some even stopped to pose for a photo.
Arrow crab
Anemone with Arrow crab
Anemone
I found a couple Fire
worms and several Coral Banded shrimp, a subject I spent many shutter clicks
trying to get “the shot” of throughout the trip.
I don’t know why I
got so obsessed with them on this trip, but I did.
Back at the hotel we sat around the dive shop talking about
the day’s dives and telling diver’s stories for a while and then got cleaned up
and headed to what my lovely wife has dubbed as her “new favorite” restaurant
on Cozumel.
We “discovered” Le Chef just walking around one day a
couple years ago after hearing about it for many years, and decided to try
it…what was the hold up?
I can’t remember
right off hand what we had the first time, I’d have to check last year’s trip
report to confirm it, but I know it was excellent.
We settled down in
the small bistro chair and tables on the sidewalk under the shade of the blue
awning and surveyed the menu.
The waiter brought
out complementary Bruschetta bread; toasted slices of French baguette with a
tomato/basic chutney on top. Very refreshing.
An appetizer caught
our attention; fried brie, with fruit and bread.
Ok, it sounds simple,
but man! Was it good! The brie had been fried, I assume pan seared, where it
had a nice crispy crust on the outside, but the cheese was still intact, firm
and not melting everywhere.
It came on a wooden
cutting board with a vertical piece on it that had a magnet in it and 3
specialty cheese tools for getting the right slice. (I know, a great place for
a “cutting the cheese” joke, but I shall restrain).
Grapes, slice of
apple, nectarines & strawberries, maybe more fruit also along with more
toasted baguette to finish off the plate…it was practically a meal in its self.
A couple glasses of wine and this dish would be a great way
to pass any afternoon or early evening.
For the main course,
Lore had the shrimp pizza which she said was excellent. I don’t care too much
for shrimp, so I took her word for it.
I had pizza as well,
opting for the vegetable pizza.
The pies are thin
crust and small enough, 8” tops, for one hungry person to handle. With a salad
and or appetizer, two people could easily split one. We were starving and
nearly finished all of ours…you just couldn’t stop!
The crust was firm and crunchy without being tough and had plenty of support for the multitude of veggies that were stacked high on top of it.
Most of the
vegetables appeared to be pre-cooked, and tasted as if they had been oven
roasted…awesome! Red onions, broccoli, spinach, tomato, zucchini, mushrooms, and
the rest of the garden!!
While we were waiting
for our food, one of the “boat people” from the trip came walking around the
corner with a friend, so we invited them to join us.
Jim is from Minnesota,
but owns a house here on Cozumel near Playa San Francisco; we would pick him up
at the San Francisco day beach pier in the mornings before hitting the reef.
Jim’s friends name
was Steve who is from Juno, Alaska where he operates a fishing lodge called the
Red Fish Lodge.
He had some great
stories of grizzly bears taking over the camp, and of course some good fish
stories as well.
We sat round with
them until it was time for me to make my way to Dr. Scott Kircher for a “tune
up”.
I met Dr. Scott last
year after several people told me about him. They thought he could maybe do
something to help my sea sickness issues.
He’s an unusual type
of chiropractor. He doesn’t do a lot of adjustments like the cracking of the
neck type. It’s more of a pressure point type process.
His office had been
closed by the city for some reason, so I met him at his house.
Dr. Scott’s house was in a little neighborhood just behind the impressive complex. A very nice multi-level white stucco house with a large second story patio that just happens to be for sale...wheels start turning. “I could live back here.”
He asked a few
questions, had me lay down, pushed here, pulled there, adjusted my hips, had me
stand up, more pushing and pulling, lay down, a neck adjustment and a little
more pressure point work and I was ready to go.
I’m still not sure exactly what he’s doing, but I do know I feel a lot better for a long time after seeing him.
For dinner, we tried
something new. Since we didn’t finish lunch until very late in the afternoon,
we didn’t start feeling hungry again until it was nearly 10:00pm.
I drove down and
ordered a cheeseburger and fries to go. It wasn’t bad, I would definitely go
back and eat there again, but I wish I had looked the menu over a little
better. They had Tapa sandwiches on the back page. I would have maybe gone for
one of those instead.
It’s nice to know
that something close is open late though. We have a habit of eating late
lunches and then not being hungry until a lot of places are closed or getting
ready to.
Blue Angel sunset
Morning dive aboard Chiquimax with Jorge and Alberto we headed to Palancar Gardens, (78’Max., 53min.), for our first visit to the truly apply named dive site.
“Gardens” is an
absolutely beautiful dive site that actually does resemble a garden of corals
and sponges.
Large swim-thrus and
crevices along the Deep Sea fan covered wall give you places to explore and
find small arrow crabs, large King crabs and the occasional small spotted eel
finding refuge in a hole.
More very large
grouper, a free swimming Green Morey and two more Splendid Toadfish accompanied
the spectacular scenery.
Free swimming Green Morey
Bearded Slendid Toadfish with babies
I’ve said it before;
I’m just as drawn to the reef its self as I am to the fish & critters.
It seems there are
some people that overlook the forest for the trees, so to speak. They make a
dive where there aren’t a lot of large fish, turtles, rays or large schools of
fish and they say they come up saying they didn’t see anything…You didn’t see
anything!?!? That was one of the most spectacular reefs in the world…and you
didn’t see anything?!
But I digress…
So, Jorge had Albert take Thomas back to the hotel and dropped him off at the pier, so he wouldn’t have to sit on the boat for another hour plus while the rest of us made our second dive.
Bandid Coral Shrimp at Villblanca Wall
I really don’t mind
diving sites multiple times, but because of that happening and the wind kicking
up later in the trip, we didn’t do Columbia Deep or Shallows on this
trip…almost sacrilegious!
Never mind that, we’ll get there next trip and appreciate it even more.
V.B. Wall was just as spectacular as it was the day before,
although the current was slightly stronger, but still quite mild and easy to
turn your head into it and gently kick so you could hover over a subject.
Juvenile Trunk fish
Rock Beauty peaks out of hole at Villablanca Wall
We found a small
light green/yellow spotted eel and the lobster under the shelf from the day
before, but the crab was nowhere in site.
I found another Fire
worm and three Carpet anemones all grouped together.
Carpet anemone
It was!! A Seahorse!
I’m pretty sure this is the first one I’ve found on my own. I signaled to Lore
and took a couple shots. Turns out, when the strobe hit him, he was bright
orange and his portrait came out rather well.
After the daily
rinse, we headed up to the restaurant for 2 Diver’s Lunches with fish before
going to do one of the things I look forward to most when visiting Cozumel.
I ALWAYS go to see my
pal Sally Hurwitch, better known as “Barfoot Sally”. www.barefootincozumel.com for a massage.
Sally is an expert,
and I mean expert in Ashiatu, Reiki & Swedish messages. I always go for the
full hour of Ahiatu, the thing she is known for.
Just like Dr. Scott,
there are times I don’t know what she’s doing back there, or even HOW she’s
doing it, but Zowie Batman, it is the best massage I have ever had. This coming
from one who has a lot of neck and shoulder tightness and gets massages on a
regular basis.
I have been trying to
talk my beautiful bride of 23 years into coming with me and get a message for
several years and this year she finally took me up on it…she agrees, Sally is
the best!
Nevertheless I was
able to get a couple nice “artistic” shots, I found Woody’s & Bob, home of
the Big ‘O’ Beer, two places I’d heard about, but didn’t know exactly where they were at.
The 100 year old clock tower in the Plaza
Vendor in the Plaza with children
colorful shopping!
I also met the owner
of the new restaurant that has opened in the old Prima’s location, just off the
square. His name is Ed and from what I hear, La Terraza has a good thing going
with both food and service.
We didn’t make it,
although we wanted to. A couple places
we wanted to go to became victims of late lunches and us being intercepted by
others, changing our plans at the last moment.
I made it back to
Sally’s just in time for Lore to be finished and after driving around a bit, we
headed back to the hotel to relax for a little while.
“That. Was amazing!”
she said when we got back to the jeep.
“Told-ja.” I said
with a smile.
Dinner time came
around and neither of us wanted anything “heavy”, so we decided to go to Rock-n-Java for something “light”.
The road to heaven is
paved with good intentions.
Ok, we didn’t really
blow it, but didn’t really go light either.
I had a craving for
some quac, so we ordered quacamole and chips for openers. Lore got the spinach
and mushroom quesadillas and I got the chicken and turkey club with pasta
salad. This was the club of all clubs!!!
Very fresh and
refreshing, but huge!! It was way more than I could handle, although I gave it
the old college try…I was stuffed!
Over dinner Lore said she was considering staying a couple more days if we could get seat changes on the plane.
More time on Coz?
Nooo, I wouldn’t want that would I?!
Back at the hotel we
checked flight availability and contemplated the subject some more. Although I
figured it was pretty much a done deal.
Day 10 – Sunday –
June 3:
It was raining when I
woke up. It had been raining on and off most of the night and continued into
the mid-morning.
Jorge & Alberto
actually had a day off and we were paired with our old pal Jose on the
Chiquimax with Rafael at the helm.
I love diving with
Jose as much as I do Jorge. They have different styles, but are both excellent
DM’s. Plus Jose is a priest, always good company on a Sunday dive as far as I’m
concerned.
It was raining so
hard on the way out that Jose put on his mask so he could stand at the helm
with the captain and see where we were going.
First stop Francesa, (60’Max., 1hr 1min.). I think
we did a different part of the reef than we did with Jorge on the second dive a
couple days earlier.
A large barracuda was
waiting for us as we made our way over the edge of the reef.
A couple more massive
Nassau grouper were mixed in with the other Nassau and Silver grouper. The
grouper are finally coming back from the over fishing done before the marine
park was established, we saw some massive ones.
Massive Nassau grouper at Francessa
I found 2 more large
Fire worms, one stretched out making its way across the reef. The other one was
wrapped around a small branch coral.
I started finding
more Flamingo tongues as the trip progressed, finding two on this dive attached
to branch corals, rather than their usual host of Gorgonian sea fans.
The group stayed in
fairly close proximity to each other and everyone all about the same time saw
the huge, and I mean huge, Loggerhead sea turtle. It was pretty much right in
the middle of all of us and just lazily made its way past us headed south as
the current took us north.
Nurse shark
Towards the end of
the dive, I noticed Anna flapping her arms and pointing. I could tell she was
excited about seeing a ray of some sort, so I moved a little shallower and low
and behold there was a very large Eagle ray.
It was too far way
for me to try and swim to it before it would pass me by so I just sat back and
watched it “fly” by.
Man, the diving has
been good this trip!
Francessa reef shot
Blue Angel II picks up divers from safety stop
After the safety stop
at the little pier that sits in the middle of nowhere, we headed nearly
straight out to Tormentos/Yucab, (59'Max., 1hr 5 min). One of Jose’s hybrid dives, mixing the end of
one site with the beginning of another.
Both of these reefs
are just nothing short of spectacular. I know I keep saying it, but it’s true,
the reefs have not looked this good since hurricane Wilma, just stunning.
Schools of grunts and snapper were hanging out all over the reef. I like to swim through the large schools and have them just part enough to let me pass.
Schools of grunts and snapper were hanging out all over the reef. I like to swim through the large schools and have them just part enough to let me pass.
I found a small
lizard fish poised on a sponge and took it’s photo.
Large Gray angel
pairs hung together under outcrops. I found a very large Silver grouper peeking
out from behind the reef and took his portrait.
Jose made a great
find, spotting two Slender filefish hanging onto a coral branch. That’s what
he’s good at, finding little critters.
Slender file fish
I found a juvenile Lionfish hanging out near a small ledge.
I took one shot of it, just before it moved under the ledge. I repositioned
myself to take another shot and stuck out a finger into the sand about a foot
in front of the little fish.
The territorial instinct
in these animals comes young. It immediately pointed all its dorsal fins
forward in a defensive pose, before backing up further into the crevice.
Taking the hint, I moved on.
Juvenile Lion fish
I was floating along
looking down into every little crevice and hole I could find when something
caught my attention.
It was a very small
eel in a hole. Maybe 6” long at the most, yellow and black, or brown stripped.
I’ve never seen an eel that small before. Probably a juvenile spotted eel,
those stripes will form into spots as the animal grows older, I suspect.
(Update: with a little help from my friend Kari at Blue Angel Scuba School, this critter was ID'd as a Harlequin Pipe fish.)
(Update: with a little help from my friend Kari at Blue Angel Scuba School, this critter was ID'd as a Harlequin Pipe fish.)
Harlequin Pipe fish in hole
Tormentos always pays
off. Lore found a Scorpion fish who made the big mistake of leaving its tail
outstretched over the sand, while the rest of it was completely camouflaged by
the reef it was laying on.
We found several
Flamingo tongues, again, most of them on coral branches rather than on
Gorgonians.
Lore found a nice
group of Tube fans, posing nicely for a photo op, as did a large hermit crab
sitting on a shelf.
More large angels and
grouper, joined the parade of schools of grunts and snapper hanging over the
reef like giant squadrons of dirigibles.
Silver grouper comes out for a look
Large Fire worm stretches accross the reef.
Flamingo Tongue
Tube fans
Hermit crab on shelf
Just an awesome dive
overall and pretty much sealed up the deal…we were staying an extra three days
to make the trip a full two weeks.
After lunch at Blue Angle of Chicken chimichanga for me and Shrimp chili rellano for her, (very positive reviews on the stuffed chili), we checked with Eva at the front desk to make sure she had room for us for an extra three nights.
She assured us she did, and we headed to the room to try and make the plane ticket exchange.
I got online and found out it could not be done that way, so she picked up the phone and tried calling American Airlines.
For some reason, the
call wasn’t going through. We noticed the time and figured if we got to the
airport right away, we may get there before the gates close for the day.
We jumped in the jeep
and b-lined it to the airport, just to find the gates had been closed for the
day.
Once again we tried
calling AA, this time right there in the airport. Lore was able to get through
and we made the change to the Thursday afternoon flight back to Dallas/Ft.
Worth…whoo whoo! More dive time!!
We went back to the
hotel and informed the front desk and Martin at the dive shop of the good news…put
us on a boat tomorrow morning!
The rain kicked back
up that evening, but was gone by the next morning.
Day 11 – Monday –
June 4
1 ship at the
International Pier.
Normally, this is where I write, “They make us go home.”
Horseshoe is a spectacular wall dive of cliffs, canyons and
pinnacles, covered with all the splendor Cozumel has to offer. It has
everything to offer in a wall dive.
And today, a special
treat.
We all dropped over
the edge of the reef and made our way to dive depth. I hit 94 feet and worked
my way back up to 80 about the time I heard Jorge’s rattle from his shaker.
I looked in his
direction and he’s giving the shark signal…EVERYONE is giving the shark
signal!!
I looked in the
direction of all the pointing. At this time, I am above almost everyone in the
group. Below me about 20’ I spot the familiar outline of a shark…but wait just
a moment…this isn’t the outline of a Nurse shark, it had a much more rounded
and pointed shaped nose than a nurse. And was silvery/gray in color, not dark
skinned like a nurse.
My first “real” shark
on Coz!! After over a dozen years of diving down here, I finally saw my first
“real” shark!
It was too far away
for a clear ID, but it was about five feet long and definitely a reef shark of
some sort.
Jorge found no less
than three Splendid Toadfish within several feet of each other on a slope, full
of small crevices the indigenous fish of Cozumel like to hang out in.
Sea cucumber in "spikey" mode
Gorgonian sea fan
After a quick trip to
the little pier in the middle of nowhere to gas off, we headed to the mid-shelf
garden reef called Punta Dalila,
69’Max., 1hr 4min.
Ok, I know I sound like a broken record, but man, have the reefs improved.
I’d have to check my
records, but I don’t think we dive Dalila a lot. I don’t know what we are
thinking! We need to speak up on the boat more!
Fire coral!
Once again the reef is just covered with growth, with the hydroids being much less of the majority, and tube and barrel sponges taking the dominate place on the reef.
The dive is one of
those somewhat shallow, reef formations spread out in a low ridge running parallel
to the shoreline.
Scrawled filefish,
Gray and French angel pairs along with solo Queen Angels dot the landscape. We
find at least three Hawksbills and several of those huge parrot fish, that I
can’t seem to get a decent photo of cruised past.
Scrawled filefish
We found another
Splendid Toad fish and a juvenile Lion fish, a few Orange filefish and many of
the usual suspects of various butterfly fish, Blue Chromis, Damsels &
wrasse.
Orange filefish
Honeycomb cowfish
At the risk of being redundant…awesome.
Wayne, one of the dive boat crowd for the week had hired a sailboat for a sunset cruise that afternoon and asked us and several other people to come along.
It turned out to be a
nice, small group of us, Wayne, his dive partner, Anna and Blue Angel’s
resident underwater videographer, Tony and his lovely bride Lisa.
Now getting to a dive
site quick is beneficial for both the diver and the dive operator. So having a
boat with a motor is essential for the operation, but there is no better way to
enjoy time on the water than on a sailboat. Period.
3:00pm rolled around
and right on time, Dario Melendez pulled up to the Blue Angel dock on his
beautiful 48 foot sailboat. www.cozumelboattrips.com
She’s very pretty
indeed, nice long lines, the teal wood all stained and sealed. She has a
deceptively large cabin below with full galley and lots of room to move around.
Dario had is young
grandson Eduardo as first mate, bartender and waiter for the trip.
We all found seats
about the main cabin/helm area or on the cushioned lounges, just in front of
the cabin and we shoved off for a leisurely, three hour plus cruise along the
Cozumel coast.
After introductions
all around, Dario asked “Which direction first?”
Daario at the helm
The general consensus
was South, so South it was.
Ahh, the amazing calm
of being on an open sailboat, for a pleasure cruise, none of that racing
stuff…belive me, that’s a lot of work!
He had stocked beer,
soft drinks and water all cooled off and ready to go. Eduardo set each person
up with what they needed drink wise and headed back down stairs to bring up the
first course.
Being photographers,
Tony and I had a lot to talk about and being photographer’s wives, Lore and
Lisa had a lot to talk about.
We all talked,
laughed and listened to stories from Dario while Radio Margaritaville played
softly in the background, we enjoyed the beautiful afternoon as he took us all
the way just south of Punta Sur, came about and took us North to just shy of
the Northern Hotel zone before returning us back to the dock at Blue Angel,
with just enough time for him to get back to his mooring, which is just off the
boat launch right next door to Blue Angel.
If you are on the
island, you can see his boat, moored where I just described any time he is not
out to sea.
Interesting story
about the boat, she has been completely rebuilt 3 times by Dario himself, the
last time after hurricane Wilma.
He has sailed her
from Mexico to the European continent & the Mediterranean Sea, down to the
Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, to South America and back home to Mexico…I
think today’s cruise was much easier.
We all got together
at the Blue Angel restaurant for appetizers and drinks and talked late into the
evening before we all agreed getting some sleep before work and diving would be
a good idea.
Day 12 – Tuesday –
June 5-
3 ships; 1 downtown
and 2 at the I.P.
Lore opted out of the morning dive, so it was me buddying up with Jorge for another trip to the beautiful Palancar Gardens, 93’Max., 51min.
Jorge once again
found three Splendid Toadfish on a slope pitted with many tiny little pockets,
just perfect for the odd looking blue stripped, bearded fish to back up into.
Same toadfish with babies from earlier
Large yellow tube sponge
King Crab
Soft coral branches on reef.
Further investigation
revealed more of them around the edges of the small cave. It is one of those
amazing “accidents” that happen doing underwater photography.
I stuck close to
Jorge, shot reef pics, finding another King crab and more of the usual
suspects.
After the surface
interval, we headed to another site I don’t do a lot for some reason, Punta Tunich, 76’Max., 56min.
Upside down Queen Angel fish
I suppose Tunich
could be done as either a first of second dive, as it is along the drop off.
The wind had changed
directions and it was the choppiest it had been all trip and the current was
the strongest it had been on any dive so far, but still nothing that couldn’t
be dealt with.
We saw at least three
more Hawksbills, large grouper and huge Rainbow parrot fish.
Rainbow Parrot fish
Hawksbill sea turtle with divers
Hawksbill poses for pic
Back at the hotel, I ran up to the room to gather Lore and head up to the restaurant for a quick lunch before heading back out with Jorge and Alberto, along with Jose and several other of the “boat people” to do an afternoon dive to hunt Lionfish.
School of fish under ledge
Coral Bandid shrimp
She went more the brunch
route and had the Diver’s omelet while I had a very tasty BLT & fries.
Chiquimax headed south to what Jorge called Franco Wall, 102’Max., 35min.,
basically, I think it is in the same area as Francesa, but I’m not exactly
sure.
We dropped down to
max depth, but Lore and I quickly moved up to a higher level as the rest of the
group stayed pretty deep. By the end of the dive I was at the top of the reef
and just a click from decompression.
Soon the hunters were
busy with their Hawaiian slings shooting away.
I had my fill of
Hawaiian sling hunting while in the Navy working with researchers from the
University of Hawaii on Midway Island.
The guys would build
an enclosure around a small coral head out of chicken wire and we would go
inside the enclosure and spear off any predators we could find, mostly lizard
fish, and the students would do research to see how it would affect the food
chain on that reef.
It all had something
to do with building fish farms in Hawaii. I found a paper online related to the
project a couple years ago. It even had a mention of U.S. Navy personnel
helping with the project…that was me!!!
Anywho, the dive was successful;
they managed to fill their catch bags with Lion fish.
I had some reverse
ear blockage and was dealing with some nasty vertigo that was making me feel
sea sick for the first time on this trip. Although I relate it more to the
inner ear imbalance then to boat motion, never the less, I was done for the
day.
Jorge had Alberto take
Lore and I back to the hotel and the rest of the dive group made a dive on
Villablanca Wall.
I laid down for a
while and felt much better after a couple hours. My friend and photo mentor
Armando Alentado, the owner and operator of Island Photo and Video, http://photocozumel.net/ stopped by to say
hi. I always miss my friends on the island and it was good to see him. He was
headed out the next day to Miami to see family, so I was glad we were able to
meet up.
Lore and I headed downtown
to get something to eat, with no particular plans.
We ended up at
Woody’s, just off the square, where I had chicken enchiladas, very tasty with a
spicy red sauce. Lore wasn’t very hungry and her stomach had been bothering her
on and off all day so she just opted for a grilled cheese, which she said was
cooked perfectly and was exactly what she wanted.
Day 13 – Wednesday
– June 6
1 ship came in about
noonish to the I.P.
Morning dive with Jorge and Alberto on Chiquimax.
The last day of
diving before they really do make us go home.
First stop, the
amazing San Francisco Wall, 94’Max.,
53 min. Ok, why didn’t we do THIS dive 2 or 3 times?!
Jorge found not one,
not two, but three Juvenile Drums hanging together under an overhang.
More large angels, a
couple barracuda cruised by, another Hawksbill, a couple Yellow Spotted
stingrays, and more Scrawled filefish.
I swam over a small
break in the reef and noticed the tail end of a large Green Morey eel. I
dropped down and searched until I found the business end and took a shot just
as it stuck its head out of its enclosure.
I found a juvenile
Trumpet and chased it for several minutes before finally getting a shot of it
in some soft coral branches.
Trumpet fish in soft coral
Queen Angel fish
Lore and I ascended
for our safety stop and hung there for a few minutes before hitting the
surface.
I had made it through
almost two weeks of diving without getting seasick, almost unheard of for me,
but the last two days my ears did not want to cooperate.
I headed for the
surface from 10’ and the last 3-4 feet my right ear became totally blocked. Of
course I was too close to the surface to stop and go back down to let it clear
naturally, so I hit the surface to sharp pain and the whole world spinning…I
was in full vertigo.
After just a few
seconds my ear cleared to a loud squeaking, like an inner tube being punctured.
Everything stopped
spinning, but the damage was done, by the time I got aboard the dive boat, I
was pretty much in full sea sick mode and not feeling well at all.
We made our surface
interval at the little pier in the middle of nowhere. I lay on the dock and
tried to recover so I could make the final dive of the trip.
By the time the S.I.
was over, I was feeling good enough to try and make the second dive.
Alberto took us to Tormentos, where I suited up and Jorge
got me in the water as soon as possible.
Usually if I get sea
sick and am able to suit up and get into the water, it will go away.
No dice today, I
guess the vertigo was too strong. I made 20 minutes of the hour long dive.
I had dropped to 50’,
but pretty much couldn’t hold my head up. I even tried to make myself throw up,
thinking that would help, but only had dry heaves…lot of them.
After 20 minutes of
skimming the bottom and not being able to do much else, I decided that I was
not going to “come out of it” and aborted the dive. I motioned to Lore I was
going up to a safety stop and headed up.
Jorge saw me and gave me the “ok?” sign, I signaled “ok” and grabbed both sides of my head to let him know I was having issues. He had been here before with me and understood and gave me the safety stop “T” and “ok”.
I made the safety
stop, being careful to listen and look for dive boats, as I knew I was coming
up where no one was looking for a diver. I cleared the surface and Alberto
found me immediately and headed my way to pick me up.
On board I just laid in the bottom of the boat until I heard
the voices of divers in the water and found a place to half sit, half lay until
everyone was on board.
Of course it was a
great dive, they saw lots of cool stuff, but I had no complaints. Like I said,
I had made it this far without having to deal with any of that, so I was a
happy camper anyway.
Still not feeling
very well I laid down for a nap, which usually brings me out of these things.
I had promised Annie
from the radio station I would come by Woody’s and make a couple more spots for
her, so after my nap and still not feeling 100 percent; I jumped in the jeep and
headed downtown.
I found one of the
public parking lots, the charge a $1.00 per hour to park in just off the square,
and made my way to Woody’s.
When I got there, I ran into one of those funny translation issues that happen every now and then when you are in a foreign country.
I asked if “Annie”
from the radio station was around. I only got a blank stare as if he had never
heard of her.
Now I know that she
“hangs out” there because she is friends with the owner, so I knew that the
employees of the place knew her.
Finally, the
bartender snapped, “Oh! Anita!”
Spanish you dork!
“Anita”, not “Annie”, I laughed to myself.
I laughed, “Si!
Anita!”
Annie was sitting at
the rear of the bar talking with someone and hadn’t noticed me come in.
We talked for a while
and I made a couple more spots which you can hear on the online, English
speaking radio station and get your island fix. Including my little invention,
Marley Mondays where she spins an hour of reggae music to help you get through
your first day of the week.re
While talking with Annie, Thomas, (Firefyter), came by and said he was meeting Greg, Laurie, Jeff and his non-diving wife Kris at Wet Wendy’s and invited us to come by.
So I headed back to
the hotel, gathered her and we headed back downtown to what has become a major
hang out for ScubaBoard members.
Wet Wendy’s is located just off the square, to the north, on the pedestrian part of 5th Ave., N.
We found the guys
sitting at the bar, the girls were doing some last minute shopping.
I ordered the chicken
parmesan sandwich and Lore had chicken quesadillas. The food wasn’t the best
meal we had on the island, but it wasn’t bad.
Jeff brought up that
Matt “Mateo” Moran, dive instructor extraordinaire, and general great guy, who
had been visiting family back home, had just got back to town and was down at
the restaurant his wife and he run, O’Hana Café & Bar…if I had known that,
we would have eaten there instead of at Wet Wendy’s.
I was able to say hi
to Matt the day we arrived, but he left the next day for Chicago, so I was
happy to hear he was back in town.
We had made several
attempts to eat at O’Hana during the trip, but kept getting intercepted by
people. Too bad, because Angela, Matt’s wife, has some wonderful food on the
menu and I had been looking forward to getting some of it.
O’Hana is located
just up the street on 5th Ave. N., so we all decided to at least
head up there for a nightcap and say howdy to Matt.
Matt and Angela
welcomed us with open arms even though it was pretty much closing time.
We sat at the bar and
talked and had some exceptional Reposado tequila, aged to an amazing
smoothness.
About 20 minutes to midnight I realized that the parking lot
I had parked in closed at 12, so I quickly ran over to 3rd Ave. S.,
and picked up the jeep, just in time.
We park at this same
place almost every time we are downtown, especially at night, because this
parking lot is open until midnight, where the majority of the ones I’ve found
are only open until 8:00 or 9:00pm.
The young man who is
the attendant had already put up the sign and appeared to be just waiting for
me, or midnight, whichever came first…luckily it was me!
The bill was only $2,
but I tossed him a fiver for his time, which he seemed very pleased about.
“Gracias Amigo, see you next year!”
I got back to O’Hana
just in time for the final round of Reposado.
Everyone except Thomas and us had already left, so we all three jumped in the jeep and headed back to Blue Angel for our final night on the island.
Day 14 – Thursday – June 7
2 ships at the I.P.,
I think…
They really do make us go home.
I woke fairly early
and ran down to the restaurant and got Lore and I a Diver’s omelet plate to
split, with the intent the we would get something to eat after we checked our
bags at the airport.
We settled up with
the hotel, tipped the guys at the dive shop and headed to the airport for our
usual early check-in.
After checking the
baggage, we had a little over an hour and a half until we had to be back for
the flight.
Neither of us were
hungry, so we just drove up the North Hotel Zone and all the way down to Punta
Sur before b-line it back to the hotel to pick up our carry-ons, turn in the
jeep at Less-Pay and catch a cab to the airport.
We timed it
perfectly. After going through security, we only had about a 10 minute wait
until boarding.
The flight home was uneventful. We arrived back at D/FW on time and made it through customs and baggage claim and customs again in no time.
Several people from
the dive boat were on our flight, Thomas and
Greg & Laurie, the later 2 headed on to California, while the rest
of us were back home on Texas turf.
Thank You's...
As always, thank you
so much to Eva and her wonderful staff at Blue Angel.
From the front desk, maids; Trini, Fransico & the new girl I didn’t her name, our buddy Otillio, (the ninja) who shows up just when you need his help for something, Pony & Martin at dive shop, thanks so much for all you do.
A very special thanks to Jorge, Jose & Servando along with Captains Alberto and Rafael, for keeping us safe and happy under and on the water.
Thanks to Kari at the Scuba School for purchasing not one, but two of my "Cozumel, Below" underwater photography books.
You can view a preview of the book here on this blog and get yours at Blurb.com http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/772160
Thanks to my pal "Barefoot" Sally Hurwitch, from both of us for the amazing work you do…I’m tellin’ ya, go see
Sally!!! www.barefootincozumel.com
Thanks to Dr. Scott
Kircher for straightening me out.
Thanks to Annie at
Cozumel Radio Online for the opportunity to make the spots, let me know if
there is anything else I may do for you. www.cozumelradioonline.com
And last but not least, THANK YOU to the people of Cozumel
for sharing your amazing home with us.
Weather Report:
What can I say…perfect. Mostly in the mid 80’s during the
day with mild humidity and mild winds.
Evenings cooling off to the mid to high 70’s, with a few showers overnight.
It rained a couple
days, but no dive delays or cancelation of any plans. Mostly spotty, on and off
showers when they did happen, during the day.
Reef Report:
Although we did several dive sites more than once which cut
down on the number of overall dive sites we hit, my impression of the reefs is
that they are definitely back from the damage caused by hurricane Wilma.
Santa Rosa would have
been the real test, it has still had a lot of sand deposits on it as late as
last year, but we didn’t make it on this trip…that reef should really be left
alone for a year or two.
The Hydroid and Black coral populations that were so prevalent have thinned out and given away to more sponges and soft corals have begun to be the prominent features on the reefs. Especially the mid-level reefs.
Visibility was good,
but not great. Possibly 80-100’ Max. as there was a lot of plankton in the
water.
Water temperatures
were at 80-81 degrees on all dives, with one dive registering at 82.
Angels, Scrawled filefish and grouper are abundant, again, with some grouper reaching sizes I have not seen on the island…ever.
All in all a very
favorable report card on the reefs.
