,
my alter ego got totally out of hand, when The Shark Tank radio show premiered
on CozumelRadio.net.
Annie Cheatham, the
owner and operator, and now my partner in crime, agreed, in a weak moment, to
allow me to do my own weekly radio show for the online radio station.
So, not one to let a
good opportunity pass me by, I designed and had a pirate flag made for ‘The
Shark Tank radio show”, fulfilling every boy’s life-long dream of having their very
own pirate flag.
So, with Kenny
Chesney’s latest single, “Pirate Flag” playing right into my hands (and in my
head), a custom made pirate flag in my baggage and my best island girl at my
side, we headed south to our favorite place to put the rest of the World
behind…
merican Airlines flight 367,
the daily commute to Cozumel, Mexico from Dallas/Ft. Worth International took
off after a slight delay to wait for a few late passengers, most likely trying
to make the connection from another flight.
We made it through
customs, “Hola, Welcome to Mexico”, picked up our baggage, 2 bags were literally
the last 2 bags off the tug cart, so we were at the back of the line to have
your bags x-rayed one last needless time, and for the first time in three
years, DID NOT get the red light at the “stoplight” to be searched…whoo hoo!
We’re in!
We checked in to our
favorite little spot, to “welcome homes” and big hugs and quickly settled in to
room 302. The king bed room on the third floor with the trigger fish mosaic in
floor.
“The Gunns”, my buddy Gordon (ggunn on the ScubaBoard) and
his family left us their “leaveovers”, as my wife’s grandmother would say.
and his cars definitely aren’t the prettiest girls at the prom, but I’ve
been renting from John for many years and have never been broke down on the
side of the road, or had any issues with the vehicles what so ever.
I turned off at the
Caleta and proceeded down the old beach road past El Presedente and Chankanaab
Park to the open beach line and the early makings of our first Caribbean
sunset.
The old road has been
repaved all the way around the island and I believe is to be mostly intended to
be used by scooters and bicycles, especially once the old road meets back up
with and runs along the new highway C-1 at the old Reef Club area, currently
called the Sabor.
The lovely Mrs. chose
the veggie omelet, stuffed with all kinds of veggies, and I opted for the
“house” omelet; bacon, avocado & cheese. All breakfasts come with coffee
(or tea) and juice and a fruit plate. The omelet was delicious and stuffed to
the gills, much more than I could possibly put down, all for a set price of
US$10.50.
Buccanos day beach
Bellies full, we
headed back to the Casa and ran into a couple of friends we met from last year’s
adventure.
Wayne and Anna are
dive buddies from Canada and were waiting to head out to the airport when we
arrived back at Blue Angel.
Wayne & Anna
We spent some time talking with them in the lobby as it began
to rain around noon for about a half of an hour.
The rain subsided and
we put our friends in a cab and sent them off to the airport as we head
upstairs to collect our SCUBA gear for the first dive of the trip.
Now,
there are people who will tell you that there is no “good” shore diving in
Cozumel.
First of all define,
good. I have a buddy who’s been diving almost longer than I’ve been alive. He
says there’s no such thing as a bad dive. “If you’re underwater, it’s a good
dive, Mate.” …he British by the way.
Sure, you’re not
going to get large coral formations, out in the shallows and most of the
animals you see are more than likely going to be juveniles, but there are some
very nice shore dives on Coz.
Come along on a dive
to Villablanca Shallows with me, or
dive with one of my favorite Cozumel underwater photographer colleges, ‘jlyle’
from the ScubaBoard at Scuba Club, or just look up his photos on the SB to see
what you can find in the shallows.
Coral Banded Shrimp
Or jump in any one of
many entries from Playa Corona all the way to the Cozumel Palace, and others
I’m not aware of I’m sure and you might change your mind about Cozumel shore
diving.
The dive out on the
Stingray enclosure next to Blue Angel alone is worth a plane trip, for either a
day or night dive.
The area I call Villablanca Shallows stretches south to
north, from Villa Blanca Hotel/Papa Hogs to Blue Angel Resort. The fabulous Villablanca Wall runs parallel to it
(going both further South and North than the ‘shallows’ limits. More on VB Wall
later.
White Pincushion Urchin
SEE…”The Dives”
below for all the dives on this trip…
As evening rolled
around, it began to lightly rain again, which continued on and off throughout
most of the evening and on into the night.
The rain was so light
that you could walk around in it and not really get wet at all, so we drove
downtown and parked at the little public parking lot on 3rd Ave. S.,
next to Lore’s new favorite place…the chocolate shop. Again more details to
come.
But first, a Cozumel
tradition…Casa Denis!
Casa Denis under a full moon
Located just off the
Square, on the walking path that leads to Calle 1A Sur. Casa Denis is one of
the oldest restaurants on the island, established in 1945, and is still putting
out good meals after all these years.
Two of the sons of
the owner of Casa Denis also have long time favorite restaurants on the island,
Los Tortugas located to the back of the Corpus Christi neighborhood and the
fabulous Especias on Calle 3 south.
Casa Denis also just happens
to have one of the best Mango margaritas around, so we ordered 2 of them a
Spinach Mayan Soup and Shrimp Kabob for her and Mayan Chicken for me.
Lore and Wildman 'mariachi' Philipe
On dive days, we eat
yogurt and granola for breakfast, so after dinner we made our way to the Mega
superstore to stock up on those items and some crackers to go with our cheese
whiz and peanut butter and headed back to the room for a good night’s rest for
our first day of boat diving.
Day 3 – May 19 –
Sunday –
No cruise ships on Sunday…it’s a tradition.
This is “family day” on the island and with no cruise ships around, it allows
folks to have a traditional day off and spend it with the family.
'No Problem' dive boat at Sunrise
After the late
morning dive, (hey! see “The Dives”!) I was battling my old foe seasickness and
slept a good portion of the late afternoon.
Too bad too, Rasta’s had live reggae bands
playing all afternoon, and by the time we showed up, about sunset, they had
pretty much wrapped everything up.
Nevertheless, we sat
with Mateo and had a couple of cervezas and just spent a little quality time
with our friend and his family.
Driving back to the hotel along the old road for a sort
while before jumping over to the highway, we saw several pairs of close-set
reflective eyes alone the roadside. I had an idea of what it might be, but
wasn’t quite sure,
I slowed the jeep down
to a near stop, and sure enough there they were. Cozumel’s very own little
bandit, the Mexican Raccoon.
Not the little long
nosed cousin, the Coati, but real raccoons, like Davie Crocket and Daniel Boone
had hats made out of.
I have seen them up at
Punta Norte, getting into the fisherman’s fish scraps and along the gravel road
leading up there, but I’ve never seen them south of town before.
I have an affinity
for raccoons. My grandmother was a cook at a summer camp in the Smoky Mountains
in Tennessee. The people that owned the camp, also lived on the property, and
almost every year they would end up with raccoon orphans to raise.
When I would visit, I
would get to play with the little, or sometimes nearly grown, orphans. Very
curious and intelligent animals, and their front paws are like little hands and
they have the ability to open almost ANYTHING!
Ask the people who
owned the summer camp what they found the day 2 of their little adoptees got
out of their cage and decided to find out what was in every box and jar in the
kitchen…EVERY box and jar!!!
We hadn’t had
anything for dinner yet, so on the way back to the hotel, we stopped at another
old haunt, Ernesto’s Fajita Factory.
Ernesto’s has been
around forever, I think, and is always a good place to get a bite to eat.
Sometimes hit and
miss, this visit it was either right on, or we were just starving…probably a
little of both.
Sea food burrito, for
her, and chicken fajitas for me, and we were off to the Blue Angel for some
shut eye.
Day 4 – May 20 –
Mon –
1 ship at the International Pier; Carnival Liberty.
a.m. dive on Blue
Angel II, with Norman and Alberto. Palancar Cuebones & Villablanca Wall …
(SEE THE DIVES!)
Arrow crab at Palancar Cuebones
A relaxing lunch at Rasta’s
of Shrimp Quesadillas and Chicken tacos, and a soothing Negro Modelo to settle
the pallet and we were off to explore the island, shoot some stock video and
photos for the radio station website.
Shrimp Quesadillas
Welcome to Rasta's, The Freedom Bar...
Shark Tank radio show card at Rasta's
Rasta's beach
We spent a lot of
time driving around, deep in town, beyond 30th Ave., if you will.
It is amazing how
much new construction is happening off of Benito Juarez just as you come in
town from the east side on the Trans-Island highway.
Whole new
neighborhoods are popping up. With at least one of not two new major north/south
thoroughfares with frontage roads that have parking on them. I think that
eventually what looks like a frontage road will actually be parking lot passage
with pull in parking on each side of it for retail.
We ended up, like
most evenings, sitting on our balcony, marveling at the amazing weather and
enjoying the evenings free show of another spectacular sunset.
Hunger we setting in,
so I left her at the hotel to relax and I ventured up to see Matt at ‘Ohana and order a deep dish pizza and
house salad to go. My first of three times I had the wonderful gift from home.
I bellied up to the
bar and grabbed a menu, ordered a cold water and a shot of tequila and followed
Matt out front to meet some now acquaintances.
Chris and Sharon are
fairly new to the island, Chris is originally from South Africa and Sharon is
from England. It was all I could do to not start talking like them, especially
Chris, that South African accent is so distinct and very cool.
Sharon & Chris...Andale Beach Bar
These two operate the
newly re-opened Andale Bar over on
the Wild Side of the island.
Some of you long
timers might remember, years ago it was called Andale Bar, and the owners used the
cartoon character Speedy Gonzalez for their logo. I remember seeing their
t-shirts.
Then some guy bought
it and tried turn it into a biker bar…? Changed the motif to skulls and black
and, well, let’s just say, it didn’t quite work out.
So these two are
giving it a go over at the beautiful San Martin beach, located just between
Playa Bonita and Chen Rio.
One of the few spots on the island where conditions, on an
occasion, provides some pretty sweet sets of waves nice enough to strap on a
board and do some surfing from.
Chris and Sharon are
trying to go with basically a surfing theme and like most Cozumel palapa bars,
they are currently accepting t-shirts and paraphernalia for the ceiling. So if
you are so inclined, please bring a home town ‘T’ for the décor at Andale.
Andale is a great
place to kick back on a hot afternoon. The 2nd story palapa sits
across the new highway from the beach and is set up higher than the road, so
the cool Caribbean breeze is constantly sweeping through the bar like natural
air conditioning.
There are even a
couple of hammocks strung up in the bar and with that breeze and a couple of
Sherry’s drinks, it might siesta time.
Back at the room, the
pizza was consumed until we were about ready to bust, which was really just one
and maybe a half pieces for her and I managed to do 2 and the other half of
hers…aw-some…kudos to Matt and Angie to adding this dish to an already
fantastic menu.
Day 5 – May 21 –
Tuesday –
2 ships at the
I.P./Maya pier area
After a restless night, insomnia is my new friend;
we decided to take the day off from diving and lay low.
We slept in a little
and had a light breakfast in the lobby of the hotel of fruit and yogurt and
eventually made our way to the pool. Well she did.
I headed straight for the hammocks strung up under the small
coconut palms between the hotel and the pool.
hammock time!
Blue Angel Grounds
I love relaxing in a hammock; I actually slept in one for
nearly a year when I was in the Navy.
I pushed the ceiling
tiles in my barracks room away one day and noticed a large I beam running the
length of my room, so I tied up a hammock I had, and still have to this day.
It’s made of white line, but it looks exactly like the ones you’ll find for
sale all over Mexico.
We also had one on
the signal bridge of my ship, and on nice evenings when I didn’t have to work,
I’d go up there and sleep under the stars when we were out to sea.
I was doing this the
night before we came into Pearl Harbor on one of our many trips to Hawaii from
San Diego…I know, rough duty huh?
The sun was coming
up, just as we were passing Diamond Head…priceless.
My buddy, Otillio, "the ninja" maintenance man fixin' stuff at BA
So, when most people
struggle to get in and out of one, slip right in and cocoon myself with the net
and am off to Never-Never Land in no time.
My friend Sally,
barefootincozumel.com was out of town and I was in desperate need of a massage.
I talked to Andrea at the front desk at the hotel, and after making a phone
call, a lady showed up, massage table in hand and I was off to Never-Never
land…again.
Thanks again to
Andrea for hunting her down for me.
For dinner we met up
with Bob and Janice for a wonderful meal, as usual at Le Chef.
Located on Ave 5 at
Calle 5 south, I believe it is, is one of the best places to eat on the island,
hands down.
We parked the jeep at
our little parking lot on 3rd and walked down the street to meet Bob
and Janice, who had already arrived and were at a four topper on the sidewalk
dining area, under the canvas awnings.
Our friends had
already ordered, Tuna Tar Tar for her and fish for him, I forget how it was
prepared exactly, but they both gave rave reviews.
As did we! Lore had,
by the waiter’s recommendation, Fish of the day, Wahoo in this case, in a
lobster, mushroom sauce. He said it was his favorite, and she’s brought it up
several times since we’ve been back how much she loved it.
I was craving pasta,
all the diving must have been eating carbs like crazy. Seafood pasta, no matter
how fresh and well prepared, always is a little too “seafoody” for me, so I
went with the spaghetti with grilled chicken and veggies…lots of veggies! Lots
of chicken and pasta for that matter! I ate until I was going to burst and it
hardly looked like I touched my plate…now how about some dessert?
We all four waddled
back to the jeep, and just as we were about there, a detour popped up.
The girls noticed a
chocolate shop and the lady who owns it, noticed them, noticing her store and
invited us in for samples. Chocolateria Isla Bella is located on 3rd
Street south, between 5th Ave. and Rafael Melgar, basically just a
block off the waterfront on 3rd.
OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!
Now as I said before,
I was about ready to bust, but these handmade chocolate confections are
marvelous and a sample just wasn’t enough.
I think we ended up buying 4 pieces that night to
have in the room refrig., just in case of a “chocolate emergency and Lore ended
up going back the night before we left the island and buying a full 16 piece
assorted box to bring home…we’re still enjoying those!
We dropped our friends off at the hotel and remembered we
needed some supplies for the room and started to head to Mega or Chedraui, but
decided on a nightcap at ‘Ohana first…our new hangout.
Well, our new ‘in
town’ hangout, the list out of San Miguel continues to grow.
Things start to work into a
regular routine from here, so in an effort to save a little time and space, I’m
going to change the format a little.
Basically we set into
a string of continuous dive days, followed by afternoons visiting all our old
haunts, meeting new friends and finding new haunts, shooting stock video for
the new station website, trying to track down folks, lazing at the pool and
well…vacationing!
The Dives…
Sat. 05/18: Shore dive to check equipment.
VB Shallows:
22’max./46 min. 81 degrees –
Trumpet fish, 3 different types of
urchins, a small Southern stingray (outside the pen), a spotted yellow ray, a
scrolled file fish, coral banded shrimp, juvie angels, a black and white
spotted eel and three hermit crabs having a discussion too important to be
interrupted by 2 wayward divers… all crossed our path, not to mention the usual
suspects in the shallows, Sgt. Majors and those blue carplike fish that always
seem to be around, all BEFORE clearing the enclosure!
Then, we venture out
past “the pen” and are greeted by a gently sloping, sandy landscape scattered
with coral and rock debris and many, many small coral heads providing lots of
nooks and crannies to find more spotted eels, Cozumel’s sharp tail eel, nearly
every type of juvenile fish that can be find out on the big reef, lots of arrow
crabs and coral banded shrimp and many more delights await the diver who isn’t
afraid to dig for their treasure.
The Gorgonians, the
large purple sea fans, still have not recovered from being nearly wiped out by
Wilma. The area used to look like an underwater garden with all the coral heads
covered with fans and soft corals.
Some fans are about,
but mostly shaggy fans that have not yet recovered, or small full fans that
just haven’t grown big yet.
Despite this, this is
still a great dive with lots to offer for the novice and experienced diver
alike. Especially the underwater photographer.
I get the impression
the same people who don’t think there is any good shore diving on Cozumel are
the same people who say they “didn’t see anything” after diving for nearly an
hour on one of the most beautiful dive sites in the world, because a sea
turtle, shark, lion fish or Eagle ray didn’t swim up to them and introduce
themselves.
I just want to
scream, “Geesh, Dude, you didn’t even notice the reef?!”
Our SCUBA friends
from Michigan, Bob and Janice, Brewdiver on the ScubaBoard, were doing their
“check out dive” as well, and we passed them just as we were approaching the
pen on our return trip.
They had just
arrived, and we spend several great boat dives, and a wonderful dinner at Le
Chef with them over the next week.
After spending three
quarters of an hour “checking out our equipment”, everything seemed to be
working a-ok, SCUBA gear and camera gear alike, and everything was a go for our
first boat dives in the morning.
Sun., 05/19 – a.m. dive on No Problem with
DM Edgar, I didn’t get the Captain’s name.
No Problem is the large cabin cruiser, type boat that Blue Angel
uses for their late morning
excursions.
It is usually full of
folks that are either off a cruise ship or have come over from the mainland to
dive.
Topside of Santa Rosa Wall, 56’ Max. for 44minues, 81 degrees.
We had several
novices on the boat and Edgar obviously didn’t want to take them on a very deep
dive, so the top of Santa Rosa was a perfect choice.
Actually, I think the
typical MO for this dive is to go to Santa Rosa and then to Paradise. Not only
because most divers on this trip are ‘one-timers’, meaning that they are most
likely only diving with BA for one day,
and the DM’s can’t evaluate them and ‘OK’ them for a more advanced dive on
subsequent days.
Rock Beauty
Piggy back Lobsters
The other reason of
course, is time, they need to get the cruise shippers and the mainlanders back
so they can get back to the ship or catch the ferry back to Playa del Carmen.
Santa
Rosa has been, in my humble opinion, the slowest of
the dive sites to recover from Wilma. We dive it almost every year, and as late
as last year, there were still significant
sand deposits resting on flat areas and shelves along the
wall.
Today, we barely went
over the edge of the wall at all, so I didn’t get a good evaluation of the wall
its self.
Juvenile Queen Angel
Barracuda
I got a good shot of
a Rock Beauty poking his head out of the coral, Queen Angels, small barracuda
and grouper passed us by. I found a Lion’s Tongue poking out from underneath
some coral, a relative to the Sea Cucumber and several lobsters milling about
under shelves.
Then, off to
Paradise.
Paradise Reef (41’ Max./44 min., 80 degrees) has seen a lot of
stress over the years, due to cruise ship pier construction and other factors,
but it is still a fun site to dive and full of life.
Christmas Tree tube worm
Someone on the boat
said they wanted to see a Sea Horse…who doesn’t?
Once we hit the
bottom and poked around some of the many coral heads and ridgelines for a
little while.
Edgar took us out
over the sand flats to look for Sea Horses. They like to hold onto these little
seaweed things that look a little like a green flower pod on a stem.
Sea horse
After a couple of
minutes of scanning the sandy bottom, I spotted the familiar shape we were all
looking for, grabbed by shaker and alerted the rest of the group…much to
Edgar’s relief! He gave be a big smile and the ‘ok’ signal for his approval and
appreciation.
Brittle Sea Stars on coral
Lobster close-up
Now, as I’ve pointed
out many times, boats and I don’t always get along.
Even though I take as
many precautions as I can; sea sick pills, try to get and keep something on my
stomach, watch the horizon…all the tricks of the trade, sometimes I still get
seasick.
I’ve found that most
people who suffer seasickness say the same thing. No matter what you do,
sometimes it still just happens…today was one of those days.
I started feeling a
little nauseous as soon as I got back on the boat from the safety stop of the
second dive. Edgar gave me some O2, which actually helped after sucking on it
for a couple minutes.
Nevertheless, by the
time we got back to the hotel, I was still feeling a little weak and ended up
sleeping most of the rest of the afternoon.
Mon. 05/20: a.m. dive on Blue Angel II with
DM Norman and Capt. Piñata, (his family owns a piñata shop, thus the nickname)
Palancar ‘Cuebones’,
75’ Max./43 min., 81 degrees.
This dive is set
between the amazing Palancar Bricks, one of my top 5 Cozumel dives and Palancar
Caves, no slouch on its own.
Cuebones is a wall dive with the continuation of the
landscape that Bricks has to offer, tall pinnacles with lots of large crevices
to explore. I believe Norman told us the name Cuebones means loosely, “Big
Caves”, referring to the large crevices that jut in and out along the wall.
Lots of Deep Sea sea
fans, hydroids, and all the sponges Coz has to offer, cover the reef. Arrow
crabs and horse puffers hang near the edge of small outcrops.
Lettuce coral with Damsel fish
Black-n-white reef shot
Garden eels
We stopped at the old
“Sand Dollar” pier, now part of the Sabor property, I believe, for our surface
interval and then it was off to the beautiful Villablanca Wall…love this dive!
As I explained
before, Villablanca Wall runs along the deep water drop-off, from the
International Pier, well, to Cuba…ok, maybe not that far, but I’m pretty sure
the ridge runs the entire length of the island.
VB Wall, 60’ Max./46
min., 80 degrees –
The dive, depending
on the current, which can be rippin’, can take you easily from the pier all the
way to the area of the lighthouse, but today with the mild current, we dropped
in just north of La Ceiba and popped up just a little north of Blue Angel.
Reef traffic
Lore found a juvenile
Lionfish, there was actually a second one under the shelf, I found while
editing the photos…I love finding surprises when editing underwater photos, you
always get something you didn’t think you were shooting.
The reef is a fairly
sharp sloping wall, 60-70 degrees, covered with Barrel sponges, Tube sponges of
all sorts of colors and soft corals galore. Some little outcrops dot the wall
here and there and are good places to find eels, Coral Banded Shrimps, Arrow
crabs & the occasional King crab.
We came across a good
sized Big Green moray with his head sticking out of the coral posing for
photos.
At one point he
started moving further out of his hole and then back in. One these times he
came out straight for me. I held my ground, as I always do.
Big Green Moray eel
And as always, the
crowd around be started back finning like crazy, with their popping eyes all
wide open…pretty funny.
I get the same
reaction when I crawl up under a large outcrop on the big reef to take photos
of sharks or large eels.
Wed. 5/22:
a.m. dive with Norman and Alberto on Chiquimax.
Palancar Gardens, 78’
Max./47 min., 81 degrees –
This is the dive I
found baby Splendid Toadfish on last year, so I was prepared as we slipped
around the second set of pinnacles and came across the sandy sloped area tucked
up alongside the reef.
Splendid Toadfish
Sure enough, there
were the 5-6 little “caves” on the sandy slope, and one Toadfish very visible
at the nearest one to me. I shook my shaker and gave the group the ‘toadfish’
signal and moved in closer for a photo op.
No babies this year,
but I did get one good shot of the little guy.
Christmas Tree tube worms
Reef shot, Deep Sea seafan
Juvenile Trumpet fish
Punta Tunich, 61’
Max./45 Min., 80 degrees –
Tunich is known for its strong currents
but on both dives we made during this trip, the currents were quite mild.
Schools of grunts and pork fish mill about the reef, along with lots of large
Gray and French angels. Queen angels and large schools of teardrop shaped
sweepers mill about under outcrops and overhangs.
We found a couple Big
Green Moray eels, one under an outcrop getting a good cleaning from a Coral
Banded Shrimp.
Big Green Moray eel
Big Green Moray eel at cleaning station
A nice sized Nurse
shark swam by as Scrawled filefish hung upside down looking for morsels along
the top of the wall.
We found sea turtles
on almost every dive, this one a couple Hawksbills were munching on sponges
with their constant angel and trigger fish companions looking for a handout.
Hawksbill sea turtle
Rainbow parrot fish
Thurs. 05/23: a.m. dive with Mateo and
Alberto on Chiquimax
Cedral Pass, 56’
Max./56 min., 80 degrees –
Paso de Cedral has
been climbing the “favorites” list over the past couple years. Sea turtles seem
to like hanging out between and on the ridgelines of coral that run on either
side of the ‘valley’ that I think give the site it’s name, the ‘Pass’ part
anyway.
As usual, it did not
disappoint. Especially in the turtle department.
I know that Green sea turtles are found pretty much all over
the world, including Mexican waters, but I had never seen one until dropping
down on ‘the pass’ on this day.
Green Sea turtle
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
At first, when I swam
up on it, I was thinking that the shell looked odd for a Hawksbill, but surly
it couldn’t be a Green! …IT WAS!
In fact, I saw
several Green sea turtles throughout the trip. It’s always nice to make a new
find.
Fireworm
Eagle ray with Conch in its mouth
We saw a 5 ½ foot
Nurse Shark swimming about and towards the end of the dive, a large Eagle ray
with a large conch shell in it’s mouth, chomping away trying to get through the
hard shell.
Yucab, 51’ Max./56
min., 80 degrees –
This is when I first started noticing
issues with my strobe. It appeared to be going off, but not putting out as much
light as it should. It may be giving up the ghost, and time to check into
upgrading.
Spotted eel
Queen Angel
Yucab is a beautiful
“garden” dive, with dozens of all three kinds of the large angels all about.
Scrolled and Orange filefish lead the way, and a couple of snapper became our
dive partners for most of the dive…looking for a lionfish handout I’m sure.
Fri., 05/24:
a.m. dive with Mateo and Alberto on Chiquimax
Cedral Wall – 75’
Max./52 min., 82 degrees –
We should just call this site "Turtle Town"
Lore and Howard explore the reef...
Several Hawksbill turtles and one Green
were found, most of them feeding on sponges with angel fish and triggers all
about looking to a handout…turtles seem to like Cedral, whether it is the Pass
or the Wall.
Green feeds on the reef
Trunk fish
Lore found a juvenile
Lionfish, we saw several of the different varieties of Butterfly fish and
several lobsters.
Large grouper
Butterfly fish
Lobster with Big Green Moray in background
Punta Tunich round 2,
73’ Max./53 min., 82 degrees –
Again, current pretty mild for this site.
Queen filefish
Carpet Anemone
We were met by a
small battery of Barracuda just after dropping down. A Queen Filefish and
Honeycomb cowfish passed by and we saw several very large grouper…Nassau’s are
getting BIG!
HUGE Nassau grouper
Red Hind in sand
Sweeper gather under shelves
I ran across a lot of Carpet anemones on
many of the dives throughout the trip, several of them on Tunich, several with
little purplish/blue and clear Shrimp on them. I think they are part of the
Harlequin shrimp family.
Lore is all smiles after another great dive day. Alberto at the wheel
Racing Tres Pelicanos back to the casa
Sat. 05.25: a.m. dive with Matthew and
Alberto on Chiquimax
Palancar Bricks, 68’
Max./57 min., 82 degrees –
Brittle Sea Star on tube sponge
(One of my favorite shots of the trip)
Coral Banded Shrimp in reef
Bricks is named for the bricks that are, or used to be,
scattered around the site from a cargo ship that sunk in the area years ago.
I’ve been told that most of the actual bricks are now more closer to Columbia
Shallows.
Again, just a
beautiful reef, tube sponges reach for the surface, barrel sponges spread out
and provide shelter for Arrow crabs and Coral Banded shrimp. Algae, soft and
hard corals all mingle together to paint an amazing canvas.
Lore and Scrawled filefish
Reef
We spotted several Scrawled filefish, lots of parrot fish
zipped about, I found a large lizard fish and a King crab resting on a shelf.
Arrow crab in sponge
Lizard fish
A 5 foot or so Nurse
Shark passed under us at one point.
San Francisco, 77’
Max./52 min., 80 degrees –
Lorefish
Hawksbill
S.F. is just another
of a long list of great dives on Coz. This one falls into what I call the
“garden” category. Meaning that it is a long stretch of coral heads, just
completely covered with sponges, anemones, hydroids, soft corals and sea fans,
all that added up makes the reef look like an underwater garden.
We found a couple
Hawksbill turtles along the way, schools of grunts and pork fish milled about.
Juvenile Lionfish
Grunts in coral
Snapper looking for a handout
Lore spotted a
juvenile Lionfish. All the Lionfish we found on this trip were juvies, and most
of them looked black rather than red. I don’t know we have 2 different types of
lionfish, or if their diet is making them darker in color than their Pacific
cousins.
Sun. 05/26: a.m. dive with Matthew and
Piñata on Chiquimax
On the way out to the first dive site, we saw 2 dolphins
swimming south along the boat lanes.
We inquired about
dolphin being these waters a few years ago, and the DM told us that they
usually only come into the channel when a storm is coming.
We should have taken
heed, because it rained most of the day the following Tuesday. I checked NOAA
radars and it appeared that there was a small depression off the coast of Coz to
the east, but we only got the outskirts of it.
Santa Rosa round 2,
67’ Max./51 min., 81 degrees –
Big Nurse Shark under ledge
My strobe issues
really started to take off here. Most of the photos I took on this dive turned
out like there was not flash being put out at all.
Tube sponge
Nevertheless, it was
another spectacular dive. I found a large Nurse Shark sleeping under a shelf,
another Hawksbill and lots of Arrow crabs under shelves and in sponges.
Sometimes b&w just works...
Punta Delila, 56’
Max., 1hr 6 min., 82 degrees –
Delila never
disappoints. Another great mid reef garden dive covered with all kinds of sea
life.
Scrawled filefish over reef
Lore and Scrawled filefish, (reoccurring theme)
We dropped down and found another juvenile Lionfish right
off the bat. Schools of small Midnight parrot fish zipped by all in a line. A
small battery of barracuda hung off to the deep side of the reef and the second
Eagle ray of the trip casually ‘flew’ by us.
More Scrawled
filefish, Four eye butterflies, and schools of snapper and grunts milled about
and yes, another free swimming Nurse Shark!
Eagle ray
Yellow Spotted Stingray
Nurse Shark
I had been searching
the shaggy looking soft coral branches looking for the tiny Slender filefish
and finally found one just before heading up for the safety stop.
I was actually able
to find a couple more throughout the trip.
Mon. 05/27: a.m.. dive with Jose and Piñata
on Blue Angel II
Columbia Deep, 85’
Max./58 min., 81 degrees – Simply amazing. I can’t put my finger on it
exactly, but this reef looked great! Just covered with sponges, deep sea fans
& corals, it was just awe inspiring.
Columbia Deep
...more reef
We found several
lobster hanging out under shelves, more barracuda, grouper hanging out in the
deep, Blue Chromas darting all bout the reef and Damsel fish defend their
territory as you invade it.
I found a teeny tiny
little black and yellow Box fish about the size of my thumbnail. Pretty sure they are Juvenile Trunkfish.
Juvenile Trunkfish
Big 'ol Hermit Crab
Fireworm
Howard with Barracuda
Cedral Pass round 2,
64’ Max./1hr. 4min., 79 degrees –
EASILY the dive of the trip!! Maybe the best dive
we’ve ever done on Cozumel!
Wow what more could you ask for? First of all we drop
down and Howard hears toadfish! So we find a little cavern with a toadfish in
it and Jose commences to coax it out of its hole. It did pop out about half way
a couple times before the entire group showed up and it thought better of doing
that again.
Splendid Toadfish
The one Jose was trying to coax out of his hole
So we start to move off down the reef and we
run across 2 Nurse Sharks feeding on something in a small coral head and just
off to the left is a free swimming Big Green Moray eel!
2 Feeding Nurse sharks, grouper waiting for scraps
Free swimming Big Green Moray eel
And it get better from there! The next thing
we run across is a HUGE Loggerhead turtle sleeping against a small coral head
that she pretty much dwarfed. I took several pics of her, including a close up
of one of the barnacles on her back. At one point she just opened an eye about
half way, but pretty much ignored my presence.
Sleeping Loggerhead
Hawksbill
I found my second, and THIRD Slender filefish,
a couple more Splendid Toadfish and more barracuda passed us by.
Jose found another clear and purple anemone
shrimp in one of the many Carpet anemones we came across and near the end of
the dive he found a very small bluish purple and yellow nudibranch…great eyes!
Anemone Shirmp
Slender Filefish
I'm not exactly sure what Jose is up to here,
I suspect he's looking for Slender filefish,
they hang out in this type of soft corals,
I love the 2 colored fins, really makes it easy to find him in the water
In fact, I think Jose is the best overall Dive
Master at Blue Angel. That’s not slighting any of the other guys in the least,
I just feel that overall he does the best job from service on the boat, dive
profile descriptions, finding critters; especially little ones, and keeping an
eye on the group.
Rainbow parrotfish
Arrow crab
By the way, I use the term Dive Master even
though most of the guys at Blue Angel,and a lot of other dive ops, have higher
certifications. DM is the job description they are performing for us when we
dive with them.
Wed. 05/29: a.m. dive with Jose and Alberto
on Chiquimax
Our last dives of the trip:
Palancar ‘Cuebones’
round 2, 79’ Max./52 min., 77 degrees –
I like this new dive!
A pretty wall, pretty much the continuation of what you find at Bricks with a
lot of caverns to move in and out of.
French Angels on the reef
A small hawksbill
passed us on her way to get a breath of air, on our way down.
Along one of the
caverns on a small shelf, Jose found an orange Seahorse, it seemed like an odd
place for one to me, but, there he was!
Orange Seahorse
Cuebones reef
We passed French and
Gray angels, orange filefish, yellow tail snapper, and most the usual suspects
as we made our way from the wall to the top portion of the reef to save bottom
time on this last day.
Lore found another
junie Lionfish, and Jose continued to find nudibrach, pipefish and all kinds of
little critters.
Tormentos, 58’
Max./1hr. 6min., 77 degrees –
Ok, here we go, the
last dive of the trip, let’s make it a good one! And of course it was
Tormentos, so, naturally, it was a good dive.
Trunk fish and grouper
were all over this reef!
Trunk fish
I found a large fire
worm crawling across the coral upon dropping down, lots of Trunk fish on this
site, most of them in pairs milling about the large coral heads, spread out
over the flat, sandy patches between them.
See the Fire worm?
There he is!
The search for a
blenny finally paid off, as I got one decent shot out of the whole trip of one
of these cute little crowd pleasers that make their homes in holes bored into
corals.
Blenny!
Tube sponge
I’m not sure if they have the ability to bore the holes
themselves or it they possibly eat the previous inhabitant, possibly a tube
worm of some sort, all speculation of course.
We found a lot of
large grouper spread out throughout the entire dive. Most of them tucked up
under large shelves, but a few out in the open…beautiful animals.
I found a Yellow
spotted stingray buried in the sand and got a shot of him before he took off.
Yellow spotted stingray in sand
Grouper
We saw more angels of
all varieties of course, including a juvenile French darting in and out of a
hole.
And to cap off our
trip, what else, but 2 Splendid toadfish.
Just a real pretty
dive to finish it all up. I had been trying to get there all week, and Alberto
even laughed when I said so after Jose suggested it.
Hiding Hind
(another favorite shot from this trip)
Anemone
Gobe in sponge
Lobster
One person on the
boat earlier in the week kept saying there was “nothing to see” at Tormentos,
so we always went somewhere else…seems like we saw a lot!
Reef thoughts…
Jose on the surface
Overall the reefs look very good, the most
“damage” I personally noticed was where turtles had been eating on sponges.
Although I did find a
patch of coral on one dive that looked like someone sat in it. It was a patch
of finger coral, roughly 3 ½ foot in diameter and it looked like someone
literally sat down in the middle of it. Could have been ‘natural’ damage of
some sort, but it was really the only broken coral I saw.
Finger and lettuce
corals overall are really making a comeback. The sponges are starting to
overrun the hydroids that had sprouted like crazy ahead of the slower growing
sponges after hurricane Wilma.
Every year they get
more and more impressive, Columbia Deep in particular on this trip really stood
out, just beautiful.
There are some really
large grouper out there now. I started noticing them getting much larger a
couple of years ago. We saw several this trip, that were simply huge.
Water temps ranged
from 80 – 82 degrees on most dives. The last day we dove was after it rained
all day the day before and water temps were 77 degrees on both of those dives,
but still very comfortable.
Speaking of the rain.
Several years ago we asked a DM if they ever saw dolphins here much.
He said the only time
they seemed to come around was when a storm was coming.
Oddly enough we saw
the 2 dolphin on the way out to dive on Sunday, and it rained the following
Tuesday. I checked satellite and radars for the area on Tuesday, and sure
enough there was a small depression off to the East of the island.
So maybe the dolphin
are an indicator of weather patterns when you see them in the channel.
This year’s “Boat
People” – our dive buddies on this trip!
I’ve already mentioned our friends Bob (Brewdiver) and
Janice from Michigan.
Bob gets on the boat after a dive
Howard, a retired Dr. and part timer on the island. A great
guy and lots of fun to dive with. He dives here so much, it’s almost like
having an extra DM along for the ride.
His buddies Sid from
Northern California, who is about to become a full timer, and Jerry, the owner
of the Rejuvenation Clinic, all three we have had the pleasure of diving with
on previous trips.
Jerry, Sid, Howard, Mateo, Alex & Jennifer (left to right)
Steve, Skip & Mary from Nebraska
Alex and his daughter Jennifer from San Antonio
Alicia and Dan from Austin
Pam and Russ from New Mexico
Brothers John and Dan from Chicago
The Food: 05/22-05/30 – pretty much in order of
appearance –
La Hatch –
Another new hangout for us and a little hidden jewel. Located near Papa Hogs,
this place has very good food, a great sunset view, good service and cheap
prices. For instance, the Wednesday special; $1 tacos el pastor, pork marinated
in pineapple and chilies, so, so good.
Lunch at La Hatch
On a second trip I
had the el pastor again, this time on a torta, sandwich.
Rock-n-Java – a
long time favorite, Lisa and crew continue bring good and healthy food and some
of the best desserts on the island.
For starters Potato
Skins, some of the best I’ve ever had, topped with cheese, bacon and pico de
guio. Spinach salad for her, loaded with all the good stuff a spinach salad
should have, and a club sandwich for me.
The club is great,
but HUGE! I could barely stuff down half the thing.
2 frozen strawberry/lemonades…it just sounded good, and was!
La Candela – another new favorite, we
discovered it a couple year ago when we
were going to try and eat someplace else and it wasn’t open so tried
this place on a whim, and what a payoff that was.
This trip Lore had the “Candela” style fish. The house
special style.
I had what was for
sure to that point the best meal of the
trip. Fish with crunchy vegetables. WOW, the description pretty much tells you
what it is, but who know that slightly sautéed julienne veggies, especially
onion, goes so well with fish.
I'm pretty sure Wahoo
was the catch; it seemed to be on a lot of menus while we were there.
All that held us over
until we ended up back at Ohana and it just happened to be Angie;s birthday
weekend and the crew was celebrating with pizza and cake and we were invited to
partake.
So this was my second
time to eat Matt and Angie’s fantastic Chicago style deep dish, and I don’t
know who made the cake, but it was amazing as well. A chocolate tres leche
cake, I believe; rich, moist, sweet…did I mention rich.
Blue Angel
restaurant: Always good food, and great go-to for lunch by the pool, BLT & shrimp quesadilla.
The amazing Buccanos at Night. Once again, I’ve
been telling people for nearly a year, don’t leave Cozumel without doing Buccanos
for dinner.,,now I know why.
The setting is even
more spectacular at night and I don’t know what it is about the angle of the
sunset to the island, but the sunset up there was nothing short of
breathtaking.
As was the food by the way, I had a double date for the
evening, the lovely Miss Christi Courtney of BlueXTSea Divers joined us on this
lovely Friday evening.
I have just recently
realized that I have known Christi longer than anyone else on the island other
than my buddy Armando Alentado at Island Photo and Video
Good thing too, it’s easier for three to share a sampling of
a fine menu than it is for two
We started off sharing both of the special appetizers.
Beautifully grilled fresh pineapple and fresh mozzarella over a bed of arugula
and topped with just the right amount of pesto and what I describe as mini tuna
tostadas with a blueberry sauce and blueberries. Im not doing it much justice, but it was
delicious.
Appetizer #1
Appetizer #2
Wahoo!!!
Mahi Mahi
As was the entre,
Lore and Christi had the Wahoo marinated in coconut milk and crusted with
coconut and I had an amazing Mahi Mahi dish, poached in chipotle and honey
sauce. Again, words could not do it justice.
For dessert we went
all out and ordered all three specials. Inez, the owner chef, does a weekly
mousse special of three shot glasses with three different flavored mousses in
them.
Always unique
flavorings, I think one was some sort of coffee or mocha, one had habanero, and
one was maybe blueberries again, not sure, but I think some sort of fruit base.
I wish I would have
written down what the other two desserts were, but they were spectacular as
well.
Buccanos sunset
By the way, if you
are one of those people who just want to come in, order your food, snarf it
down and head out, Buccanos at Night is not for you.
This is a casual,
slow paced, relaxing dinner. Order one of the specialty drinks and enjoy the
sun setting as you wait for Inez to personally come to your table and explain
the specials for the evening.
The wait staff
perfectly times the rest of your meal out where you are not rushed, but also
not impatiently waiting for the next thing. Savor and enjoy, is the theme here.
Coconuts, my
“Margaritaville” – a trip to the “wild side” -
Coconuts
Chimichanga
Lore gives a toast
I love sitting up on
the hill, catching a little breeze, visiting with Cuco and the gang and seeing
my old pal Chimichanga, the cockatoo.
Fish burgers for all!
Messy, yes, but what a way to go! Opting again for a straight shot of sipping
tequila over the nearly world famous margaritas.
FISH BURGER!!!
View from Coconuts
Luna
Look for Shark Tank bumper stickers...appropriately in the restrooms!
Casa Denis.
Lore’s must have, Mayan cream spinach soup and shrimp ceviche and chicken
tostadas for me. Of course 2 mango margaritas to drink.
Lunch at Rastas.
Shrimp ceviche for her…there seems to be a pattern here. Chicken tacos for me,
see what I mean.
Got back to the hotel and debated about extending the trip, what’s
to debate? By the time we called the airline and talked to the hotel, it was
getting late, so I just ran up to Mega and got a couple pieces of pizza to go…I
know sacrilege after ‘Ohana’s pie, but we were tired and it filled the hole.
Blue Angel restaurant: BLT and shrimp ceviche for lunch.
Woody’s: Fish
& chips for her, 2 huge fish fillets, deep fried with a light crust and I
think Mayan seasoning with perfectly cooked French fries.
A big ol’ chicken
burrito for me. Stuffed with white meat chicken, cheese, pico, cream fresh
(sour cream), more than I could do in one sitting for sure.
Late lunch/ early dinner at La Terraza. In the former location of Prima Pasta, on the second
story terrace, just south of the plaza, this place has reclaimed the top spot
in Italian cuisine on Cozumel.
us at La Terraza...stuffed.
our favorite mariachis
We started off with
the Blue Cheese salad. A slight reworking of the old signature salad from
Prima, they have cut back on the cheese and are using balsamic vinaigrette for
a dressing…pretty much perfecting a good idea.
For the main event,
Lore had the Seafood Lasagna, another improved receipt from the old store,
absolutely stuffed with all kinds of seafood and a serving large enough for a
family of four.
I had the chicken
raviolis, which were the best raviolis I’ve had since I can remember. Fresh
pasta wrapped around a tasty chicken filling and topped with red alfredo
mushroom sauce…amazing.
2 coffees, 2
Frangelico, split a piece of Key Lime pie and we floated down the little spiral
staircase in culinary bliss.
After checking the bags early at the airport, our last day
on the island, we headed to The Museum,
another long, long time favorites of ours.
I opted for one last
breakfast, “the Countryman”, 2 scrambled eggs, fruit, and frijoles. Lore had
the Shrimp ceviche…one last time.
All in all, the culinary
expedition turned out pretty good this year. Top three meals for sure were Buccanos
at Night; Mahi poached in chipotle
and honey, La Candela, fish with
crunchy vegetables & La Terazza;
Chicken ravioli, in no particular order. It really would be hard to pick a
favorite out of the three.
La Hatch stands out
as great “go to” place to eat. Reasonable prices, very good food and open until
at least midnight most nights they are open.
Several evenings we stopped
by ‘Ohana for a nightcap of Reposado tequila sipping shots and conversation
with Matt, Angie, their family members and the local ex-pats and business folks
that frequent the place.
Adventures, ventures, observations and more…
I made a couple attempts to
stop at the Caleta to meet ScubaTony to no avail. He does dive reports for us
on Cozumel Radio and I was looking forward to meeting him in person, both times
I stopped by he had already left the marina for the day.
Scuba Tony's place at Caleta
Fisherman cleaning Mahi & Barracuda
Same thing happened with
several of our other sponsors, but I did get to meet Inez at Bucannos, who was
on my list of people to me this trip. Once again DO NOT leave Cozumel without
having this experience.
Lore, Inez & Christi at Buccanos
Part of the reason we
had a hard time getting together with people is that, as I stated before, the
island was in a major slow season and businesses being very slow, some owners
were taking time off the island to see family, or they just weren’t at their
businesses all day like they would have been if it was a high season.
I mentioned earlier that the
greatest masseuse in the world Sally Hurwitch, better known as “Barefoot Sally”
www.barefootincozumel.com was out of town and I ended up getting a
massage at Blue Angel.
Well, it just so
happened that we decided to extend out trip from ten days to a full two weeks,
something we did last year as well. We’re just going to have to book 2 weeks
from the get-go.
Sally came home the
day we were supposed to leave, so we were able to get with her and have one
those amazing Ashiatsu massages. If you have never done it, do yourself a huge
favor next time you are on the island and contact my buddy Sally.
One of the things we like to do is to drive up to Punta Norte, as I mentioned before, if you have never seen the Cozumel raccoon, this is a good place to find them.
The drive is a bit of a beat down, and you want to do it early enough in the day that you aren't driving back when the mosquitos start coming out...especially if you are in an open air vehicle.
The road is unpaved and in spots, resembles the surface of the moon, but if you take your time, the pay off is a breeze swept semi-protected lagoon overlooking the mystical Isla Pasion just across it's bay. I don't know how 'mystical' Passion Island is, but it sounds good.
Fishing boats at Punta Sur
Sharky's thinking about opening a bar!
VERY cool caterpillar at Punta Sur
Kite boarder
Isla Pasion (Passion Island)
We spent even more time than
we usually do driving around in town. After all these years, I’m finally
starting to know my way around San Miguel pretty well.
too funny!
For a couple years
after our accident in 2005, I felt a little nervous about driving around the
back neighborhood narrow streets, but I’ve gotten past that now and very much
enjoy exploring around town.
Driving around the "wild side" of the island this time of year, you will see markings on the road where the Turtle Conservation people have marked where they have dug up turtle eggs to incubate them. On the beach you will find pole markers to mark the exact place & date where the eggs were found...
Sea turtle next marker
These are some interesting plants we found along the way...
odd how the fruit of this tree grows off the trunk
very cool flower, at least 12" across
One thing I noticed this
trip, is how many of those little “Super mini” quick shops there are around.
Most of them seem to be named after people, Super mini Rosie” “Super mini Jose”
I’ve seen them before
of course, even stopped and bought things at them before, but I don’t think I
noticed that there must be 100’s of them scattered about throughout the
neighborhoods of San Miguel.
I even found one back
in the new housing development back east of 80th that is in a
traditional Mayan hut…very cool.
Somewhere in the
middle of this trip, I decided I’m going to do a photographic essay, taking
images of every one of them I run across on the next trip. It will probably
take me an hour to drive 6 or 7 blocks! It could take years to shoot all of
them…hopefully.
All in all,
another wonderful trip to our little piece of paradise and after several talks
with some of our ex-pat friends, we may actually be starting to think about
becoming some sort of part-timers on the island…still a developing story.
Thankx's!!
Thanks so much to Eva
and all her wonderful staff at the Beautiful Blue Angel Resort.
Turtle towel!
Thanks to Martin,
Matt (Mateo), Jose, Mathew, Norman, Edgar, Alberto and Piñata for all you do at
the dive shop and out on the water.
Alberto always there to pick us up
Thanks again to
Barefoot Sally and the kind lady at Blue Angel for working out the kinks.
Thanks to my buddy Armando Alentado of Island Photo and Video for coming by and looking at my strobe. Good to see you as always my friend.
If you are looking to get into underwater photography, see Armando to rent a camera and get some instruction, Cozumel is a great place to cut your chops on underwater photography.
Thanks to all our
friends and ‘family’ on the island for your hospitality.
And as always, Thanks
so much to the people of Cozumel, Mexico for allowing us to share your
beautiful home with us…see you soon.
Blue Angel Sunset
...and the hits keep coming
Be sure to check in
with us at
www.cozumelradio.net for
the new interactive website and the resurrection of
the Shark Tank radio show, which will be
‘on-demand’, meaning you will be able to listen to it any time you want, and
hopefully we will also be archiving all the original shows so you can go back
and listen to them.
