Cozumel Trip Report
May 1, 2005 – May 13th 2005
Warning: Do not read this trip report. It is hideously long and tedious and may interest no one except the author.
OK. You were warned.
[I am writing this from the balcony of our hotel in Cozumel, overlooking a stormy Caribbean Sea. There is a warm breeze, pattering, sporadic rain, and lightening is playing out across the gray/blue waters. Thunder roars and tropical birds scream their protests. Gentle surf laps at the rocks down below. It’s the end of our first full day here, and I’ve already made three great dives.]
May 1st
The Flight From Hell!
Actually, the flight was from Spokane. Priscilla and I left at 7:30 pm, flew to Las Vegas and I tried for the first time to sleep on an Airport floor. Left Las Vegas at 1:15am, arrived Huston at 6:00am. Tried to sleep sitting up until leaving Houston at 9:30am. Arrived Cozumel in a walking coma at 11:30am.
Coming in for a landing. Our first look at the jungle island of Cozumel.
Easy enough through Immigration, and Customs, and all four of our bags arrived with us! I’d packed my BP/wing, fins and lights, but carried on my regulator and computer. We took the shuttle van to our hotel ($7.69 each), checked in, yanked my scuba gear out of the luggage, grabbed a tank from the hotel dive shop, and by 1:00 I was diving in 82 degree water.
Our hotel is the Caribe Blu, a small non-inclusive, laid back joint designed for divers and people not looking for the hustle and bustle and glitz of the more touristy places. The hotel is also missing some of the finer amenities, but for the price it is still a great bargain. Priscilla and I stayed at a 5 star resort in Puerto Vallarta, but I still prefer this. It just feels more like being in Mexico. It is quiet and uncrowded and personable. Plus, if you stay at the hotel, shore dives, including all the tanks you can breath, day or night, are free.
The hotel is south of town about a $4.00 taxi ride. There’s a Dive Shop, and a small restaurant right next to the hotel (breakfast and lunch only). Being located south like this we miss the crowds of Pod People meandering in their herds through town. There’s no time-share hawkers or gift shops – just Mexico and the blue Caribbean Sea at our feet.
Every single room faces the ocean. Bottom floor rooms walk right out onto the oceanfront, and 2nd through 4th floors have balconies with drying racks. We have not yet met up with Gordon Gunn (ggunn), but Priscilla already has something against him. Gordon has been here, so before we left, I PM’d him for the best room choice.
Gordon Gunn Email Quote: “My mom always said that the view from 401 was her favorite on the island.”
Well, we got room 402 (our friends Tony & Lia are joining us Friday and they have 401). Yes, the view is great on the forth floor. It’s also great on the third floor and second floor and first floor, but without the four floor haul of luggage and dive gear and everything else in 92-degree heat. Actually, Priscilla doesn’t really blame Gordon. She reminded me that the rest of his email said:
Quote: “We will be in rooms 101 and 102, and we do a lot of hanging out around the stone table out behind 102, so I should be easy to find.”
Humm… First floor. There’s a clue there. Oh well, I need the exercise.
View from our room of the hotel shore dive.
Panorama from the dock.
Anyway, my first dive was great (I made this dive mainly to do a weight check). About 90’ visibility, coral, fish, the usual suspects including 2 nice spotted morays. The shore dive at the Caribe Blu is about as easy as it gets. I don’t mind doing it solo, ‘cause it’s so shallow that if anything goes wrong you just stand up (Disclaimer: That’s a joke. Don’t dive solo or you’ll die). Max depth was 24’ only because I went too far out and missed the reef. The real dive is at 10’ to 15’. You swim south against a mild current (usually), then cruse back to the hotel. If you’re in the right place you can’t miss the exit because of the long roped string of buoys.
About halfway through the dive I started laughing into my reg. I was so happy. This was it! After months of reading and posting and planning, I was finally here in Cozumel making a dive. It was like diving in a Caribbean swimming pool.
And boy was I feeling over-rigged. I’d brought my SS BP/W, 7’ hose and bungeed 2nd, two backup lights tubed to my webbing and spring-strapped turtle fins – all for this 12’ deep pool dive!
Somehow, at the moment I was finding it extremely funny, and laughing about it. In fact, I kinda felt narked. Very narked. At ten feet deep. But of course, I couldn’t be. What I was, was completely brained-fried from being up for two days, plus jet lagged to the max, plus all hyped up about being here.
Excellent dive!
After the dive, we taxied to Blue XT Sea, Christi’s new shop, and the boat operator I was scheduled to dive with every day for the next 9 days. She asked me how long I’d been certified. I told her I was first certified NASDS in 1971, took a long SI, and then re-certified PADI.
“Ohhh…,” she said. “One of those.” I don’t know what she meant, but she was smiling while she said it.
I filled out the usual forms with Christi and she told me that the boat would pick me up at my hotel’s dock at 7:45am (more about the early departure and BXTS later).
That night we ate at a place called El Moreno’s, which came recommended by the hotel clerk. It was good, not great. The atmosphere was excellent, almost residential in nature, like dining in someone’s back yard (there was even a swing set).
Then we went back to the room and tried to watch Shark Tales in bed on the laptop. In about ten minutes, we were both sound asleep sitting up with the movie running unwatched.
May 3rd
Priscilla and I woke up at 6:30am and headed for the restaurant next door. After staring wantonly at the restaurant’s coffee maker for ten minutes, the “done” light finally came on. With coffee in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, we sat staring out over a peaceful sea. The blue color of this sea is beyond description, and every time I travel and see this color of water, it takes my breath away.
Everything is so close that you can eat breakfast at the restaurant and
watch for your boat to pull up at the dock.
At 7:30 I left Priscilla with her french toast, grabbed my gear and headed for the dock. At precisely 7:45, the Blue XT Sea six pac pulled up. Pedro greeted me warmly and introductions went around the boat as we pulled away. Every diver on the boat knew everyone else through ScubaBoard. There was one couple who knew of us, but we didn’t know them because they only read, don’t post. It was great to meet Jay and Rick and Michelle and the others.
Above
is the only shot I have of the back of Mr. Shy, Dr. Jay.
As we headed out to the dive site, Pedro sat down next to me and gave me the boat briefing. Actually, he kind of gave me the “what for” Mexican style – right to the point, no punches pulled. After asking me about my diving experience, he said (my paraphrase, my interpolation, YMMV), “Look, I know you are a better diver than me, having dived all over the world and everything, but I am the Dive Master here, and safety is my biggest concern, so you will follow my instructions, stay with the group, not descend deeper than the dive plan or deviate in any way from the dive plan. Do you understand?”
Oh, I understood. “You won’t get any trouble from me, “ I said.
“I know,” he answered with a full-toothed grin. “I can read a diver after five minutes on the boat.”
I liked this guy already. Polite, but straight up. Professional.
The “A” team, Pedro Pablo and Hector (Mago), our DM and Captain.
We back-rolled into the water a few minutes later. Palancar Caves. Great structure, although not as much marine life as I had expected. Highlights were some Hawksbill Turtles and a nurse shark. Max depth about 90’, visibility about 100’, dive time about 55 mins. Beautiful!
We did the surface interval at a jungle beach – the bathroom facilities being the jungle itself or a relaxing stand in the surf. If you opted for the jungle, you hiked down one of the many trails until you found a secluded dead end. There were geckos and big crabs scurrying everywhere. It felt very authentic Mexican Yucatan.
We snacked on Christi’s famous muffins and other assorted nibblies, and the crew kept us hydrated up with endless unsolicited refills of water and juice. Our captain, Hector, did his world famous magic tricks for us and some divers from another boat. Finally the SI concluded and we headed off for our second dive.
Those of us who were nitrox certified dived 36% for the second dive (as I continued to do every day). Unfortunately, one of the divers had forgotten to bring his nitrox card. So Pedro called Christi on his cell phone, Christi confirmed the divers certification on PADI’s web site, and by the second dive, the diver was approved for the nitrox. Now that is service.
The second dive was at
Punta Dalia. There was a lot more marine life here, great vis, light current,
overall excellent. Blue XT Sea handles varying air consumption by sending divers
up as they reach 700 PSI (DM shoots a bag). The diver’s buddy can stay below, or
join their hovering friend.
J
With this system, everyone gets his or her full dive time. Once a diver
surfaces, the boat maneuvers over to pick them up. Easy. 
Actually, I was never so happy to end a dive in my life! I was so hydrated up (thanks Don) that the moment I doffed my gear on the boat, I jumped back into the water. Sweet relief!
The second dive ended and we were back on the dock at our hotel by 12:45. Nice! I love hitting the water at 7:45am. Even after two dives, I still had the whole day ahead of me!
So it was back to the hotel, lunch at the hotel restaurant, nap, then sitting around on the balcony looking at the storm.
Later, we took a taxi to dinner (Casa Denis), walked around downtown looking at the Pod People, taxi-ed back to the room, then 15 more minutes of Shark Tales and the first full day in Cozumel was over.
Priscilla enjoys a Mexican Coke Light (not a Diet Coke) at Casa Denis.
That night we slept like a babies.
May 4th
Up at 6:am, coffee (bought a coffee maker at Chedreh) and down to meet the boat for day two. Our new diver today, Chris, was another Cozumel veteran and ScubaBoard lurker.
Chris, with Hector at the helm.
The ride out to the dive site was so rough that we were soaked by the time the boat stopped. I asked if I could log this trip as the first dive (yuck-yuck).
The first dive was planned at Palancar Bricks, but once we were down, due to changing current, we ended up drifting half the dive at Palancar Bricks and half at Palancar caves. Saw the usual suspects, plus a nice grouper. Again I was impressed by the incredible coral structure. I found a dive slate. Visibility was about 110’. Wow!
Surface interval as usual and a second dive at Paso Del Cedra. Very relaxing shallow dive, just drifting in the slow current. Tons of marine life. Nurse shark, and – they say- two toadfish, although I didn’t see them.
Another group of divers splashed down on top of us during the dive. At one point they were on both sides of us. I was thinking, why doesn’t the DM move his people away from us? I can now see how a diver could end up with the wrong group. But there was no problem this time. Our group just came naturally together until those morons – ah, I mean, other nice divers, passed. Besides, it was easy to tell them from us. They all had pretty snorkels, we didn’t. J
End of second dive and back to the hotel for a solo shore dive. I saw tons of great stuff, including spotted morays, a spotted drum, a huge puffer fish, a school of barracudas and a giant Horse-eye Jack. I took it really slow, peeking into holes and crevices. I was so relaxed that at one point I actually started dozing off. The dive lasted 75 minutes and I came back with 1000 psi.
No nap today. I’m currently sitting on my balcony looking out at a deep blue cloudless sky over a calm turquoises sea, typing this. Right now my most important concern is where to have dinner.
So many choices…
…It’s now the next morning. The sun has just risen, it’s another cloudless morning and the water is flat. The Aldora II just passed by on its way to pick up divers (Aldora has the first boat out every morning). In 45 minutes, our boat, Shamu arrives. The water is glass flat this morning.
Last night we ate at Primera, which was good, but lacked the Mexican atmosphere I enjoy. Besides, I didn’t come to Mexico to eat Italian food. Priscilla, however, loved it (I’m thinking of taking her there on Mother’s day).
After dinner we walked downtown. We stopped at a calling station, and I called my dive buddy Tony, who, with his wife Lia, will join us in two more days. I told him to stay home, the country was primitive, the hotel didn’t have room service or a gym, the water was too warm, and a gringo like him was sure to get sunstroke.
He insisted they’re coming anyway.
Then it was back to the room for an early nights sleep.
Oh, and we finally finished shark Tales.
May 5th
It was Rick & Michelle and Chris’ last day of diving, and Rick & Michelle requested the dive locations. The first dive was at Santa Rosa wall, which had some nice swim-throughs. Two of the divers opted to go over one of the swim-throughs, but didn’t tell the DM. When they failed to exit, Pedro signaled us to wait there and went back into the entrance to look for them. When he came back out without them, he looked none too happy. We quickly pointed to them up over the wall doing their safety stop and OK’s were exchanged.
On the previous dives, I had been noticing how quickly my computer (Mares M1 RGBM) says I’m out of no-deco time, which had caused me to swim the dives above the pack to stay clear of any obligations. So today we prearranged a signal to compare NDLs. When I hit one minute remaining, I gave the signaled. Rick, Michelle and Pedro all had more than 10 minutes of NDL remaining. Pedro signaled that my computer was “loco”.
I continued the dive and watched as the M1 went into deco mode. By the time the dive ended, I had accumulated 11 minutes of deco at 10’. I did the obligation and surfaced. Everybody agreed that something was wrong with my computer. There are no “conservative” or “liberal” modes on the thing.
At the end of this dive, when Pedro went to send up the lift bag, his reel jammed and he did a rapid ascent from about 40’ to 15’. Finally he was able to reach the top of the bag, dump the air out and descend.
During the SI, we all met another ScubaBoarder, DiveDutch, who was on Blue XT Sea’s 2nd boat, which – except for DiveDutch – was filled with Pod People. She would be joining us on Shamu tomorrow. She’s a cold water, dry suit diver from Alaska.
DiveDutch took this picture of our boat during the SI. From left to right: Hector (his best side), Michelle, Rick, Edie (behind the support beam waving), Me (in blue), Chris and Lew.
Second dive was San Francisco Wall. Saw a nice ray, otherwise, uneventful. Very relaxing dive, nice and shallow. Of course, the other divers kidded me and asked if I needed to do some more deco time at ten feet. Ha, ha…
Priscilla and I spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool and on the balcony, watching the storm blow through.
I went to the Internet café, posted a quick hello on ScubaBoard and printed out the instruction manual to my computer to see if I could remedy the short NDL issue. Turns out I had the thing set to Altitude 1, which I thought was the lowest altitude setting. But altitude 1 is actually 2700’-3500’. There is an altitude 0 for sea level. I set it to 0, sea level. Tomorrow we’ll see if that fixes it.
OK, I’m turning this laptop off now so I can pour another cold drink and watch the ships roll by.
Just another day in paradise…
May 6th
Yup, that fixed it. The M1’s RGBM logarithms are still conservatively, but at least my computer isn’t going into deco 15 minutes ahead of everyone else now. However my backup light (the one I use for peeking at stuff in the day) flooded, and even with a cleaning, new batteries, and $10.00 worth of new bulb it won’t recover. So I’m down to my backup-backup, that little yellow one.
We dived Palancar Gardens on our first dive. With Chris and Rick and Michelle having said adios, we added DiveDutch and two other divers to the boat. One was man was a diver with a disability, and the other was his disability instructor. We also had to add another DM to dive specifically with the disabled diver, so it was a full boat.
There was a lot of lifting of the disabled diver – in his wheel chair up and down steps and stairs, and finally (without the chair) into the boat. The DMs were spectacular in their care and help, serving this man with the same attention to his need as they did to ours. As we talked of the ride out to the dive site, I encouraged him to get involved in ScubaBoard’s Divers With Disabilities forum, that as an active disabled diver he would definitely be an asset to the others on the board. He agreed to check it out. Both him and his instructor knew all about our Wonderboy, Matt.
New divers on left, then DM Javier, Lew (hiding) and Edie.
When we arrived at the
dive site, the man was lowered into the water with the DM and instructor, and
off they went. 
It is something to see, this guy holding perfectly neutral in a vertical position, fining only with his unaided hands, drifting along with the current. He was an excellent diver!
Palancar Gardens had amazingly beautiful structure, with towering coral pinnacles and caves and swim-throughs to delight any diver. There wasn’t a lot of marine life compared to other sites, but it was still awesome. The problem was the people. There were so many divers, it was a constant traffic jam of people. For me, personally, I don’t really enjoy a dive that reminds me of a Disneyland ride.
The second dive was at Punta Tunich. Nice current, relaxing dive. I had been a little unhappy with my trim – my turtle fins were making me a little foot heavy, so during the dive I stuck the 4#s of weight in my pockets in to the top of my wet suit. Perfect!
For the last few days, I had been giving our DM, Pedro a hard time about not finding me a sea horse. I had placed my order with him on Tuesday, so what was the deal? On this dive, we drifted into an area and he stopped and started peering into the crevices. I guessed he was looking for my sea horse. A minute went by. Then five. Then ten. OK, senior, if it isn’t here, lets move along.
Finally after about fifteen minutes, he popped up triumphantly and beckoned me. I swam over and he took my little backup light and pointed. There it was, way back into a rock crevasse. A three-inch long sea horse. After we all admired it, I bowed in submission and reverence to Pedro.
The second dive having ended, we headed back to the hotel dock. What a wonderful site, pulling up to the hotel and seeing Priscilla smiling and waving at the poolside waiting for me. And there at the top floor of the hotel on their balcony were our friends Tony and Lia, having finally joined us here in paradise.
Tony and Lia, having just arrived, watch from the top right balcony as our boat returns to the hotel.
We had lunch together at the hotel restaurant and then Tony and I made a beach dive. We saw lots of great stuff, including five or six morays, one that was free swimming. The max depth of this dive was 18’, with most of the dive around 12’. At the end of the dive, I signaled Tony to do the safety stop. He was tired and jet lagged from 12 hours of flight, and I laughed out load as he nodded yes to the safety stop, thought about it for a second, shook is head in confusion, then pointed at me in realization of the joke.
We checked Tony in at Blue XT Sea’s shop, came back for our wives, and had a wonderful dinner at La Choza. Good food, great service, funny waiters.
May 7th
Well, today was different. It was Tony’s first day of boat diving Coz, and he loved it.
Tony, ready to dive!
However, we picked up four new divers on the boat who changed the dynamics of the whole day.
First, there was a young couple that hadn’t dived in three years. That’s right, not a breath on a regulator for three years. So basically our first dive was there refresher course. The DM briefed them like they had never dived before. They were using rental computers, and after the first dive, during the SI, they were looking at the computers, asking stuff like, “Gee, what does this number mean?”
The DM explained, “’Dis noomber is you run out of no decompression time. Comprende?”
Actually, they did very well during the dives, and there were no issues. And with each dive they made, they got better. Great people, good divers.
However, our other new divers were a different deal. They were a husband and wife team, and right away during the ride out, the wife explained that she only dives because her husband wants her too. Oh, oh…
She was a rather large woman, and her husband told the DM that she has had problems in the past with proper weighting and being able to descend. So they weighted her up.
Everyone moved into position for the back-roll into the water, sitting hunched out on the edge of the sides. The woman had some difficulty getting into this position and was looking rather nervous and uncomfortable about the whole thing. Except for Tony and me, the DM had to put defog on everyone’s mask (no one had any or would have asked for it had the DM not offered).
“OK, “ said the DM. “Please inflate your BCs. I will count to three and then you will go in pairs.” They all looked at each other like, you have got to be kidding. We are really going to do this thing?? The DM counted, “One, two three, go!”
The young couple went over the side.
“One, two three, go!”
The second couple went over.
The DM nodded at us. “OK, amigos.”
Over we went. Once the DM got everyone to signal OK, we all went down. All except the reluctant, woman. She couldn’t descend – or wouldn’t. From the bottom we all watch the DM go back up and work on the ladies gear, dumping air out of the BC, etc. And then he grabbed her arm and hauled her down. Once she was at the 35’ bottom, the DM went back up and had the boat captain toss 5#s of weight into the water. The DM retrieved it and put it into the woman’s BC. Off we went.
The DM kept a steady eye on the woman during the dive – in fact so much so that he failed to point out several interesting things we passed. He was, necessarily, preoccupied with her. She flailed along behind the group with her husband, and whenever the DM signaled OK to her, he had to bang his tank banger to get her attention (while we all waited and watched). She never signaled back OK, just nodded. At one point the DM had to signal her to ascend, as she was slowly dropping down deeper and deeper below the group. Bang, bang, bang on the tank. Finally she notices. DM demonstrates for her to put air in her BC. She nods.
About 20 minutes into the dive, the lady was actually starting to do OK. We did an easy swim-through, which started at 70’ and ended at 60’, but when the woman came through she had become negative, and she started to float up. And once she started up, there was no stopping her! She did the Polaris from 60’ to 0’, the DM followed her up to a 30’ ridge and started banging on his tank for us to follow him, or for her to come back down, or for something. We followed to 30’. The DM sent up his lift bag, but by the time he had it up the woman was in the boat. No safety stop.
After that, we all just drifted along at 30’ looking at stuff the DM was pointing out (now that we had his attention back). We ended up seeing two nice nurse sharks, one that the woman’s husband found.
Back on the boat, the woman said she was finished diving for the day. I know she was embarrassed, and we all felt bad for her.
The second dive was uneventful – and very nice!
With all of this, I really still had two great dives. I felt bad for the woman, and the DM who was working like a dog with this group. Before the second dive, he really spent time asking me what sites I had dived. He was putting his best effort in looking for a new site for me. I told him, but said, “Hey, I’m easy. I can do the same site again, no problem.
The final embarrassment came when the boat docked to drop off the husband and wife, and she couldn’t get out of the boat. It was a good three feet up the cement wall to the top of the dock, and finally her husband pulled her up and the DM lifted, and she stumbled/fell up to the dock – which looked like it hurt!
Tony told me that, on a subsequent dive, her husband said she was spending the rest of the vacation by the pool side, drinking.
We returned ot the hotel and spent the rest of the day napping and lying by the pool. Dinner that night was at Casa de la Merino, and was even better the second time.
Tony and I had the steak filet and lobster.
May 8th
So far, the best and worst dives were done this day.
The lady with the diving issues didn’t return, so Priscilla got to ride on the boat with us.
Christi was down at the dock to meet a second boat of divers, and she offered to take Lia to meet us at the beach for the surface interval. After the surface interval, Priscilla and Lia switched places, so Lia was on the boat for the second dive.
I requested Columbia Reef for the first dive, and it was my favorite dive in Cozumel so far on this trip. It seemed to me that most of the sites with the best structure had little marine life, and the reefs with the best marine life had little interesting structure. Columbia had both.
As soon as we hit the water, a nice eagle ray did a swim by for us. We also saw a small nurse shark. We watched a diver with another group off in the distance do an uncontrolled ascent from 60’ to the surface, his DM along for the ride trying to slow the ascent. They were moving fast, and watching it gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
But otherwise, Columbia had awesome structure with abundant marine life, and was my favorite dive to date.
We did the SI with
Christi, Priscilla and Lia on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever
seen. The crystal blue colors of the water were like a Caribbean post card. 
I’m talking to Tony and Lia during the SI. Tony and Lia.
Christi, Lea and Priscilla.
The second dive was at Tormentos, and was the worst dive so far. There were just too many people from too many dive groups in too small an area. Our DM, Alan, had us waiting behind the herds of divers a few times for many minutes, just hanging there fining against the current, waiting… waiting… to see a seahorse, which he never found. We spent at least half the dive just waiting in line – which is not my idea of diving.
Two pluses, though. We saw a nice toadfish and a close encounter with a HUGE barracuda. And of course, even the worst dive in Coz is a great dive! Who can complain about 82-degree water with 100’ visibility and thousands of fish on a Caribbean coral reef?
Our dive guide, Alan, and someone having a bad hair day in perfect blue water.
After the dives, I finally met the King of Coz, mister Gordon Gunn himself. We had lunch in the hotel restaurant at the next table. He was wearing a wicker cowboy hat with a bright yellow band of surveyors tape around it to troll for ScubaBoarders.
His parents are both nice (and even seemed normal). J
G.G is way too cool to be in a picture with me.
After lunch it was reading by the pool and naps, and dinner was take out from Primas eaten on the balcony watching the sunset.
It was the best Mother’s Day I’ve ever had.
May 9th
Blue T Sea’s boat, Shamu, arrives to pick up the waiting divers.
The first dive was Columbia Deep. There was no current when we dropped in, but about half way through the dive the current started. And we were swimming into it.
Although the structure was gorgeous, the visibility was down, and the DM had us cover a lot of real estate against a mild current, crossing large sandy sections.
The second dive was at Punta Dalia. We just drifted along in nice current. Man, once you get your buoyancy and trim set, you can just hang there motionless, drifting along, changing your breathing to move up and down with the structure, peering into holes and crevices. Exhale deeply and drop down behind a coral head and you’ll stop dead as you hover protected from the current. Poke your light under the ledge and watch the family of four lobsters, or the frogfish or the moray. Then take a good breath, rise back up into the current and continue your travels. So sweet…
It’s really something for a hoover like me to do over an hour at 60’ on an AL80. Now that’s using the Xaler Method!
I popped up first after the safety stop, with Tony and Dave and Gary and the DM right behind me. But after a minute, they didn’t come up. Oh, oh! There’s only one reason for that. Often times the best stuff is seen at the end of the Safety stop.
I jammed my mask on, took a breath and looked under. The DM, Pedro, was waiting for me to look, and at once made eye contact and stated pointing. A nice nurse shark, six or seven feet long, lay on the open sand directly underneath us. He pointed again. Another one, smaller, swimming off into the blue. Great ending to our two dives. Excellent dive!
Back to the hotel, lunch
at the hotel restaurant again, 
and
then it was time for Priscilla and Lia’s snorkeling lessons. The ladies caught
right on thanks to our minimal instruction, and we kicked lazily around the
hotel reef for about an hour.
Next came the standard nap, then sitting on the balcony watching the sunset.
As soon as the sun disappeared below the horizon, Tony and I suited up for our shore night dive. The ladies took a taxi to town for dinner to go.
The night dive was awesome. There was a pretty good current to kick against for the first half of the dive, but we just took our time, poking around slowly with our lights. Of course, sometimes we shut off our lights to experience the darkness, and to watch the little flickerings of diamond-chip phosphorescence.
We saw all the usual night stuff, including so many moray eels we lost count. Drifting back on the second half was like a dream. At one point we stopped for a while to watch a beautiful little octopus feeding on the reef. We saw a total of three octos, one that sucked onto my finger with its suckers, then inked me when I tried to shake its hand.
What a fun dive at night this site is.
After the dive we went back up to our rooms where Priscilla and Lia had set out shrimp fajita dinners from La Choza on the balcony. We watched a gecko chase down bugs on the balcony overhang. We ate and talked randomly and laughed as good friends do, and listened to the ocean night sounds in the warm breeze.
Tomorrow we dive the Devil’s Throat.
May 10th
I’ve seen mixed reviews of the Punta Sur Reef, or the so-called, Devil’s Throat. I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful dive site.
There is actually a verity of different swim-throughs - not so lengthy that I’d cal them caves – the longest, narrowest and deepest, which emptied us out at 122’. True, there’s not much to see inside the swim-throughs (even with a light), but the geological structure is fascinating, and, for me, the darn things were just plain fun to navigate. This was defiantly one of my favorite dives.
Before the dive, no one mentioned decompression, but with a plan to hang in the 90’ to 120’ range for fifteen to twenty minutes, you knew there was going to be some small obligations. A five-minute safety stop was all that was discussed. I accumulated three minutes at 10’, but with the nice slow ascent profile, it was down to only one minute by the time we hit the safety stop. I actually did about eight minutes, due to the lost light.
The lost light. During our slow ascent, at about 40’, Tony tugged my fin and pointed at his dive light dropping slowly down into the depths. He had gone to clip it to a D ring, but the clip didn’t close all the way and the light slipped off. I quickly swam to Pedro, the DM and pointed, and we watched it settle on the bottom at, what I though was, about 80’.
Pedro shook his head, no, of course. He couldn’t allow a single diver to go chasing after it, even if they did have the gas for it, or condone a bounce at this stage of a deep dive.
I waved goodbye to the light to Tony. Pedro looked at his computer, thought for a second, and then shook his head, no, again. I looked at Tony and we shrugged at each other. Bummer, dude. Oh, well. Just a light.
Suddenly Pedro handed me his unreleased lift bag and spool and took off down toward the light. He was swimming into the current, and we had drifted away from the light, so very quickly he was fading down into the deep blue, and he disappeared from sight.
I didn’t know whether he wanted me to shoot the bag or not, but one of the other divers came over and opened it for me as if to say, what are you waiting for? So I shot the bag and we continued our five-minute safety stop.
After about four minutes, Pedro returned with the light. Everyone surfaced, but Pedro still had five minutes to do, so I stayed with him until I hit 100PSI, and then surfaced as well.
The light turned out to be resting at 121’, which just goes to show how poorly I am able to judge depth in these crystal clear waters. It also shows that we had at least 110’ of visibility!
I had given Tony the faulty clip, so, of course, the whole thing turned out to be my fault. J
You have to give credit to Pedro for making the bounce for Tony’s light. He really never abandoned his divers, because there was a second DM with our group during the safety stop (he was diving with a single diver who didn’t want to do the deep dive). Pedro assessed that he had the gas to safely make the bounce. But he was under no obligation to do so, and no one would have thought the less of him for leaving it on the bottom. I believe it is just his nature to serve others, and a testament to his character. Very impressive.
The second dive was Yucab wall. Tons of sea life, a huge grouper that looked like he could eat me if he felt like it, lobsters everywhere – even free roaming, two spectacular adult drum fish, barracudas, turtles, toadfish, massive schools of grunts, wow. It was such a relaxing dive, drifting with the current. Bottom time was 1:08 and I still had 800PSI left.
The ladies greet us upon our return.
What an overall great day of diving! Tomorrow is our last dive day, my 20th and 21st dive here on my first trip to Cozumel. We are going to request to dive the wreck – another site with mixed reviews.
May 11th
The Wreck of the Felipe Xicotencatl is an eighty-four foot long, intentionally sunken Mexican Navy C-53, and sits upright in 80’ of water. It’s only been down for about 5 of 6 years, so there is not the marine growth of older wrecks. There are schools of silversides and some groupers to feast on them, but otherwise not much to see in the way of animal life. I did see a small oval of fire coral.
We started by circumnavigation the ship along the bottom (saw two lobsters underneath ship) then entered through an opening at about 65’. There are holes cut throughout the ship, so even though you feel like you are doing an actual penetration, you’re never far from an easy exit. I wouldn’t really count this as an overhead dive, but more of a bunch of swim-throughs.
There is supposed to be cave line to follow, but most of it has been cut. Also, people have felt the need to write their names in the new growth, graffiti style, an activity for idiots who should take up another hobby besides scuba.
Swimming through the ship is lots of fun – up and down the narrow passageways and catacombs and into large rooms, looking at engine parts and machine systems. It’s a great way to test and expose divers real buoyancy skills, which I really enjoyed.
Diving the wreck is worth doing. Once. And only if you have lots of other dives to do.
When we finished the dive, everyone on the boat thanked Gary for agreeing to dive it for his second time, and we all agreed that once was enough.
Our second dive (and my final dive in Cozumel, 2005) was Yucab Reef. Nice relaxing drift with all the usual good stuff. Nothing extra ordinary, just a great typical Cozumal drift dive.
During the safety stop on the final dive, I filled my mask half way with water, got the DM Pedro’s attention, and wrung my eyes with my fists to indicate crying. He shrugged and put his palms up, saying, what could anyone do?
I’d made a total of 21 dives.
We had lunch at the hotel again, then Tony, Lia, Priscilla and I went snorkeling for an hour of so. Priscilla is turning out to be quit the snorkeler! We were all over that reef, and even after an hour, she didn’t want to stop.
After that, Priscilla napped, I downloaded pictures onto the laptop and played with Photo Shop, and Tony and Lia hung around at the pool.
For dinner we went to Aquerios at sunset. Very nice restaurant right on the water next to the Dolphin pens. The outdoor seating has one of the best views in Cozumel. There was live dinning music and the service was five star.
I ordered the live Caribbean Lobster, which you choose from a landscaped saltwater pool filled with the delicious bugs. Once you picked the bug-of-choice, they weighted it for you before preparing it and serving it whole, setting it before like it was the crown jewels. And it cost about the same, overpriced at $45.00 per kilo. But what you were paying for was more than just the lobster, it was the overall presentation.
I’ll take this lobster, please…
This was our one and only dinner that ran over $100.00. But the music, the service, the presentation, the atmosphere, the delicious preparation of all the food made it well worth it. It was an outstanding dining experience.
After dinner, we all sat on the balcony talking quietly, watching the cruise ship pass, and listening to the night sounds of the sea. A cloud of melancholy was settling over us as we each silently acknowledged the waning of our vacation. One final day remained – a dry day before we fly. The rental car company was to pick us up between 9am and 10am, and we would rent a car and tour the east side of the island. We were excited about seeing the “wild side” of Cozumel.
May 12th
Seeing the east side of the island felt like visiting Cozumel back at a time before the big hotels and the thousands of cruise ships. It was rustic and empty and desolate. The sea is angry with surf all along the shoreline. There are miles of empty beach where a person could have solitude. But I wouldn’t want to do too much swimming in this wild water.
On the way over, we stopped at the San Gervasio Myan ruins. It was interesting and educational, but in about fifteen minutes I was ready to move along.
We stopped for lunch at Coconuts. The Big Shrimp was delicious, and the view from the cliff above the sea was outstanding.
We ended our excursion back on the west side with an hour at Playa Palancar, a public beach with beautiful white sands, a shallow turquoise lagoon to swim or wade in, and iced drinks delivered to your thatched cabanas. Entrance to this picture postcard Caribbean beach is free.
A final stop at Rock ‘n Java for Chocolate Macadamia Espresso Ice Cream Shakes (Yum!!) and then back to the hotel. The ladies took a nap and Tony and I went to Blue XT Sea’s shop to say goodbye and settle up with Christi.
That night we walked around the Plaza buying gifts and souvenirs.
We had a final dinner at Casa Denis and took a cab back to the hotel.
It’s now the next morning, with only a few hours until our plane departs. As has been my new habit each morning, I sit on the balcony overlooking this perfect sea in quiet early morning typing in my remembrances of the prior day. The sea is flat calm, and the many boat that will soon be busy with their divers have not yet left their moorings, and so the sea is empty. No one is by the pool or in the hammocks or gearing up to dive or snorkel the reef. The divers are not on the dock yet, waiting for their boat to arrive.
A few white towers of cumulous clouds are building off in the distance. I can feel the potential of the coming day, with it’s happy divers and sunny vacationers and maybe even some soft cooling rains. But when it all happens, I will not be here.
Next time. Next time…
Now we are off for a final breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and then away to our real lives at home. But they are happy lives, rich lives, with children and grand children and our home and our work that we love.
And there are dives. Tuesday, our dive group will dive the cold waters of Lake Coeur d’ Alene. Water temperatures will have warmed into the low 40’s (I hope). Visibility will be just a few feet. There will be dry suits and thermoses of hot water and truck heaters blasting and maybe rain or snow.
As I think of it, my blood races with happy anticipation of the dive.
Adios.
Rick Inman
May, 2005
Cozumel Mexico
