This report covers our dive club trip to Cozumel June 21-28. It was
written by another diver on the trip, who does a much better job of
writing than I could. Old Coz hands may get a few chuckles, and newbies
may find herein a cautionary tale! Note that most major airlines now
limit checked bags to fifty pounds -- down from the 70 pounds of a few
months ago.
Dive safe [\],
-Dave
Trip Diary - Cozumel 2003
Getting There
Friday, June 20: Seven members of the Richmond Dive Club rendezvoused at
the Hampton Inn at Dulles Airport. As they arrived, Dee & Larry,
Deborah, John, Mary Ann and Dave made their way to the hotel bar to get
the vacation kick-started. Gary was a late arrival, but was able to get
a couple of hours sleep before the 3:30 AM wake-up call so we could all
take the shuttle to the terminal.
Saturday, June 21:
At the airport the weight limit for luggage was a challenge – especially
for Mary Ann who had to move some things from her overweight suitcase to
another at the reservation counter. After a layover in Newark (we went
north-east so we could go south-west) we settled in for the flight and
arrived at the Cozumel airport where all but one of us passed through
customs with a ‘green light’. Yes, the fickle finger of fate selected
Mary Ann to have her bags opened! We found a taxi that squeezed in all
7 of us and our 13 bags (not counting carry-ons) and set off for the
Fiesta Americana hotel, south of San Miguel. Cars were rented and John,
Deborah and Mary Ann went to the groceria. At the conclusion of the
shopping experience a small Mexican man approached John and Deborah.
John offered him a few pesos, but it appears that he was interested in
something else – perhaps the señorita with John?? John, reluctantly,
did not try to supplement his vacation cash. Dinner was at Lobster
Cove, one of Dee & Larry’s favorites. With its good food and great
ambiance and views, everyone enjoyed it.
Diving
Sunday, June 22:
The day started off with a bang. Deborah, arguably the most
claustrophobic of the travelers, got stuck in the elevator on the way to
the dive shop. Fortunately John was there and made sure the hotel staff
got her out – but it definitely got her adrenaline going! We met at the
dock and boarded our private boat Dive House IV where we were greeted by
Alex, our divemaster, Reynaldo (“Peachy”), the captain, and Jorge, the
mate. We were fortunate to have the boat to ourselves as it is a 34’
dive boat complete with head, lower cabin and flying bridge. An omen
for our trip: as we traveled to the dive site a sea turtle swam
alongside us. The first dive was Palancar Gardens. Depth was 80’ – 85’
and the water temperature was 84°. We swam around beautiful large coral
formations and there was excellent viz with a mild current. We returned
to the boat for the surface interval where the boat crew served us
platters of fresh fruit – cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon and
bananas! With coolers of water and soda, we were well taken care of.
The second dive was Chankanaab Reef. This is a flat reef about 45’ deep
with a lot of marine life. We celebrated our first day of diving with
dinner at Café Denis at the central plaza downtown. It was the regular
Sunday night fiesta in San Miguel, so while Larry & Dee went on a quest
for the best quality/price vanilla, the rest of us danced in the square
to the sounds of the local mariachi band.
Monday, June 23:
With the dive boat routine under control, we set off for our first dive
of the day at Santa Rosa Wall. This was a beautiful dive with a lot of
swim-throughs, 85’ – 90’ deep. Our surface interval was followed by
Tormentos, another flat reef with good viz and sea-life at about 60’. A
trip to town for lunch and shopping on the plaza occupied the
afternoon. Tip: avoid the Baby Reef restaurant and definitely don’t
order the cactus anywhere! Of course, no trip to Mexico is complete
without an encounter with the federales. Today was our day. Apparently
having parked in a no (gringos) parking zone, the local police removed
our license plates. After watching us drive out of town they finally
pulled us over where they explained our predicament. We, of course,
thought they were chasing someone else so as we let them pass us they
had to pull over in front of us and cut us off to get us to stop. Dave
judiciously asked if we could pay the ‘fine’ directly to them, so after
exchanging 200 pesos per car we returned to the hotel to prepare for our
night dive. The night dive was at Cardona and it was spectacular! We
started at twilight, so it got dark while we were under water. We saw
lobsters, crabs, octopus, sea snakes, eels and so much more. The
current really picked up at the end of the dive so the last things we
saw really flew by. We all agreed that this night dive would be hard to
top.
Tuesday, June 24:
Columbia, 95’, was our first dive of the day. In addition to towering
coral pillars we saw 6 sea turtles! This was followed by a 55’ dive at
Paseo del Cedral. We dined at Pancho’s Backyard where the variety of
margaritas was sampled.
Wednesday, June 25:
To prepare us for the planned dive on Thursday, we dove Palancar Caves,
95’ – 100’, to get accustomed to extended swim throughs. This was
another awesome dive with great viz. We followed this with Punta
Dalila, 60’, that Larry and Deborah described as like being in an
aquarium. In the afternon, we took a tour of the east side of the
island, with stops at Coconuts (Deborah & Mary Ann declined to be in the
‘family album’) and Paradise Café, the reggae bar. The guys opted to
comply with the dictate ‘Topless photos only’ for their beach photo.
RDC stickers are still on display at both places! After leaving the
Paradise we saw dozens of huge blue and yellow crabs all along the road
and in the scrub next to the verge. Rain began to fall in the
afternoon, so Dave, Mary Ann, Deborah and John ate at the Miramar
restaurant in the hotel while Gary accompanied Dee & Larry on their
continuing vanilla quest.
Thursday, June 26:
The day finally arrived to do the Devil’s Throat at Punta Sur. Alex had
been evaluating everyone all week and preparing us with all of the swim
throughs we had done. Since Dave had done this dive before, we were
able to benefit from his description. This dive requires a rapid
descent to 80’ – 90’ where you enter a small cavern-like opening. The
passage narrows to a tunnel that is completely dark before you drop and
come out of the dive at around 130’. INCREDIBLE! We then entered
another tunnel heading up where we saw a large white coral formation in
the shape of a cross. This was a challenging dive, but well worth it.
And even Deborah had no problems with it! (The elevator was good
training.) A cold rain was falling, so we did get a little cold on the
surface interval. We followed this with a daylight dive at Cardona.
That night we ate at Prima’s and followed it with a stop at Carlos’ &
Charlies.
Friday, June 27:
Diving the C-35 Wreck, 80’, presented its’ own challenge. We dropped
down at the center of the ship and swam to the stern, but the current at
the propeller was incredibly strong. We had to hold on to keep from
being swept away. We penetrated the wreck, swimming through bait balls
of sardines and seeing many large groupers. We followed this with our
last dive – Yucab, 55’ – 60’. Many barracuda were sighted on this
site. The rains had continued since Wednesday, so on our way to dinner
at La Choza many of the streets were under water. We definitely weren’t
in the USA!
Coming home
Saturday, June 28:
The rain continued unabated, so that the hotel was driving guests across
the street to the restaurant. We had to take two taxis to the airport
where we went through bag searches and Mexican security. Deborah was
detained for trying to take her dive knife on the plane in her carry-on
(didn’t she do this in Key Largo, too?), but eventually it got worked
out. The rain and wind continued to build until finally the Cozumel
airport was closed and the planes diverted to Cancun. Tropical Storm
Carlos had come in from the Pacific and the rain was incessant. After 3
hours the airport re-opened and we took off for Houston, but had missed
our connection – the last flight to Dulles. We rushed through customs
and went to the re-ticketing desk where they booked all 7 of us on the
last flight to Reagan National, currently boarding. We made the flight
and at Reagan had to get a shuttle to take all of us (and the 13 pieces
of luggage plus carry-ons) back to Dulles so we could pick up the cars.
Arrival in Richmond wasn’t until 3-4 AM!
This was a wonderful trip! The diving was awesome, the accommodations
were excellent, and the dive crew was superlative. After being served
fresh fruit between dives and luxuriating in the all the space we had on
the boat the bar has been set pretty high for future dive crews. We all
had a terrific time.
I’m looking forward to another trip to Cozumel and diving with Alex
again.
--
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Dave DeBarger
[log in to unmask]
"Attitude is everything. Pick a good one!"
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