usvi-on-line
Very Long Cozumel Trip Report
Very Long Cozumel Trip Report
If you don't care to subject yourself to the interminable trip report, but might like to see some of the pictures, they are posted in the following on line photo albums:
The albums titles reflect the way I divided up the trip report:
Around the island - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563996001yXImFt
The condo - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563994450WcdxJu
Our Maya Adventure - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563995519YZNWaV
Scuba Diving - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563991674OZymGi
Cozumel trip report: June 20-30, 2008
Who: My family, consisting of my wife and myself, and our two sons, who were 15 and 16 at the time of the trip. We were also pleased that our friends Barb and Charlie, from Virginia, could join us for the first few days (Friday through Monday). While none of us had ever spent the night on Cozumel before, we had all visited the island briefly as cruise ship passengers - Leslie and I several times, dating back to 1994.
Why: I picked this location to celebrate my 50th birthday. I wanted to do something that the whole family could do together, and since we're all scuba certified, but don't get to go as nearly as much as we'd like to, and since we'd always enjoyed our brief stops there in the past, Cozumel seemed like a good fit.
Travel to/from: I bought tickets for this trip in August of 2007. That not only grandfathered us in to the old luggage allowance rules for American Airlines, it also ended up saving us a bundle in airfare. Our flights were on an American Eagle ATR turboprop/puddlejumper. I was happy to be able to secure seats for all of us so close to the front of the plane until we found out that on this aircraft you board and disembark from the rear!
The flight to Cozumel took off and landed on time, and we got the "green light" at customs, so we "no thank you-ed" our way through the timeshare gauntlet and just outside the terminal was a rep from ISIS Rentadora holding a sign with our name on it.
He helped us drag our luggage across the street, off of airport property to a little Chevy hatchback. I had been assured that we'd be able to get a car big enough to haul us and our luggage (since we brought our own scuba gear we had a good bit) from the airport to our rented condo. I didn't see how this would fit the bill, and it certainly couldn't get all of us, our luggage, and the ISIS rep inside. Not to worry - he had texted someone, and very shortly a VW convertible showed up, so we put the boys, some of the luggage, and the ISIS employees in the VW while Leslie and I followed them back to the ISIS office to fill out the paperwork. Once that was done, we CRAMMED the luggage and ourselves into the little Chevy and headed south of town.
The trip home was pretty much the same, only in reverse. We left the condo around 9:30AM, and drove to the ISIS office. Since our flight wasn't until 3:15, Margarita at ISIS suggested that we park the car in a lot that they use, with the luggage locked inside, and we could walk around downtown for a bit, then I could drop the family and luggage off at the airport and return the car, and they'd give me a ride back to the airport. After I got to the airport we were directed to the proper line to stand in for our flight. They didn't have an agent working that flight yet so we stood in line while the folks that arrived later were allowed to go and check in. It didn't last all that long, but a word of explanation would have gone a long way towards tempering some of the frustration felt by the folks we were in line with.
When we finally got to check in we had to perform the luggage chinese fire drill since some of our checked bags were a little overweight, and some had weight to spare. A scale at either the condo or the airport would have been nice, since apparently the net weight of our four checked bags didn't matter as much as none of them crossing the sacred 50 pound barrier!
The return flight was on schedule, and except for what seemed like an interminable wait at the carousel for our luggage, getting out of the Miami airport and back to our car for the ride home went about as smoothly as one could expect.
The condo: We stayed in a condo at the Residencias Reef complex. Ours was a three bedroom, three bath, second floor corner unit in building 1. It worked for us for several reasons - both of the boys had their own bedroom and bathroom, we had a fully appointed kitchen, and most important - the pier where we'd get picked up at by the dive boat was a very short walk from our unit. There was also ample space on the large wraparound balcony to rinse and dry our gear after diving each day.
Barb and Charlie rented a studio apartment, in the same complex for their stay, and while naturally smaller than the 3BR, it suited them very nicely.
The south shore location was very quiet, and convenient to the beach clubs or for taking the road around the south end of the island to the east side, but you will want to rent a car if you plan on going into town much at all.
If we went without the boys I'd be more likely to stay somewhere in or closer to town and just drive to the Caleta to meet the dive boat, but since they both like to sleep in as late as possible it was nice to be able to wake them up in time to have breakfast, get their gear, and walk to the pier. From there it is also a shorter boat ride to most of the dive sites, but with the seas as calm as they were, a little longer on the boat would not have been a problem.
The diving: We had seven two-tank morning dive trips, all with Scuba with Alison. Each morning we'd meet the Maximus on the pier at around 8:15 or so. Some days there would already be divers that had either met the boat at the marina or been picked up at a pier further north, sometimes we'd stop and pick folks up south of us. There were always between 6 and 8 divers on the trips, and we met and dove with some very nice people.
I can't say enough about Alison herself, and the Maximus' captain, Carlos. Leslie had not dove in about three years, so she was a little nervous before the first dive. I thought Alison did a great job of not only being obviously right by her at the beginning, but also of sensing when Leslie was comfortable enough that she could give her more space. In general, Alison had a way of being very thorough and safety oriented without being obvious about it and kept the atmosphere light and fun. In addition to giving us great drops on the reefs, Carlos helped all of the divers back onto the boat (some of them had various special considerations for getting on or off of the boat that he saw too) and quickly and stealthily changed everyone's gear to the new tanks.
Only having been here before on cruises, we were finally able to experience some of the dive sites I'd only heard about to this point. We dove Palancar Caves (twice!), Delila Wall, Palancar Gardens, Cedral Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Tormentos, Palancar Horseshoe, San Francisco Wall, Columbia Deep, French Reef, C53, Paradise Reef, and Columbia Shallows. Even though some of the soft corals on the tops of the reefs are still just recovering from Wilma, the reef structures and topography are incredible!
We saw a lot of great marine life as well - morays, turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, lobsters, and a first for me - a couple of splendid toadfish! Unfortunately I was not able to get a very good picture of either of the toadfish, but I suppose that's one more reason that I have to come back!
The diving was a large factor in deciding where this trip would be to, and I am completely satisfied and happy with our choice. While Leslie and I have been diving for quite a long time, and have a number of dives in some very great and far off locales under our belts, Shane and Jason have really only been able to dive sporadically since their certifications, and mostly close to home, so I enjoyed them having the chance to not only dive in a world class location, but also to be able to have a number of dives concentrated in a relatively short time frame, and they thrived doing that.
Around the island: It was apparent pretty early on that our rental car was going to be a necessity for us. The first night on island, once the reunions and first couple of rounds of drinks were completed, our thoughts turned to dinner. Due to the seriously crowded rental car on the way in, we had not stopped at Chedraui, so there wasn't anything to eat in the condo, and being somewhat tired from the travel, I really didn't want to go into town and walk around trying to decide where to eat. Fortunately I knew that Alberto's was just south of us, so we piled into the Chevy for the short drive down the road.
The combination of being with family and good friends, the water just a few feet away, refreshing tropical drinks, good and fun service, and to top it off, very tasty food, had us in full time vacation/island mode! Barb and Leslie waded into the surf with their drinks, we watched the sun slowly making it's way behind the bank of clouds on the horizon, and all was well with the world. Food was ordered, and a variety of freshly prepared seafood was delivered, enjoyed, and shared. The waiter brought a bottle of bug spray for us and then they lit the tiki torches. I'm telling you, I was feeling seriously blissful! We really wondered how we'd ever decide to eat anywhere else! Soon it was back to the condo and the sleep of the tired and happy!
Saturday was a non-diving day, so we planned on spending it with Barb and Charlie, who aren't divers. So we opted to take a drive around to "the other side" of the island, which none of us had ever seen. It is beautiful over there! The ironstone beaches and formations provided some breathtaking scenery and all of the little bars and restaurants are just too cool. Since we had the kids in tow, and they aren't old enough yet to drive us around, we decided against doing the bar crawl. Apart from stops at beaches to walk and take pictures, we only went to Coconuts - but we were sure glad we did! We enjoyed excellent service, drinks, food, and views from up there. It was fun watching people sit down at a table where the photo albums were laying around and seeing if they were already aware of what was in them or not. After driving back and hanging around the pool and beach for a while we went into town to eat at Casa Denis. The garlic snapper I had was great! One surprise - when my mango daiquiri got low the waiter asked if I'd like another - grande? So I said "sure", assuming what I had was grande - WRONG! The one he brought out was in a comically large glass that solicited stares and comments from not only the others eating at the restaurant, but from those passing by as well.
Other places we ate at during the week - La Choza (great chocolate pie), Pepe's Grill (on my birthday, on a recommendation from one of the divers we met on the boat, who joined us, and Alison, for the occasion), Sonora Grill (the garlic shrimp were super) ,and Kinta (what a nice place, and Kris, the owner, is a very personable young man as well as an outstanding chef). After the birthday dinner we had ice cream at the gelato place around the corner.
Some of our other island activities - we played mini-golf, really enjoyed being able to choose the music selections and order drinks while on the course - and it's a fun little course, to boot. We went to Cruz Rojas to give them the items we had brought down there for them. We didn't get a tour of the place as there was an ambulance call that came in that had the staff preoccupied. We did however get a mini-tour of one of the decompression chambers at the walk in clinic, that was interesting, but I hope that's the only way we'll ever see it.
Grocery shopping at Chedraui was a little strange at first, but like everything else if you take your time while you're learning the lay of the land you get used to it. We only ended up cooking dinner in one night (although most of our lunches and all of our breakfasts were at the condo) so I got good at using the ATMs at Chedraui and at the Wyndham!
Most mornings I was up early and took a little jog south of the condo on the scooter road. At that time of day there was next to no traffic there, and it wasn't so hot yet that you couldn't take it. We tried to walk the beach barefoot one night and that didn't work out too well - too many rocks and pieces of rocks. Maybe in the daytime you could see them well enough to avoid them, but we weren't expecting an endless powder sand beach anyway.
Finding on street parking in town was kind of a hit and miss proposition. Often the only spots available were next to a red curb, which we read was illegal. A lot of folks seemed to ignore this, and we even did so inadvertently one time, but we usually opted to park in one of the pay lots - there were a number of them around, and at 8 pesos/hr I felt that it was cheap insurance against getting towed.
Off island: We took one day in the middle of the week off to go to the mainland. Shane had requested that we plan to visit a ruins site, so I figured the better ones would be over there. We booked a tour package with an outfit called AllTourNative Off Track Adventures. They offer several tours and the one we chose was the Maya Encounter. We took the 7AM ferry to Playa and were met at the end of the pier by our driver/tour guide, Mijail. We got into the passenger van and headed up the coast picking up the three couples that completed our tour group. We had a short stop at their headquarters in Tulum where you could stretch your legs, use the bathroom, and help yourself to some cookies, coffee, juices, etc. before continuing on.
Mijail was very knowledgeable about Mayan and their culture and he eagerly shared that, as well as comments on the geography and history of the region with all of us. Our first stop was at the site of the Coba ruins. Included in the entrance to the site was a briefing by an archaeological guide that explained the history and signifigance of the ruins within the park. Then we were left on our own to explore, with the main focus being the walk to the temple that stands 138 feet tall, and walking up the steps to the top. After leaving the Coba site we headed west into Mayan country and stopped at a little village where we canoed, ziplined, walked through the jungle, had an authentic Mayan lunch, and attended (took part in?) a ceremony conducted by that village's shaman.
From there we drove to another area where a Mayan family has a cenote on their property. By now we were all ready to swim in the cool water! We each took turns rappelling down into the cenote to the awaiting inner tubes. A few of us climbed back up the ladder out of the cenote and jumped back in (Jason was the first, and he did it multiple times, until it was time to go). Then we all changed back into our dry clothes and began the return trip back to our respective lodgings. We made one more stop at the headquarters - this time, in addition to what was on offer in the morning, Mijail got a tray of small wooden glasses, lime wedges, and salt, and we toasted - Mayan style - the day!
That was indeed a long day - we left the condo at 6:15AM and didn't get back until around 9:30PM, but it was certainly worth it - and I can't recommend AllTourNative enough!
Summary: This trip was a long time in the planning stage, and seemed forever in the "waiting for it to get here" stage. Like all vacations, now that it's come and gone, it seemed to go by in a flash. We all had a fantastic time - a good balance between staying busy and relaxing/being lazy. We always knew that we liked Cozumel, and figured that we'd get to love it if we ever had the chance, and we were right.
The albums titles reflect the way I divided up the trip report:
Around the island - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563996001yXImFt
The condo - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563994450WcdxJu
Our Maya Adventure - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563995519YZNWaV
Scuba Diving - http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563991674OZymGi
Cozumel trip report: June 20-30, 2008
Who: My family, consisting of my wife and myself, and our two sons, who were 15 and 16 at the time of the trip. We were also pleased that our friends Barb and Charlie, from Virginia, could join us for the first few days (Friday through Monday). While none of us had ever spent the night on Cozumel before, we had all visited the island briefly as cruise ship passengers - Leslie and I several times, dating back to 1994.
Why: I picked this location to celebrate my 50th birthday. I wanted to do something that the whole family could do together, and since we're all scuba certified, but don't get to go as nearly as much as we'd like to, and since we'd always enjoyed our brief stops there in the past, Cozumel seemed like a good fit.
Travel to/from: I bought tickets for this trip in August of 2007. That not only grandfathered us in to the old luggage allowance rules for American Airlines, it also ended up saving us a bundle in airfare. Our flights were on an American Eagle ATR turboprop/puddlejumper. I was happy to be able to secure seats for all of us so close to the front of the plane until we found out that on this aircraft you board and disembark from the rear!
The flight to Cozumel took off and landed on time, and we got the "green light" at customs, so we "no thank you-ed" our way through the timeshare gauntlet and just outside the terminal was a rep from ISIS Rentadora holding a sign with our name on it.
He helped us drag our luggage across the street, off of airport property to a little Chevy hatchback. I had been assured that we'd be able to get a car big enough to haul us and our luggage (since we brought our own scuba gear we had a good bit) from the airport to our rented condo. I didn't see how this would fit the bill, and it certainly couldn't get all of us, our luggage, and the ISIS rep inside. Not to worry - he had texted someone, and very shortly a VW convertible showed up, so we put the boys, some of the luggage, and the ISIS employees in the VW while Leslie and I followed them back to the ISIS office to fill out the paperwork. Once that was done, we CRAMMED the luggage and ourselves into the little Chevy and headed south of town.
The trip home was pretty much the same, only in reverse. We left the condo around 9:30AM, and drove to the ISIS office. Since our flight wasn't until 3:15, Margarita at ISIS suggested that we park the car in a lot that they use, with the luggage locked inside, and we could walk around downtown for a bit, then I could drop the family and luggage off at the airport and return the car, and they'd give me a ride back to the airport. After I got to the airport we were directed to the proper line to stand in for our flight. They didn't have an agent working that flight yet so we stood in line while the folks that arrived later were allowed to go and check in. It didn't last all that long, but a word of explanation would have gone a long way towards tempering some of the frustration felt by the folks we were in line with.
When we finally got to check in we had to perform the luggage chinese fire drill since some of our checked bags were a little overweight, and some had weight to spare. A scale at either the condo or the airport would have been nice, since apparently the net weight of our four checked bags didn't matter as much as none of them crossing the sacred 50 pound barrier!
The return flight was on schedule, and except for what seemed like an interminable wait at the carousel for our luggage, getting out of the Miami airport and back to our car for the ride home went about as smoothly as one could expect.
The condo: We stayed in a condo at the Residencias Reef complex. Ours was a three bedroom, three bath, second floor corner unit in building 1. It worked for us for several reasons - both of the boys had their own bedroom and bathroom, we had a fully appointed kitchen, and most important - the pier where we'd get picked up at by the dive boat was a very short walk from our unit. There was also ample space on the large wraparound balcony to rinse and dry our gear after diving each day.
Barb and Charlie rented a studio apartment, in the same complex for their stay, and while naturally smaller than the 3BR, it suited them very nicely.
The south shore location was very quiet, and convenient to the beach clubs or for taking the road around the south end of the island to the east side, but you will want to rent a car if you plan on going into town much at all.
If we went without the boys I'd be more likely to stay somewhere in or closer to town and just drive to the Caleta to meet the dive boat, but since they both like to sleep in as late as possible it was nice to be able to wake them up in time to have breakfast, get their gear, and walk to the pier. From there it is also a shorter boat ride to most of the dive sites, but with the seas as calm as they were, a little longer on the boat would not have been a problem.
The diving: We had seven two-tank morning dive trips, all with Scuba with Alison. Each morning we'd meet the Maximus on the pier at around 8:15 or so. Some days there would already be divers that had either met the boat at the marina or been picked up at a pier further north, sometimes we'd stop and pick folks up south of us. There were always between 6 and 8 divers on the trips, and we met and dove with some very nice people.
I can't say enough about Alison herself, and the Maximus' captain, Carlos. Leslie had not dove in about three years, so she was a little nervous before the first dive. I thought Alison did a great job of not only being obviously right by her at the beginning, but also of sensing when Leslie was comfortable enough that she could give her more space. In general, Alison had a way of being very thorough and safety oriented without being obvious about it and kept the atmosphere light and fun. In addition to giving us great drops on the reefs, Carlos helped all of the divers back onto the boat (some of them had various special considerations for getting on or off of the boat that he saw too) and quickly and stealthily changed everyone's gear to the new tanks.
Only having been here before on cruises, we were finally able to experience some of the dive sites I'd only heard about to this point. We dove Palancar Caves (twice!), Delila Wall, Palancar Gardens, Cedral Wall, Santa Rosa Wall, Tormentos, Palancar Horseshoe, San Francisco Wall, Columbia Deep, French Reef, C53, Paradise Reef, and Columbia Shallows. Even though some of the soft corals on the tops of the reefs are still just recovering from Wilma, the reef structures and topography are incredible!
We saw a lot of great marine life as well - morays, turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, lobsters, and a first for me - a couple of splendid toadfish! Unfortunately I was not able to get a very good picture of either of the toadfish, but I suppose that's one more reason that I have to come back!
The diving was a large factor in deciding where this trip would be to, and I am completely satisfied and happy with our choice. While Leslie and I have been diving for quite a long time, and have a number of dives in some very great and far off locales under our belts, Shane and Jason have really only been able to dive sporadically since their certifications, and mostly close to home, so I enjoyed them having the chance to not only dive in a world class location, but also to be able to have a number of dives concentrated in a relatively short time frame, and they thrived doing that.
Around the island: It was apparent pretty early on that our rental car was going to be a necessity for us. The first night on island, once the reunions and first couple of rounds of drinks were completed, our thoughts turned to dinner. Due to the seriously crowded rental car on the way in, we had not stopped at Chedraui, so there wasn't anything to eat in the condo, and being somewhat tired from the travel, I really didn't want to go into town and walk around trying to decide where to eat. Fortunately I knew that Alberto's was just south of us, so we piled into the Chevy for the short drive down the road.
The combination of being with family and good friends, the water just a few feet away, refreshing tropical drinks, good and fun service, and to top it off, very tasty food, had us in full time vacation/island mode! Barb and Leslie waded into the surf with their drinks, we watched the sun slowly making it's way behind the bank of clouds on the horizon, and all was well with the world. Food was ordered, and a variety of freshly prepared seafood was delivered, enjoyed, and shared. The waiter brought a bottle of bug spray for us and then they lit the tiki torches. I'm telling you, I was feeling seriously blissful! We really wondered how we'd ever decide to eat anywhere else! Soon it was back to the condo and the sleep of the tired and happy!
Saturday was a non-diving day, so we planned on spending it with Barb and Charlie, who aren't divers. So we opted to take a drive around to "the other side" of the island, which none of us had ever seen. It is beautiful over there! The ironstone beaches and formations provided some breathtaking scenery and all of the little bars and restaurants are just too cool. Since we had the kids in tow, and they aren't old enough yet to drive us around, we decided against doing the bar crawl. Apart from stops at beaches to walk and take pictures, we only went to Coconuts - but we were sure glad we did! We enjoyed excellent service, drinks, food, and views from up there. It was fun watching people sit down at a table where the photo albums were laying around and seeing if they were already aware of what was in them or not. After driving back and hanging around the pool and beach for a while we went into town to eat at Casa Denis. The garlic snapper I had was great! One surprise - when my mango daiquiri got low the waiter asked if I'd like another - grande? So I said "sure", assuming what I had was grande - WRONG! The one he brought out was in a comically large glass that solicited stares and comments from not only the others eating at the restaurant, but from those passing by as well.
Other places we ate at during the week - La Choza (great chocolate pie), Pepe's Grill (on my birthday, on a recommendation from one of the divers we met on the boat, who joined us, and Alison, for the occasion), Sonora Grill (the garlic shrimp were super) ,and Kinta (what a nice place, and Kris, the owner, is a very personable young man as well as an outstanding chef). After the birthday dinner we had ice cream at the gelato place around the corner.
Some of our other island activities - we played mini-golf, really enjoyed being able to choose the music selections and order drinks while on the course - and it's a fun little course, to boot. We went to Cruz Rojas to give them the items we had brought down there for them. We didn't get a tour of the place as there was an ambulance call that came in that had the staff preoccupied. We did however get a mini-tour of one of the decompression chambers at the walk in clinic, that was interesting, but I hope that's the only way we'll ever see it.
Grocery shopping at Chedraui was a little strange at first, but like everything else if you take your time while you're learning the lay of the land you get used to it. We only ended up cooking dinner in one night (although most of our lunches and all of our breakfasts were at the condo) so I got good at using the ATMs at Chedraui and at the Wyndham!
Most mornings I was up early and took a little jog south of the condo on the scooter road. At that time of day there was next to no traffic there, and it wasn't so hot yet that you couldn't take it. We tried to walk the beach barefoot one night and that didn't work out too well - too many rocks and pieces of rocks. Maybe in the daytime you could see them well enough to avoid them, but we weren't expecting an endless powder sand beach anyway.
Finding on street parking in town was kind of a hit and miss proposition. Often the only spots available were next to a red curb, which we read was illegal. A lot of folks seemed to ignore this, and we even did so inadvertently one time, but we usually opted to park in one of the pay lots - there were a number of them around, and at 8 pesos/hr I felt that it was cheap insurance against getting towed.
Off island: We took one day in the middle of the week off to go to the mainland. Shane had requested that we plan to visit a ruins site, so I figured the better ones would be over there. We booked a tour package with an outfit called AllTourNative Off Track Adventures. They offer several tours and the one we chose was the Maya Encounter. We took the 7AM ferry to Playa and were met at the end of the pier by our driver/tour guide, Mijail. We got into the passenger van and headed up the coast picking up the three couples that completed our tour group. We had a short stop at their headquarters in Tulum where you could stretch your legs, use the bathroom, and help yourself to some cookies, coffee, juices, etc. before continuing on.
Mijail was very knowledgeable about Mayan and their culture and he eagerly shared that, as well as comments on the geography and history of the region with all of us. Our first stop was at the site of the Coba ruins. Included in the entrance to the site was a briefing by an archaeological guide that explained the history and signifigance of the ruins within the park. Then we were left on our own to explore, with the main focus being the walk to the temple that stands 138 feet tall, and walking up the steps to the top. After leaving the Coba site we headed west into Mayan country and stopped at a little village where we canoed, ziplined, walked through the jungle, had an authentic Mayan lunch, and attended (took part in?) a ceremony conducted by that village's shaman.
From there we drove to another area where a Mayan family has a cenote on their property. By now we were all ready to swim in the cool water! We each took turns rappelling down into the cenote to the awaiting inner tubes. A few of us climbed back up the ladder out of the cenote and jumped back in (Jason was the first, and he did it multiple times, until it was time to go). Then we all changed back into our dry clothes and began the return trip back to our respective lodgings. We made one more stop at the headquarters - this time, in addition to what was on offer in the morning, Mijail got a tray of small wooden glasses, lime wedges, and salt, and we toasted - Mayan style - the day!
That was indeed a long day - we left the condo at 6:15AM and didn't get back until around 9:30PM, but it was certainly worth it - and I can't recommend AllTourNative enough!
Summary: This trip was a long time in the planning stage, and seemed forever in the "waiting for it to get here" stage. Like all vacations, now that it's come and gone, it seemed to go by in a flash. We all had a fantastic time - a good balance between staying busy and relaxing/being lazy. We always knew that we liked Cozumel, and figured that we'd get to love it if we ever had the chance, and we were right.
Come see us!
Great report augie and your pictures are great. I spent most time looking at your uw pictures as I also dive, so that's very interesting. I'm happy that you had a great time.
What do you think was the biggest difference between diving in Cozumel and USVI/BVI? I was on a business trip (really...that will never happen again...) to Playa del Carmen last October, and took the opportunity to do 4 dives outside Playa. I was amazed about the number of fish. Swam into schools of several hundreds of Grunts, Snappers and Porkfish. And also so many Morays and Turtles I lost count. Maybe the corals weren't the most beautiful.
Thanks again for sharing your trip. I always like to read reports about different places. Cozumel could be a future dive trip.
What do you think was the biggest difference between diving in Cozumel and USVI/BVI? I was on a business trip (really...that will never happen again...) to Playa del Carmen last October, and took the opportunity to do 4 dives outside Playa. I was amazed about the number of fish. Swam into schools of several hundreds of Grunts, Snappers and Porkfish. And also so many Morays and Turtles I lost count. Maybe the corals weren't the most beautiful.
Thanks again for sharing your trip. I always like to read reports about different places. Cozumel could be a future dive trip.
Thanks Maggy - To this point I haven't done any diving in the VI's - only snorkeling.
I'd imagine you'd see wildlife similar to that off of Playa in Cozumel, but nicer and more dramatic reef formations.
Cozumel had great visibility, good marine life, short boat rides on calm waters, and some of the most impressive underwater topography that I've ever seen.
I'd definitely recommend it as a dive trip destination.
I'd imagine you'd see wildlife similar to that off of Playa in Cozumel, but nicer and more dramatic reef formations.
Cozumel had great visibility, good marine life, short boat rides on calm waters, and some of the most impressive underwater topography that I've ever seen.
I'd definitely recommend it as a dive trip destination.
Come see us!
-
joanybelle
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:09 am
- Location: SC
Thanks Linne,
The water around Cozumel is amazing. There is some pretty good snorkeling, but not very much that is spectacular that you can get to from shore.
There are a few shallow reefs that boats can take you to that are very pretty, but I'd have to say that for convenience, variety, and number of options to choose from, STJ is a much better snorkeling location than Cozumel.
As you noted, there are some very interesting non-water activities in the area.
The water around Cozumel is amazing. There is some pretty good snorkeling, but not very much that is spectacular that you can get to from shore.
There are a few shallow reefs that boats can take you to that are very pretty, but I'd have to say that for convenience, variety, and number of options to choose from, STJ is a much better snorkeling location than Cozumel.
As you noted, there are some very interesting non-water activities in the area.
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