Trip report Cozumel Mexico November 1 11, 2015
We arrived in Cozumel via American Airlines via Dallas from Denver with no complications. The weather was good so no delays but we were a bit concerned about the remnants of a Pacific hurricane that passed over Mexico and were causing rains in Texas. We did notice standing water in Dallas that we attributed to the increased rains.
The flights with American Airlines were later in the day than usual going down and coming back so we ended up on a later Dallas to Denver flight and arrived at home at 1 am.
Cozumel was hotter than our previous November trips but we did miss the rains from the previous weeks. It was buggier and the mosquitos were out at dusk in force. We did have a few days of intermittent heavy rain which drove up the humidity.
The rains during our trip and those before we think caused visibility in the ocean to be significantly decreased. Essentially it was green water on some days and worse at some sites with haloclines from fresh water coming out of the exits in the formations. In addition, there were a lot of particles in the water which caused more backscatter from my camera strobes. The darker water and particles caused more of a challenge for photos.
Our usual November trips are drier and cooler.
We stayed at Sunscape/Secrets at the North end of the property. The resort had quite a few people but it was not bad. Everything there in my opinion was acceptable. My wife changed our room for one she thought was better in the first few days. All amenities were open and functioning and seemed properly staffed. We did run into some people passing through our resort that had booked with the Allegro and found when they arrived that it was closed maintenance we assume. Pays to check.
We went into town for dinner twice but this trip we decided to save money by staying close to the resort, so no East side island trip or other trips to town. The Sargasso was apparently in abundance on the East side. We did have a taxi driver take us for $5 more for a taxi to town. One of the few times I forgot to ask the fare before getting in the taxi. All other taxis were the correct price. On a return from town, we negotiated a price for a taxi to wait for us at the grocery store nice guy too. Half and Half is tough to find.
Diving
I dived 9 days straight on air and I was surprisingly not a tired as other trips. Other members of our group were diving Nitrox or a second dive Nitrox tank. Some were diving every day for two weeks. We dove with Raul and Bottom Time divers (Cozumel Scuba Diving | Go diving in Cozumel with BottomTimeDivers dive operator) who we went out with every day. We had a full boat almost the whole time with his other divers. He is making money while he can. Raul provided bottled water, snacks, camera bucket (crate), and had our gear setup for us each day. We had mostly experienced divers and those known to him the whole time so Raul had time to spot things underwater for us.
We got in only one night dive but it was worth it with many octopus. We did the top of San Francisco wall.
The currents all week were slow to non-existent. As said the visibility was reduced but we had days of good visibility especially the sites to the North. We did Punta Sur Sur hoping for sharks and Eagle Rays but say none. This is not Devils Throat. We had numerous haloclines on southern sites and the fresh water was cold. We dived Punta Tunich which we had not done in quite a few years. We spent quite a lot of time looking in sea grass for seahorses at some shallower sites but did not find any. I did see quite a few Mantis shrimp but did not get any photos as the retreated into their burrows so quickly I could not get a shot.
We dove Palancar Gardens one day where there were so many divers from other boats it was miserable. On a different day we did have a Reef shark at one of the Palancars which I got one bad photo.
We saw many Eagle rays but always singles. We noticed many more Porcupine fish and they stuck around much more than usual. We saw many Hawksbill turtles, Green Moray eels, Goldentail eels, toadfish, Balloonfish, adult Drums but few juveniles.
We noticed many of the tanks on the boat had bad o-rings which had to be replaced and many of the AL 80s air tanks had short fills.
The only shot I could get of the reef shark. I believe it is a grey reef not a black tip which we have been seeing in past years. The day before we dove, Raul our DM, said that he saw a Silky shark at a southern dive site.
We had quite a few Eagle Rays come by and dig in the sand.
We arrived in Cozumel via American Airlines via Dallas from Denver with no complications. The weather was good so no delays but we were a bit concerned about the remnants of a Pacific hurricane that passed over Mexico and were causing rains in Texas. We did notice standing water in Dallas that we attributed to the increased rains.
The flights with American Airlines were later in the day than usual going down and coming back so we ended up on a later Dallas to Denver flight and arrived at home at 1 am.
Cozumel was hotter than our previous November trips but we did miss the rains from the previous weeks. It was buggier and the mosquitos were out at dusk in force. We did have a few days of intermittent heavy rain which drove up the humidity.
The rains during our trip and those before we think caused visibility in the ocean to be significantly decreased. Essentially it was green water on some days and worse at some sites with haloclines from fresh water coming out of the exits in the formations. In addition, there were a lot of particles in the water which caused more backscatter from my camera strobes. The darker water and particles caused more of a challenge for photos.
Our usual November trips are drier and cooler.
We stayed at Sunscape/Secrets at the North end of the property. The resort had quite a few people but it was not bad. Everything there in my opinion was acceptable. My wife changed our room for one she thought was better in the first few days. All amenities were open and functioning and seemed properly staffed. We did run into some people passing through our resort that had booked with the Allegro and found when they arrived that it was closed maintenance we assume. Pays to check.
We went into town for dinner twice but this trip we decided to save money by staying close to the resort, so no East side island trip or other trips to town. The Sargasso was apparently in abundance on the East side. We did have a taxi driver take us for $5 more for a taxi to town. One of the few times I forgot to ask the fare before getting in the taxi. All other taxis were the correct price. On a return from town, we negotiated a price for a taxi to wait for us at the grocery store nice guy too. Half and Half is tough to find.
Diving
I dived 9 days straight on air and I was surprisingly not a tired as other trips. Other members of our group were diving Nitrox or a second dive Nitrox tank. Some were diving every day for two weeks. We dove with Raul and Bottom Time divers (Cozumel Scuba Diving | Go diving in Cozumel with BottomTimeDivers dive operator) who we went out with every day. We had a full boat almost the whole time with his other divers. He is making money while he can. Raul provided bottled water, snacks, camera bucket (crate), and had our gear setup for us each day. We had mostly experienced divers and those known to him the whole time so Raul had time to spot things underwater for us.
We got in only one night dive but it was worth it with many octopus. We did the top of San Francisco wall.
The currents all week were slow to non-existent. As said the visibility was reduced but we had days of good visibility especially the sites to the North. We did Punta Sur Sur hoping for sharks and Eagle Rays but say none. This is not Devils Throat. We had numerous haloclines on southern sites and the fresh water was cold. We dived Punta Tunich which we had not done in quite a few years. We spent quite a lot of time looking in sea grass for seahorses at some shallower sites but did not find any. I did see quite a few Mantis shrimp but did not get any photos as the retreated into their burrows so quickly I could not get a shot.
We dove Palancar Gardens one day where there were so many divers from other boats it was miserable. On a different day we did have a Reef shark at one of the Palancars which I got one bad photo.
We saw many Eagle rays but always singles. We noticed many more Porcupine fish and they stuck around much more than usual. We saw many Hawksbill turtles, Green Moray eels, Goldentail eels, toadfish, Balloonfish, adult Drums but few juveniles.
We noticed many of the tanks on the boat had bad o-rings which had to be replaced and many of the AL 80s air tanks had short fills.
The only shot I could get of the reef shark. I believe it is a grey reef not a black tip which we have been seeing in past years. The day before we dove, Raul our DM, said that he saw a Silky shark at a southern dive site.
We had quite a few Eagle Rays come by and dig in the sand.
