Your best bet for the "wow" factor of big animals and large numbers would be a dive at Cantarell while the Eagle Rays are schooling. We saw forty or more a year ago in December. Went back in February and only saw a few. Otherwise, as others have said, the "wow" factor in Cozumel is usually the reef structure and the clarity of the water. I've seen larger schools of grunts and snappers in other places, like Cancun and Playa del Carmen, but have often seen very large animals in Coz. As Mike noted, the French Angels seem particularly large and numerous. Coz is the only place I have ever seen an entire school of Grey Angels, and Queen Angels are much more common in Coz than most other places. I've seen some huge terminal phase Rainbow Parrotfish and Midnight Parrotfish, which are pretty spectacular. We're starting to see big Black Groupers and Yellowfin Groupers. I say "wow" when I see 8 or 10 of them on one dive. I would consider a huge old loggerhead turtle, like the one we saw last year at Columbia Shallows, a "wow." I've seen lots of "wow" small stuff, but if you're not into macro life, that doesn't help you much. My favorite sites would be Columbia Shallows, Columbia Deep, Barracuda, Punta Sur, Cantarell (but only when the Eagle Rays are schooling), Maracaibo Shallows, Marcaibo Arch (Los Arcos), Palancar Bricks, Paso del Cedral, and Paradise (when it's crawling with octopus at night, or in the afternoon, when our group of four can have the whole thing to ourselves and hunt blennies, seahorses, pipefish, pipe horses, and other little critters.). Of course, many of these sites can only be visited in the right weather and current conditions. Dive site choice on any particular day depends on the conditions and the skills and experience of the people in your group.
