My first trip as a certified diver was many years ago was to Cozumel, and that is where I fell in love with diving. I returned there many times over more than a decade, going through a progression of dive operators as my skill and experience grew. I thought I knew the island well. There is still a framed artistic map of the island hanging on the wall of my family room.
That all ended in 2009, with my last real recreational dive visit being a group trip I led on behalf of the shop where I was working. My last trip of any kind was 10 years ago, a trip undertaken after breaking multiple bones in an accident. I warmed up with a few days of standard recreational diving followed by technical dives with Deep Exposure, including 315 feet on Palancar Caves. I then went to the mainland for cave diving.
My reasons for not returning to Cozumel were pretty good. My trips to Mexico went instead to Akumal, where I could dive the caves and where my non-diving wife could snorkel. (The snorkeling in Cozumel is not nearly as good.) As for other trips, we visited sites like Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Bali, Palau, and Roatan, often with another couple who dived with me. My wife and I also began to spend winter months in Florida, and that is where most of my recreational diving took place. We no longer had room in our lives for Cozumel.
Our last couple of years were also screwed up, chiefly by Covid restrictions, and we and our friends were looking for another group trip after those two bad years, and after struggling for a location, we decided on Cozumel. And so we went. We were there for a week starting June 18, and my wife and I stayed the next week after testing positive for Covid.
What follows is the impressions of an old time Cozumel diver upon returning after a long absence. It includes our extended stay as a result of testing positive for Covid near the end of our week.
That all ended in 2009, with my last real recreational dive visit being a group trip I led on behalf of the shop where I was working. My last trip of any kind was 10 years ago, a trip undertaken after breaking multiple bones in an accident. I warmed up with a few days of standard recreational diving followed by technical dives with Deep Exposure, including 315 feet on Palancar Caves. I then went to the mainland for cave diving.
My reasons for not returning to Cozumel were pretty good. My trips to Mexico went instead to Akumal, where I could dive the caves and where my non-diving wife could snorkel. (The snorkeling in Cozumel is not nearly as good.) As for other trips, we visited sites like Australia, the Bahamas, Belize, Bali, Palau, and Roatan, often with another couple who dived with me. My wife and I also began to spend winter months in Florida, and that is where most of my recreational diving took place. We no longer had room in our lives for Cozumel.
Our last couple of years were also screwed up, chiefly by Covid restrictions, and we and our friends were looking for another group trip after those two bad years, and after struggling for a location, we decided on Cozumel. And so we went. We were there for a week starting June 18, and my wife and I stayed the next week after testing positive for Covid.
What follows is the impressions of an old time Cozumel diver upon returning after a long absence. It includes our extended stay as a result of testing positive for Covid near the end of our week.