scubajanet
Registered
Trip Report Cozumel March 25 April 1, 2006
My husband and my two boys (ages 6 and 9) were very excited to leave our Wisconsin weather and enjoy Cozumel. We flew NWA from Milwaukee to Minnesota to Cozumel with no problems. We were happy to get out of the Cozumel airport and onto our shuttle to our hotel fairly quickly after we landed. We stayed at Occidental Grand Cozumel and we were very happy with hotel. The beach was awesome at the hotel. The hotel grounds were beautiful and they continued to plant more things every day we were there. Our children kept commenting that it did not seem like there could possibly have been a hurricane here, such a short time ago. Driving around the island, we did see a lot of dead trees and that was sad, but we mainly care about the beach and condition of our hotel room and that was outstanding!
Before we left, we had researched on the internet for a recommended dive op. We chose Dive With Martin because of the good recommendations and we also needed a dive op that would allow us to bring the boys on the dive boat while we were diving. We made all reservations with them before we left. Upon arrival in Cozumel, I called DWM and they had all our info and told us they would pick us up at about 8am the next morning at the pier in front of our hotel. We had heard there had been no diving allowed the last two days, due to weather conditions, we were hoping not to miss any days of diving.
The next morning our boat arrived on time and we were excited to begin our first dive day in Cozumel. Usually there were a couple of divers already in the boat and we picked up a couple more at Iberostar hotel, just down the shore. We never had more than 8 divers in our group and the boat was nice size. It was small enough to be fast, but large enough have enough room for all our gear and not be packed in with people. It was a short ride from our hotel to all of the dive sites we went to throughout the week. The DM (Roberto) hooked up all of our gear for us. This was a new experience for us and was kind of a treat just to sit in the boat and enjoy the ride. This was the first time we had done a back roll entry. We were both nervous and it went fine. After this first dive, it was no big deal to enter that way. Our first dive was Planacar Horseshoe. Our max depth was 97 feet and time was 34 min. We saw 4 sea turtles. The huge coral formations are what amazed me. These are the biggest I have seen in my diving experience. I was really in awe. I am not the best with fish names yet (I got some books as a gift and I am working on it..), so you will not see too many specific fish listed in my trip report even though I saw a lot. Roberto explained everything very well before our first dive in Cozumel. He and all of the other DMs we had during the week, seemed very concerned about safety and kept a good watch on all the divers in the group. I was very impressed.
Our second dive (after a short SI) was Dalila. We saw our first shark at the beginning of the dive. It was a 8 foot nurse shark. We saw another 3 foot nurse shark at the end of the dive. We saw a lobster and a very large spotted eagle ray. Our max depth was 58 feet and time 48 min.
Water temp for the week we went diving was about 78-80 F and visibility was about 100 feet. According to the DM, I dont think the current was exceptionally strong any of the days we went diving.
Here is a list of our other dives:
Columbia Deep: Max depth 84, time 31 min. This was my first time experiencing a swim through. I loved them! We saw a huge spotted eagle ray and a sea turtle. Our DM was Pablo.
Columbia Shallow: Max depth 28, time 50 min. We saw 4 sharks and more fish here then our previous two dives.
Planacar Caves: Max depth 93, time 35 min. These are not really caves, but lots of very fun swim throughs. We saw lots of sea turtles and they hung around us for awhile. Our DM was David.
Planacar Gardens: Max depth 30, time 35 min. We surface earlier then the rest of the group and our 9 yr old son joined us and we snorkeled on the surface above the other divers. Our first few days in the water, we did get stung by small jellyfish several times. It would sting for a minute and then stop. All four of us were stung at some point and all had the same reaction. I had brought vinegar and safe sea jellyfish protectant, but did not end up needing it.
Paradise Shallows (night dive) Max depth 36, time 47 min. This was our first night dive (other then our night training dives in Wisconsin with not much of anything to see). We loved it! I was a little nervous, because at one point, I lost track of my husband and was a little confused because I could see two groups of flashlights (our group and another group) and wasnt sure which one was mine. I did find him and stayed very close the rest of the dive. My husband spotted an octopus almost right away. We saw a splendid toadfish, sea snake, lobsters, scorpion fish, crab, sea cucumber/worm, conch shell moving with crabs, sting ray, and many cool things I cant identify! Our DM was Roberto. We were told to leave our flashlights on as we handed them into the boat after the dive (in case they drop). Well, one of ours did and it was quickly retrieved by a diver below us. Glad it was still on!
Santa Rosa Wall Max depth 82, time 38 min. DM - Pablo. Great dive. Awesome swim throughs. We saw a barracuda and a flounder. I lost my new $40 underwater camera, so that was a bummer. It came off my wrist and skyrocketed to the surface. I did get one roll of pics from the previous day, so that was good.
La Francesa: max depth 57, time 43 min. DM Pablo. We saw large green moray, sting ray, 2 black grouper, 2 turtles. We watched a hawksbill eating a plant for what seemed like a long time. This was my favorite dive as far as marine life in Cozumel.
Devils Throat max depth 134, time 27 min. DM Pablo. I surfaced with 1000 psi, so I was happy about my air consumption rate. This was very cool. We loved it. We brought our flashlights, part of the dive was very dark in the swim through. I thought I would be very nervous, but I felt very calm for all of the dive. We saw a lobster and a sea turtle. This was my 40th logged dive and one to remember.
Planacar Gardens: max depth 68, time 49 ,min. We saw a grouper, crab, turtle and beautiful fish. This was a very relaxing dive.
Columbia Pinnacles: max depth 60, time 38 min. Some neat swim throughs. Very nice coral formations. We saw a grouper and a sea turtle.
Cedral Pass: max depth 65, time 57 min. Saw a sea turtle, lots of different (interesting) fish. Some were very large and colorful. We watched a shark during our safety stop. It was sad to know this was our last dive in Cozumel, but it was a great one. Our package with DWM included a free DVD of our dive. The DM filmed video on two of our dives and the next day gave us the DVD with the footage. This is my favorite souvenir of our trip.
Most days we were back at our hotel from diving around 11:30 am. This left the rest of the day to devote to the kids. We went swimming in the pool and snorkeling in front of the hotel. We found a slab of concrete in front of the hotel with lots of lobster hiding underneath it. The sunsets were beautiful and the weather was warm and sunny every day. We went into town only once. The cab ride for the four of us was about $20 one way. I am not much for shopping and although I have read there are a lot of awesome restaurants, since our hotel included meals we didnt want to spend extra money eating out. I am happy to say that in our week in Mexico, none of us were sunburned and none of us got sick at all. Our vacation was everything we had hoped it to be.
We had a great trip and plan to return to Cozumel. We would highly recommend it!
My husband and my two boys (ages 6 and 9) were very excited to leave our Wisconsin weather and enjoy Cozumel. We flew NWA from Milwaukee to Minnesota to Cozumel with no problems. We were happy to get out of the Cozumel airport and onto our shuttle to our hotel fairly quickly after we landed. We stayed at Occidental Grand Cozumel and we were very happy with hotel. The beach was awesome at the hotel. The hotel grounds were beautiful and they continued to plant more things every day we were there. Our children kept commenting that it did not seem like there could possibly have been a hurricane here, such a short time ago. Driving around the island, we did see a lot of dead trees and that was sad, but we mainly care about the beach and condition of our hotel room and that was outstanding!
Before we left, we had researched on the internet for a recommended dive op. We chose Dive With Martin because of the good recommendations and we also needed a dive op that would allow us to bring the boys on the dive boat while we were diving. We made all reservations with them before we left. Upon arrival in Cozumel, I called DWM and they had all our info and told us they would pick us up at about 8am the next morning at the pier in front of our hotel. We had heard there had been no diving allowed the last two days, due to weather conditions, we were hoping not to miss any days of diving.
The next morning our boat arrived on time and we were excited to begin our first dive day in Cozumel. Usually there were a couple of divers already in the boat and we picked up a couple more at Iberostar hotel, just down the shore. We never had more than 8 divers in our group and the boat was nice size. It was small enough to be fast, but large enough have enough room for all our gear and not be packed in with people. It was a short ride from our hotel to all of the dive sites we went to throughout the week. The DM (Roberto) hooked up all of our gear for us. This was a new experience for us and was kind of a treat just to sit in the boat and enjoy the ride. This was the first time we had done a back roll entry. We were both nervous and it went fine. After this first dive, it was no big deal to enter that way. Our first dive was Planacar Horseshoe. Our max depth was 97 feet and time was 34 min. We saw 4 sea turtles. The huge coral formations are what amazed me. These are the biggest I have seen in my diving experience. I was really in awe. I am not the best with fish names yet (I got some books as a gift and I am working on it..), so you will not see too many specific fish listed in my trip report even though I saw a lot. Roberto explained everything very well before our first dive in Cozumel. He and all of the other DMs we had during the week, seemed very concerned about safety and kept a good watch on all the divers in the group. I was very impressed.
Our second dive (after a short SI) was Dalila. We saw our first shark at the beginning of the dive. It was a 8 foot nurse shark. We saw another 3 foot nurse shark at the end of the dive. We saw a lobster and a very large spotted eagle ray. Our max depth was 58 feet and time 48 min.
Water temp for the week we went diving was about 78-80 F and visibility was about 100 feet. According to the DM, I dont think the current was exceptionally strong any of the days we went diving.
Here is a list of our other dives:
Columbia Deep: Max depth 84, time 31 min. This was my first time experiencing a swim through. I loved them! We saw a huge spotted eagle ray and a sea turtle. Our DM was Pablo.
Columbia Shallow: Max depth 28, time 50 min. We saw 4 sharks and more fish here then our previous two dives.
Planacar Caves: Max depth 93, time 35 min. These are not really caves, but lots of very fun swim throughs. We saw lots of sea turtles and they hung around us for awhile. Our DM was David.
Planacar Gardens: Max depth 30, time 35 min. We surface earlier then the rest of the group and our 9 yr old son joined us and we snorkeled on the surface above the other divers. Our first few days in the water, we did get stung by small jellyfish several times. It would sting for a minute and then stop. All four of us were stung at some point and all had the same reaction. I had brought vinegar and safe sea jellyfish protectant, but did not end up needing it.
Paradise Shallows (night dive) Max depth 36, time 47 min. This was our first night dive (other then our night training dives in Wisconsin with not much of anything to see). We loved it! I was a little nervous, because at one point, I lost track of my husband and was a little confused because I could see two groups of flashlights (our group and another group) and wasnt sure which one was mine. I did find him and stayed very close the rest of the dive. My husband spotted an octopus almost right away. We saw a splendid toadfish, sea snake, lobsters, scorpion fish, crab, sea cucumber/worm, conch shell moving with crabs, sting ray, and many cool things I cant identify! Our DM was Roberto. We were told to leave our flashlights on as we handed them into the boat after the dive (in case they drop). Well, one of ours did and it was quickly retrieved by a diver below us. Glad it was still on!
Santa Rosa Wall Max depth 82, time 38 min. DM - Pablo. Great dive. Awesome swim throughs. We saw a barracuda and a flounder. I lost my new $40 underwater camera, so that was a bummer. It came off my wrist and skyrocketed to the surface. I did get one roll of pics from the previous day, so that was good.
La Francesa: max depth 57, time 43 min. DM Pablo. We saw large green moray, sting ray, 2 black grouper, 2 turtles. We watched a hawksbill eating a plant for what seemed like a long time. This was my favorite dive as far as marine life in Cozumel.
Devils Throat max depth 134, time 27 min. DM Pablo. I surfaced with 1000 psi, so I was happy about my air consumption rate. This was very cool. We loved it. We brought our flashlights, part of the dive was very dark in the swim through. I thought I would be very nervous, but I felt very calm for all of the dive. We saw a lobster and a sea turtle. This was my 40th logged dive and one to remember.
Planacar Gardens: max depth 68, time 49 ,min. We saw a grouper, crab, turtle and beautiful fish. This was a very relaxing dive.
Columbia Pinnacles: max depth 60, time 38 min. Some neat swim throughs. Very nice coral formations. We saw a grouper and a sea turtle.
Cedral Pass: max depth 65, time 57 min. Saw a sea turtle, lots of different (interesting) fish. Some were very large and colorful. We watched a shark during our safety stop. It was sad to know this was our last dive in Cozumel, but it was a great one. Our package with DWM included a free DVD of our dive. The DM filmed video on two of our dives and the next day gave us the DVD with the footage. This is my favorite souvenir of our trip.
Most days we were back at our hotel from diving around 11:30 am. This left the rest of the day to devote to the kids. We went swimming in the pool and snorkeling in front of the hotel. We found a slab of concrete in front of the hotel with lots of lobster hiding underneath it. The sunsets were beautiful and the weather was warm and sunny every day. We went into town only once. The cab ride for the four of us was about $20 one way. I am not much for shopping and although I have read there are a lot of awesome restaurants, since our hotel included meals we didnt want to spend extra money eating out. I am happy to say that in our week in Mexico, none of us were sunburned and none of us got sick at all. Our vacation was everything we had hoped it to be.
We had a great trip and plan to return to Cozumel. We would highly recommend it!
