I haven't been keeping up, sooooooo.......

[bkpix]

I haven't been on the board for some time. Got quite bummed when our trip to Isla Mujeres wound up being a week of rain, then really bummed a week later when the "real storm" hit. We wound up diving three days instead of the eight we had hoped for.

We have been thinking about another trip to Cozumel, but most of the reports we have seen seem pretty bleak. Most say it looks as if the reef has been buried in a snowstorm because of all the sand that moved around. I see that there is supposed to be a good repport in undercurrents, but I don't know how to get that. Advice is appreciated.

 

[Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]

Wow...you think this has probably been discussed...to death...in other threads?

Seriously, just look around. There are a million threads about Coz post-Wilma. You'll get better information by doing a search than by asking everyone to repeat themselves. Just scroll through the first few pages of the Coz forum. Plenty of trip reports.

Short answer - your bleak reports are full of it. Coz diving is great right now (or it was in January).

 

[pablovi]

The review, by undercurrent is posted in this forum here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=1743859&postcount=25

 

[divematt]

I just spent 10 days in Cozumel and flew home on Easter Sunday. All I'm going to say until my trip report gets done is that there's a little sand here and there but so what. I chose to dive 3 times a day every chance I could and if the diving would not have been worth it, I'd have done two dives per day for 5 days and done other things on the island. Instead I chose to do 21 dives and I'd go back in a second and do it again. All of this crap about the sites are destroyed is nuts. I've been there 4 times in the last 3 years and if I had more vacation time, I'd go more. It's not the only place I've dived before so it's not like I don't know what else is out there. The deeper sites are better in my opinion but they're all full of life. I saw Spotted Eagle Rays on 6 of 8 days of diving. I saw between 30 and 40 turtles on the first day I dove with Christy. The big Groupers, Snappers, Eels, Lobsters, and all of the rest were everywhere. I went with some skepticism, but came back very satisfied that everything in and under Cozumel is just fine.

Matt

 

[ronrosa]

Did you say 30-40 turtles in 1 day ? Did you mean 3-4 ?

 

[divematt]

No, I meant between 30 and 40. And it was one dive, not one day. Our first dive on Christy's new boat, "Bandida II" took us to Playa del Carmen to "Tortugas" and I lost count at over 30 large turtles. I took pictures of over 15 of them.

Matt

 

[cxg31s]

I can vouch for Matt's facts--I did Tortugas in PDC last September and we saw so many I lost count! The reef isn't as pretty but the turtles were worth it--they're old,
huge, barnacle-encrusted and could care less if you're there or not. I dubbed it the Turtle Retirement Reef.

 

[ronrosa]

Wow, can't imagine how cool diving with 30+ turtles must have been. How long was the ride to Playa ? I wasn't aware Coz ops dove there.

 

[ggunn]

Wow, can't imagine how cool diving with 30+ turtles must have been. How long was the ride to Playa ? I wasn't aware Coz ops dove there.

It's about 12 miles across the channel, and it's closer to San Miguel than the southernmost island side sites. It's an open crossing, though, so wind and sea conditions have to be right for it to be doable in a small boat. I went over there with Blue Angel last May.

 

[cxg31s]

I wasn't aware Coz ops dove there.

Not all Coz ops do.