opalobsidian
Contributor
The wonderful land of COZ as experienced by Pamela, April 25-May 1st 2006....
For our second vacation to Coz we...
rented a small house thru Cozumel Vacation Rentals
dove 4 days with Christ's Blu XT Sea
and 1 day with Hernan (who doesn't want Christi to be mad at him for taking us as he considered us her customers, but because we didn't book with her for Sunday early on, she couldn't accomodate us at the last minute, so we FORCED Hernan, against his better judgement, to take us out instead)
rented a car at a very good price thru an undisclosed agency
had an EXCELLENT time!
Upon arriving we were curious to see what would happen with our car rental, as I had heard the rental guys cannot pick up at the airport, yet they told us they would be there. Sure enough, after walking the time share gauntlet and making it out the door, there was a discrete fellow waiting by the curb looking for someone looking for him. When he spotted us he briefly flashed his sign, said loudly he was unauthorized to pick us up, then slipped us the keys and pointed to the car parked not 20 ft away.
We were a bit worried when we drove up to our little casita on avenida 20, as the neighborhood still had alot of storm damage and the casita was muy muy chica! However, as soon as we entered the gate and came into the house, we were once again happy, because the place was immaculate and cute as could be, with every ammenity you could ever want, AC, TV, extensivelu stocked kitchen, a king bed that was actually comfortable, even beer in the fridge!!! We were absolutely too comfortable there and I probably shouldn't even be telling you about it because we want to rent it again next time!!! We'll never go back to a hotel if we can help it.
Christi's operation is just the best. So far superior to the op we used on our first trip in January that they can't even be compared. Her crew of merry men are such fun and so attentive! The boat (Bandito II) was so nice and so fast, and Adan the captain kept the disco going with a fun music selection. One of the many things I liked about Christi is, even though she has nice big boats, she won't send more than 6 divers out at a time, even if you are waving money in her face!!!!
I told Christi that I wanted to get "lessons" (a nebulous term at best) so she sent us out with Javier as a private Dive Master. He is a wonderful, patient teacher, who broke concepts down into easy digestable bites, and watched and corrected our diving form. For our first dive he took us in shallower, manageable water to correct our weighting, buoyancy and form, then he took is into ripping current so we'd learn to go with the current and not fight it. He is an elegant, well spoken, intensely handsome man who wears his wetsuit like an Armani. I would recommend him to any new diver; it's well worth the extra cost for a private DM to improve your skills!!!!
We also had a great time diving with Hernan, who runs a the best dive shop in Coz, located at calle 5 and avenida 15. We bought equipment from him at VERY fair prices; my Sherwood Luna BCD was lower priced than anything I could find on the internet, plus there's no tax!!! We forced him to take us out on Sunday and what fun we had! His boat doubles as a fishing boat and is big and fast. He is very attentive and explains things carefully. And, he packs a BIG OL' lunch!!! We had sandwiches, several kinds of home made dip and chips, fruit, cake...we were practically able to remove some weight for our second dive!
It was too hot to eat while we were there; we mostly did groceries from Chedra-wey and when we did venture out it was mostly to the hood, up to Avenida 30th for tacos and local food. The best thing I ate the whole trip was chili rellenos from La Parilla Mission on 30th. While at La Mission with new best diving buddies, Fisherman Frank forced a promise that I would write a trip report, so please send all complaints to him in care of scubaboard.
Pamela
For our second vacation to Coz we...
rented a small house thru Cozumel Vacation Rentals
dove 4 days with Christ's Blu XT Sea
and 1 day with Hernan (who doesn't want Christi to be mad at him for taking us as he considered us her customers, but because we didn't book with her for Sunday early on, she couldn't accomodate us at the last minute, so we FORCED Hernan, against his better judgement, to take us out instead)
rented a car at a very good price thru an undisclosed agency
had an EXCELLENT time!
Upon arriving we were curious to see what would happen with our car rental, as I had heard the rental guys cannot pick up at the airport, yet they told us they would be there. Sure enough, after walking the time share gauntlet and making it out the door, there was a discrete fellow waiting by the curb looking for someone looking for him. When he spotted us he briefly flashed his sign, said loudly he was unauthorized to pick us up, then slipped us the keys and pointed to the car parked not 20 ft away.
We were a bit worried when we drove up to our little casita on avenida 20, as the neighborhood still had alot of storm damage and the casita was muy muy chica! However, as soon as we entered the gate and came into the house, we were once again happy, because the place was immaculate and cute as could be, with every ammenity you could ever want, AC, TV, extensivelu stocked kitchen, a king bed that was actually comfortable, even beer in the fridge!!! We were absolutely too comfortable there and I probably shouldn't even be telling you about it because we want to rent it again next time!!! We'll never go back to a hotel if we can help it.
Christi's operation is just the best. So far superior to the op we used on our first trip in January that they can't even be compared. Her crew of merry men are such fun and so attentive! The boat (Bandito II) was so nice and so fast, and Adan the captain kept the disco going with a fun music selection. One of the many things I liked about Christi is, even though she has nice big boats, she won't send more than 6 divers out at a time, even if you are waving money in her face!!!!
I told Christi that I wanted to get "lessons" (a nebulous term at best) so she sent us out with Javier as a private Dive Master. He is a wonderful, patient teacher, who broke concepts down into easy digestable bites, and watched and corrected our diving form. For our first dive he took us in shallower, manageable water to correct our weighting, buoyancy and form, then he took is into ripping current so we'd learn to go with the current and not fight it. He is an elegant, well spoken, intensely handsome man who wears his wetsuit like an Armani. I would recommend him to any new diver; it's well worth the extra cost for a private DM to improve your skills!!!!
We also had a great time diving with Hernan, who runs a the best dive shop in Coz, located at calle 5 and avenida 15. We bought equipment from him at VERY fair prices; my Sherwood Luna BCD was lower priced than anything I could find on the internet, plus there's no tax!!! We forced him to take us out on Sunday and what fun we had! His boat doubles as a fishing boat and is big and fast. He is very attentive and explains things carefully. And, he packs a BIG OL' lunch!!! We had sandwiches, several kinds of home made dip and chips, fruit, cake...we were practically able to remove some weight for our second dive!
It was too hot to eat while we were there; we mostly did groceries from Chedra-wey and when we did venture out it was mostly to the hood, up to Avenida 30th for tacos and local food. The best thing I ate the whole trip was chili rellenos from La Parilla Mission on 30th. While at La Mission with new best diving buddies, Fisherman Frank forced a promise that I would write a trip report, so please send all complaints to him in care of scubaboard.
Pamela
