My husband and I, along with two of his friends, decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and make a break for Cozumel on 5/27 to 5/31. Wed first visited Coz on a cruise last October, one week before Wilma hit. At that point, we fell in love with island and had been looking for an excuse to go back ever since. Needless to say, our first land trip did not disappoint.
Due to costs, we ended up booking our flights into Cancun. Dealing with AA before our flights was truly a trying ordeal. Out of our four flights, all had been changed repeatedly in the five months since we bought our tickets. These changes included moving our departure from Cancun up by 3 hours, giving us 30 minutes to connect to an international flight in Miami, and loosing our seat assignments. Ive nearly programmed AA Customer Service into speed dial on my phone. It also would have been nice to receive some sort of notification from the airline about the changes. Lesson learned: when booking on AA, check your flights on a bi-weekly basis.
Saturday dawned with us at the airport before the sun came up. Our actual flights down were relatively smooth. We landed about 10 minutes late due to a radar being down in Cancun. Customs was fairly smooth and we were off to catch the bus to Playa. A very bad kung-** musical dubbed in Spanish was a great way to pass the time and provided numerous laughs. After boarding a very full ferry, Cozumel finally slipped into view.
Based on the numerous glowing reports here, wed decided to stay at the Caribe Blu. Unfortunately, our traveling companions decided that it would be a good idea to just walk down to the hotel. Due to the heat, this was not the wisest move. However, by the time we were ready to give up, we could see the hotel. Check-in was smooth and soon we were taking a quick nap before dinner.
The Caribe Blu truly lived up to its reputation. While not the ultimate in luxury, the rooms were clean and comfortable. The bathroom décor was just charming and gave that feeling of being in paradise. Plus, the view could not be beat. Road noise wasnt an issue for us and there did not appear to be any construction going on next door. Add in the fact that there was an excellent dive shop on site and a great restaurant, the Caribe Blu is high on our list of places to return.
After a quick nap, we headed out to Casa Denis for dinner. Christis restaurant list was our guide for the week and never steered us wrong. Im not sure that its possible to have a bad meal in Coz. The Mexican platter for two and the margarita got the best raves of the night. After the really early morning, it was an early night.
Sunday morning was our first two dives with Blue Angel. On our previous trip, wed used Dive with Martin. While we were quite pleased with them, I am notoriously lazy on vacation and was quite happy to book with Blue Angel. In the future, wed happily book with either dive op.
The famous Jorge was our DM on Saturday. After a quick discussion by the five of us on the boat, it was decided that our first dive would be at Cedral Wall. Since this was the first dive of the trip for four of us, it was an interesting dive. The current was the strongest we had for the whole trip and most of us were working with some new gear. Needless to say, we all did a bit of re-weighting after the dive. Our second dive was at San Francisco and was much more relaxed. The highlight of this dive was a turtle happily munching down a sponge. Jorge was an excellent DM ensuring that everyone in our group had a good experience.
After a quick dip in the pool, the long travel day caught up with us and we headed off for a nap. Our non-diving companions did a bit of snorkeling out front of the Caribe Blu. They noted that there wasnt much coral, but a number of juvenile fish in the area. Dinner this night was at La Choza. The sauce was a huge hit and a couple of bottles did end up with a new home. This was probably our favorite Mexican food of the trip.
Monday morning saw our group of divers swell to eight. Two of the new divers was Cherokee180c and his wife. Always a pleasure to randomly meet SBers on the boat. We had a different DM today, Bonito (or something that sounds similar.) Since we were picking up Cherokee180c at the Iberostar, we did some of the more southern dive sites. Our first site Ive got noted down as Palanacar Bricks/Colombia. After looking at a site map, my best guess would be that the site was Colombia Pinnacles. This was probably my favorite dive of the trip. The reef here looked very similar to the one wed seen in October. Our second dive was at Dalila, which was equally as beautiful.
Upon returning to the Caribe Blu, we decided to grab a couple of tanks and do a quick shore dive. Based on the comments here and on the boat, we werent expecting much. (The running joke on the boat was that the site was now known as the Sahara.) While nowhere near as nice as the boat dives, we did find it to be a good way to burn a tank. The best marine life was to the south. We spent our time working to improve our buoyancy and working on our fish id. The highlight of the dive for me was spotting my first flounder. I never would have seen him until he moved.
While we were off on our morning dives, our travel companions did the Discover Scuba class through Blue Angel. As hoped, theyre now hooked and talking about getting certified. We headed off to the Rondez-blu for lunch, as had become our habit. Im still missing their quesadillas and bacon and tomato sandwiches. We then headed downtown for some shopping and dinner. Tonight was the Sonora Grill. While good, this was probably our most disappointing meal of the trip. The food wasnt outstanding and the service left a bit to be desired. However, wed still give it another shot when we return. We stopped at Rock n Java for dessert. Their chocolate cheesecake was simply to die for.
Sadly, Tuesday morning was our last day of diving. We had seven divers on the boat that morning. (Our solo diver had headed home.) Jose was the DM. Our first dive was at Palancar Gardens. This was the first site we were at where you could tell there had been some hurricane damage. However, the dive was still quite pleasant and there was a ton of fish life to see. Here is also where we had our cattle boat call. As we were descending, we were run over by a large group of divers. I think there had to be at least 16-20 all intently plowing after their DM. Five of us ended up in a group and waited for the herd to pass. The whole experience made me glad that wed chosen to go with a smaller dive op.
After a pleasant surface interval at what appeared to be an abandoned beach club, we did our last dive at Paso del Cedral. This was probably the most beat-up site we saw. Once again, there was a large quantity of fish life to make up for the lack of sponges and soft coral. The current here was also somewhat strong, though not as strong as Cedral Wall.
That afternoon we rented a car and drove around the island. Originally, our travel companions had reserved a car through Isis. However, the car did not arrive as promised. So they worked with the Caribe Blu to quickly reserve a car. Two thumbs up for fixing our small problem. Im not sure who they rented through, but a red VW convertible in relatively good condition appeared in short order. We checked out the margaritas at Mezcalito, Coconuts, and Rastas in addition to shoot a large number of photos. Yes, you could really tell that the island had been hit by Wilma by the number of brown trees. However, we were quite surprised the by speed that the foliage had begun to bounce back.
Tonights dinner was at Especias and the best of the trip. The zucchini stuffed with cheese was the start to a simply amazing meal. The rest of the table ordered the various seafood specials (shrimp and a red snapper). A very blissful experience and Adrian was an excellent host. If I only had one meal on Coz, Id spend it at Especias. It really was a perfect ending to the trip.
Wednesday morning saw us sadly packing up and heading for home. A quick note for those staying at the Caribe Blu, the $100 deposit is for the dive shop. We ended up doing a little money dance with our traveling companions to figure out the bill at both places. Rock n Java was the choice for our last meal on the island. Afterwards we very sadly boarded the ferry and headed back to Playa. (Side note: The times for the bus on travelnotes.cc is wrong. The bus leaves from Playa every hour on the hour. We ended up spending a bit of quality time at the bus station since we planned our travel based on their information. However, Greyhound could really take some lessons from that station.)
The line for AA at the Cancun airport was something to behold. It pretty much ran the entire length of the terminal. The signs upon exiting reminding you to be there three hours early werent kidding. The poor reps were constantly pulling people from the line since their flights would be departing shortly. Having successfully made it through with plenty of time to spare, we entertained ourselves by watching them load planes using bullhorns. Also ran into a couple from our town on the flight. Small world.
Due to costs, we ended up booking our flights into Cancun. Dealing with AA before our flights was truly a trying ordeal. Out of our four flights, all had been changed repeatedly in the five months since we bought our tickets. These changes included moving our departure from Cancun up by 3 hours, giving us 30 minutes to connect to an international flight in Miami, and loosing our seat assignments. Ive nearly programmed AA Customer Service into speed dial on my phone. It also would have been nice to receive some sort of notification from the airline about the changes. Lesson learned: when booking on AA, check your flights on a bi-weekly basis.
Saturday dawned with us at the airport before the sun came up. Our actual flights down were relatively smooth. We landed about 10 minutes late due to a radar being down in Cancun. Customs was fairly smooth and we were off to catch the bus to Playa. A very bad kung-** musical dubbed in Spanish was a great way to pass the time and provided numerous laughs. After boarding a very full ferry, Cozumel finally slipped into view.
Based on the numerous glowing reports here, wed decided to stay at the Caribe Blu. Unfortunately, our traveling companions decided that it would be a good idea to just walk down to the hotel. Due to the heat, this was not the wisest move. However, by the time we were ready to give up, we could see the hotel. Check-in was smooth and soon we were taking a quick nap before dinner.
The Caribe Blu truly lived up to its reputation. While not the ultimate in luxury, the rooms were clean and comfortable. The bathroom décor was just charming and gave that feeling of being in paradise. Plus, the view could not be beat. Road noise wasnt an issue for us and there did not appear to be any construction going on next door. Add in the fact that there was an excellent dive shop on site and a great restaurant, the Caribe Blu is high on our list of places to return.
After a quick nap, we headed out to Casa Denis for dinner. Christis restaurant list was our guide for the week and never steered us wrong. Im not sure that its possible to have a bad meal in Coz. The Mexican platter for two and the margarita got the best raves of the night. After the really early morning, it was an early night.
Sunday morning was our first two dives with Blue Angel. On our previous trip, wed used Dive with Martin. While we were quite pleased with them, I am notoriously lazy on vacation and was quite happy to book with Blue Angel. In the future, wed happily book with either dive op.
The famous Jorge was our DM on Saturday. After a quick discussion by the five of us on the boat, it was decided that our first dive would be at Cedral Wall. Since this was the first dive of the trip for four of us, it was an interesting dive. The current was the strongest we had for the whole trip and most of us were working with some new gear. Needless to say, we all did a bit of re-weighting after the dive. Our second dive was at San Francisco and was much more relaxed. The highlight of this dive was a turtle happily munching down a sponge. Jorge was an excellent DM ensuring that everyone in our group had a good experience.
After a quick dip in the pool, the long travel day caught up with us and we headed off for a nap. Our non-diving companions did a bit of snorkeling out front of the Caribe Blu. They noted that there wasnt much coral, but a number of juvenile fish in the area. Dinner this night was at La Choza. The sauce was a huge hit and a couple of bottles did end up with a new home. This was probably our favorite Mexican food of the trip.
Monday morning saw our group of divers swell to eight. Two of the new divers was Cherokee180c and his wife. Always a pleasure to randomly meet SBers on the boat. We had a different DM today, Bonito (or something that sounds similar.) Since we were picking up Cherokee180c at the Iberostar, we did some of the more southern dive sites. Our first site Ive got noted down as Palanacar Bricks/Colombia. After looking at a site map, my best guess would be that the site was Colombia Pinnacles. This was probably my favorite dive of the trip. The reef here looked very similar to the one wed seen in October. Our second dive was at Dalila, which was equally as beautiful.
Upon returning to the Caribe Blu, we decided to grab a couple of tanks and do a quick shore dive. Based on the comments here and on the boat, we werent expecting much. (The running joke on the boat was that the site was now known as the Sahara.) While nowhere near as nice as the boat dives, we did find it to be a good way to burn a tank. The best marine life was to the south. We spent our time working to improve our buoyancy and working on our fish id. The highlight of the dive for me was spotting my first flounder. I never would have seen him until he moved.
While we were off on our morning dives, our travel companions did the Discover Scuba class through Blue Angel. As hoped, theyre now hooked and talking about getting certified. We headed off to the Rondez-blu for lunch, as had become our habit. Im still missing their quesadillas and bacon and tomato sandwiches. We then headed downtown for some shopping and dinner. Tonight was the Sonora Grill. While good, this was probably our most disappointing meal of the trip. The food wasnt outstanding and the service left a bit to be desired. However, wed still give it another shot when we return. We stopped at Rock n Java for dessert. Their chocolate cheesecake was simply to die for.
Sadly, Tuesday morning was our last day of diving. We had seven divers on the boat that morning. (Our solo diver had headed home.) Jose was the DM. Our first dive was at Palancar Gardens. This was the first site we were at where you could tell there had been some hurricane damage. However, the dive was still quite pleasant and there was a ton of fish life to see. Here is also where we had our cattle boat call. As we were descending, we were run over by a large group of divers. I think there had to be at least 16-20 all intently plowing after their DM. Five of us ended up in a group and waited for the herd to pass. The whole experience made me glad that wed chosen to go with a smaller dive op.
After a pleasant surface interval at what appeared to be an abandoned beach club, we did our last dive at Paso del Cedral. This was probably the most beat-up site we saw. Once again, there was a large quantity of fish life to make up for the lack of sponges and soft coral. The current here was also somewhat strong, though not as strong as Cedral Wall.
That afternoon we rented a car and drove around the island. Originally, our travel companions had reserved a car through Isis. However, the car did not arrive as promised. So they worked with the Caribe Blu to quickly reserve a car. Two thumbs up for fixing our small problem. Im not sure who they rented through, but a red VW convertible in relatively good condition appeared in short order. We checked out the margaritas at Mezcalito, Coconuts, and Rastas in addition to shoot a large number of photos. Yes, you could really tell that the island had been hit by Wilma by the number of brown trees. However, we were quite surprised the by speed that the foliage had begun to bounce back.
Tonights dinner was at Especias and the best of the trip. The zucchini stuffed with cheese was the start to a simply amazing meal. The rest of the table ordered the various seafood specials (shrimp and a red snapper). A very blissful experience and Adrian was an excellent host. If I only had one meal on Coz, Id spend it at Especias. It really was a perfect ending to the trip.
Wednesday morning saw us sadly packing up and heading for home. A quick note for those staying at the Caribe Blu, the $100 deposit is for the dive shop. We ended up doing a little money dance with our traveling companions to figure out the bill at both places. Rock n Java was the choice for our last meal on the island. Afterwards we very sadly boarded the ferry and headed back to Playa. (Side note: The times for the bus on travelnotes.cc is wrong. The bus leaves from Playa every hour on the hour. We ended up spending a bit of quality time at the bus station since we planned our travel based on their information. However, Greyhound could really take some lessons from that station.)
The line for AA at the Cancun airport was something to behold. It pretty much ran the entire length of the terminal. The signs upon exiting reminding you to be there three hours early werent kidding. The poor reps were constantly pulling people from the line since their flights would be departing shortly. Having successfully made it through with plenty of time to spare, we entertained ourselves by watching them load planes using bullhorns. Also ran into a couple from our town on the flight. Small world.