July 1
We got in about 10:35 AM, rented a subcompact from Hertz for $90 and headed to Casa del Mar, unpacked, and went to Aldora to check in. Whew! It was good seeing Greg, Memo & the group again and they graciously let us borrow adaptors for our tanks so that we could boat dive with them in the mornings and then shore dive in the afternoons on our own.
Aldora set up the dives a bit different today to accommodate their divers in the PM. We met the boat at 4PM for a 2 tank dive one a late afternoon dive at Santa Rosa Wall and then a night dive at Las Palmas. We saw several regular lobsters, crabs, splendid toadfish and a slipper lobster an interesting looking fellow. It seemed like a totally different dive than our night dive there in May.
We had a late dinner at Casa Denis. I have to eat crow there is a great margarita at several places on the island and the best that we had was the mango margarita at CD. As usual, the Mexican plate there is to die for.
July 2
Our first morning dive was at Palancar Caves. After about 10 minutes and at 60 feet, I noticed my camera housing starting to leak (a very minor flood). I decided to abort my dive and go up to service everything. Too bad - the rest saw a couple of nurse sharks and got very close to one. The camera came out fine and it was enjoyable just watching how they captain maneuvers the boat and seeing how Palancar Horseshoe looks from the surface (OK my nose is growing), I brought a spare housing on the trip, so I only missed taking photos on a couple of dives.
We did our second dive at Delilah. Yeah, theres not much coral damage but I wasnt personally impressed with the reef structure. No notable encounters today.
Once we were back on shore, we assumed that we could rent tanks anywhere and take them anywhere. Wrong! Del Mar Aquatics and Papa Hogs will let you rent tanks, but you have to dive right across the street from them. This was a potential problem, as we had 4 divers (Foo, Parrotheaddiver, Donald & Don) joining us the next day who wanted to dive the Airplane Wreck at El Cid. Apparently, the situation is this: shops lost tanks after Wilma, an aluminum tank can be sold for about $30, so everyone is protective with their tanks.
We ended up renting from Del Mar Aquatics and used the beach at the brand new little bar, Playa Aqua. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. There were lots of coral heads and sea fans in about 25 ft of water that had escaped Wilma. On one little coral bush we counted 13 flamingo tongues. We saw an eagle ray going toward the surface at about 20 ft. There were scorpionfish, rays, a moray and plenty of fish to keep us occupied. On our night dive there later, we saw lots of fish and 2 very photogenic octopuses.
When we went into town for dinner in the rent car, I turned left at about the same time a motorcycle or scooter decided to try to pass me on the left. Yep, a wreck. The guy who hit us was a jerk he got off yelling and threatening us. He appeared intoxicated (world cup watching perhaps?) and quite a bit British (the left lane works great back in London old chap). He then proceeded to take off. Im glad he wasnt hurt, but he was still a jerk.
We wound up at a local place back on 10th and were a bit in shock, just going through the motions of eating our jamon tortas. Luckily, the car wasnt very damaged, but we were worried (you hear the horror stories) as we hadnt taken out extra insurance because I thought I had some coverage in Mexico on my mastercard. Well see what happens when we turn in the bill to them.
July 3
We started out on a new day today with dives at Columbia Deep (Anchors) and at Cedral. Columbia was fairly uneventful, but Cedral, well Ive never had a bad dive there. We saw lots of schools of fish, 3 turtles, some of the larger groupers and at least 10 barracuda.
We were to meet our 4 buddies at Casa del Mar at 2:30. My beautiful bride suggested that we look into a little shop right to the south of Casa del Mar. Bingo! Scuba Shack would rent us tanks and let us take them wherever, in this case to El Cid. We hauled all of our stuff to El Cid in a couple of trips and proceeded to have a great shore dive there. I was much embarrassed to find out that the Airplane Wreck that I had been diving all of these years was in 2 pieces, with the bigger piece southeast and I had never been over there. Thanks for the insight, parrotheaddiver! We came back to shore a bit before the group and saw a couple of squid.
After getting everyone back to the hotel, we met Foo & Donald for some drinks at the pool and then headed over to Casa Mission. I forgot how beautiful the place is. And how incredible that garlic bread is!
July 4
We dove Columbia Deep (the other part) and then Punta Tunich. There were lots of lobster and a couple of octopi at the latter. That afternoon, we rented again and dove the Playa Aqua beach a 1:45 dive. Shot a lot of macro. Four squid came up (really close) and hung out with us for quite a while. Anyone who doesnt think theres decent shore diving in Coz must be comparing it to Bonaire or something. Our shore dives ranked right up there with the boat dives because we had no current and we got to take our time to look at things & explore.
We had a couple of beers later at the Playa Aqua bar, met up with Donald & Foo, and headed over to Tony Romes. Tony also can make a good margarita. I wont go into who was there since that's already on another thread, but the food was great and the service was really good, even with the place so packed. Afterwards, we went with Foo & Donald over to Kelly's for a couple of beers. Gene can still cut a rug.
July 5
At the airport, the Hertz guy looked at the car, made a few phone calls and ended up charging us $150 extra. If we had taken out the full insurance, it would have been $140, so it wasnt too bad of a loss.
Foo & Donald we had a blast hanging out with you. Parrotheaddiver & Don we enjoyed meeting you and doing the plane wreck. SBers at Tony Romes and on our dive boat we enjoyed meeting you guys too. I promise to post some pictures as soon as I can figure out how to size them right.
We got in about 10:35 AM, rented a subcompact from Hertz for $90 and headed to Casa del Mar, unpacked, and went to Aldora to check in. Whew! It was good seeing Greg, Memo & the group again and they graciously let us borrow adaptors for our tanks so that we could boat dive with them in the mornings and then shore dive in the afternoons on our own.
Aldora set up the dives a bit different today to accommodate their divers in the PM. We met the boat at 4PM for a 2 tank dive one a late afternoon dive at Santa Rosa Wall and then a night dive at Las Palmas. We saw several regular lobsters, crabs, splendid toadfish and a slipper lobster an interesting looking fellow. It seemed like a totally different dive than our night dive there in May.
We had a late dinner at Casa Denis. I have to eat crow there is a great margarita at several places on the island and the best that we had was the mango margarita at CD. As usual, the Mexican plate there is to die for.
July 2
Our first morning dive was at Palancar Caves. After about 10 minutes and at 60 feet, I noticed my camera housing starting to leak (a very minor flood). I decided to abort my dive and go up to service everything. Too bad - the rest saw a couple of nurse sharks and got very close to one. The camera came out fine and it was enjoyable just watching how they captain maneuvers the boat and seeing how Palancar Horseshoe looks from the surface (OK my nose is growing), I brought a spare housing on the trip, so I only missed taking photos on a couple of dives.
We did our second dive at Delilah. Yeah, theres not much coral damage but I wasnt personally impressed with the reef structure. No notable encounters today.
Once we were back on shore, we assumed that we could rent tanks anywhere and take them anywhere. Wrong! Del Mar Aquatics and Papa Hogs will let you rent tanks, but you have to dive right across the street from them. This was a potential problem, as we had 4 divers (Foo, Parrotheaddiver, Donald & Don) joining us the next day who wanted to dive the Airplane Wreck at El Cid. Apparently, the situation is this: shops lost tanks after Wilma, an aluminum tank can be sold for about $30, so everyone is protective with their tanks.
We ended up renting from Del Mar Aquatics and used the beach at the brand new little bar, Playa Aqua. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. There were lots of coral heads and sea fans in about 25 ft of water that had escaped Wilma. On one little coral bush we counted 13 flamingo tongues. We saw an eagle ray going toward the surface at about 20 ft. There were scorpionfish, rays, a moray and plenty of fish to keep us occupied. On our night dive there later, we saw lots of fish and 2 very photogenic octopuses.
When we went into town for dinner in the rent car, I turned left at about the same time a motorcycle or scooter decided to try to pass me on the left. Yep, a wreck. The guy who hit us was a jerk he got off yelling and threatening us. He appeared intoxicated (world cup watching perhaps?) and quite a bit British (the left lane works great back in London old chap). He then proceeded to take off. Im glad he wasnt hurt, but he was still a jerk.
We wound up at a local place back on 10th and were a bit in shock, just going through the motions of eating our jamon tortas. Luckily, the car wasnt very damaged, but we were worried (you hear the horror stories) as we hadnt taken out extra insurance because I thought I had some coverage in Mexico on my mastercard. Well see what happens when we turn in the bill to them.
July 3
We started out on a new day today with dives at Columbia Deep (Anchors) and at Cedral. Columbia was fairly uneventful, but Cedral, well Ive never had a bad dive there. We saw lots of schools of fish, 3 turtles, some of the larger groupers and at least 10 barracuda.
We were to meet our 4 buddies at Casa del Mar at 2:30. My beautiful bride suggested that we look into a little shop right to the south of Casa del Mar. Bingo! Scuba Shack would rent us tanks and let us take them wherever, in this case to El Cid. We hauled all of our stuff to El Cid in a couple of trips and proceeded to have a great shore dive there. I was much embarrassed to find out that the Airplane Wreck that I had been diving all of these years was in 2 pieces, with the bigger piece southeast and I had never been over there. Thanks for the insight, parrotheaddiver! We came back to shore a bit before the group and saw a couple of squid.
After getting everyone back to the hotel, we met Foo & Donald for some drinks at the pool and then headed over to Casa Mission. I forgot how beautiful the place is. And how incredible that garlic bread is!
July 4
We dove Columbia Deep (the other part) and then Punta Tunich. There were lots of lobster and a couple of octopi at the latter. That afternoon, we rented again and dove the Playa Aqua beach a 1:45 dive. Shot a lot of macro. Four squid came up (really close) and hung out with us for quite a while. Anyone who doesnt think theres decent shore diving in Coz must be comparing it to Bonaire or something. Our shore dives ranked right up there with the boat dives because we had no current and we got to take our time to look at things & explore.
We had a couple of beers later at the Playa Aqua bar, met up with Donald & Foo, and headed over to Tony Romes. Tony also can make a good margarita. I wont go into who was there since that's already on another thread, but the food was great and the service was really good, even with the place so packed. Afterwards, we went with Foo & Donald over to Kelly's for a couple of beers. Gene can still cut a rug.
July 5
At the airport, the Hertz guy looked at the car, made a few phone calls and ended up charging us $150 extra. If we had taken out the full insurance, it would have been $140, so it wasnt too bad of a loss.
Foo & Donald we had a blast hanging out with you. Parrotheaddiver & Don we enjoyed meeting you and doing the plane wreck. SBers at Tony Romes and on our dive boat we enjoyed meeting you guys too. I promise to post some pictures as soon as I can figure out how to size them right.
