Cozumel 7/15-7/23 with Blue Magic Scuba

[u2girlie]

Dates: 7/15-7/23
Dive shop: Blue Magic
Dive master: Gabriel Santana
# of dives: 14
Reefs dived (dove, dived - what is the proper English?):
Palancar Gardens, La Francesa, Palancar Horseshoe (twice), Punta Dalia, Santa Rosa, Paso el Cedral, C-53 wreck, Paso el Cedral (wall), San Clemente (twice), Columbia Deep, Tormentos, Punta Sur (including the devil’s throat).
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Since this is only my 2nd post, let me introduce myself. My name is Rebecca and my husband and I live in Vernon, CT. In 2006, We took our first trip to Playa del Carmen and have been back 5 times since then (last time was in March). After our 2nd trip to Playa and following a fantastic snorkeling experience in Akumal, I finally decided to become a certified diver. I realized there was way too much I was missing out on by floating around on the surface of the water.

I became certified in CT in May of 2008 (48 degree bottom temp in a 7mm wetsuit @ Fort Wetherell in R.I. -- I could barely do my skills as I was shaking so much). A few weeks later, we went to Playa for trip #3 and I dove for the first time in the Caribbean. Hubby has been a certified diver since 1990. He was certified in St. Croix while living there. He dove there for 2 years before moving back to New England. He didn’t dive again until we went to Playa in ’08 (he has no desire to dive cold water although we are considering it because we want to keep building my experience).

Although I have my AOW, I am still a very new diver with 36 dives total. This trip to Cozumel was my first all dive trip. We decided on Cozumel after diving there on a day trip from Playa in March. That trip, we dove Columbia Deep and Punta Tunich. After those dives, we knew we’d be back to Cozumel!

I’ll keep the non-dive details of our trip fairly brief. Flight from Hartford to Cozumel, connecting through DFW (long trip but cheap airfare). We rented a house called Casita Bonita in the Corpus Christi neighborhood (20th Ave between Paamul and Akumal). It was about a 20 minute walk into town but we enjoyed the walk as it allowed us to explore a little bit. Like the airfare, the rental house was cheap but perfect for us. One bedroom, fully equipped kitchen, little dining room/living room area with free wi-fi, and cute little outdoor garden area with table and chairs and a dive rinse sink. It was a little over $500 for 9 days.

When we did our day trip in March, we dove with a friend who is a divemaster in Playa and he rented a boat through Blue Magic. I had the opportunity to meet Joyce, the owner and was impressed by the boat & the captain we had. When we booked our Cozumel trip, I decided to dive with Blue Magic and I can’t stress enough how awesome our experiences were. Joyce is fantastic and very accommodating. She was very quick with email responses prior to our trip and extremely friendly. Their boats are small & quick. All of them are covered, which I really appreciated when the blazing hot July sun was shining. The boat captain, Alvarro, was awesome. Loved him. He was always right there when we surfaced and that was greatly appreciated on some of the days where the current was screaming and the waves were big.

I can’t say enough about our dive master, Gabriel Santana. I adore him and even though we just met him, we consider him a friend. He is a really phenomenal dive master who grew up on Cozumel and knows those reefs like the back of his hand. I absolutely love the macro stuff and he did not disappoint. If I told him prior to the dive that I wanted to see something specific, he’d say “No problem! I find that for you!” and damn if he didn’t find it every time! He found painted elysia and lettuce sea slugs for me and of course, splendid toad fish! After diving, he would take us to great little restaurants way off the beaten path. Then, we’d spend hours talking about diving and the things we saw. He absolutely loves his job and that shows in his excitement on every dive. We are looking forward to booking our next trip (hopefully December) and will definitely be diving with Gabriel & Blue Magic.

Prior to leaving for Cozumel, I bought “The Reef Set” - the 3 book collection for Florida, Caribbean, and the Bahamas. It includes “Reef Fish”, “Reef Coral”, and “Reef Creature”. Hubby & I spent quite a bit of time looking through those books before we left. We brought them with us and they were an awesome reference for us after our dives. Gabriel was excited when he would show me something knew and I would be able to write on my slate what it was. I guess I’m a nerd when it comes to identifying everything I see. I was taking notes on my slate to the point where I think I need to bring a slate the size of a chalkboard next time! In speaking with other divers, I was surprised by how many didn’t know what they had seen on their dives (or particularly cared)! For me, it makes the dive more exciting when I can identify a fish or creature or coral that I hadn’t seen previously.

I listed some of our findings below, in case you are interested.

Some highlights of my dives were:

Splendid toad fish - I think we saw a total of 6 and I found one on my own. I felt like Jacques Cousteau!

Nurse shark - was within 3 feet of a 6-7 foot nurse shark @ Santa Rosa. It had it’s head jammed up into a coral overhang and was thrashing around trying to get a lobster (I’m assuming). When it finally backed out, it looked at us as if to say “What are you looking at?” and then went on its way. Very cool.

Juvenile trunkfish - they’re so cute. Gabriel called them “dice fish” because they kind of resemble dice - although in reverse colors (black with white/yellow dots).

Painted elysia - very pretty and much smaller than I expected.

La Garganta del Diablo - the Devil’s Throat - what a crazy experience that was! It’s much shorter than I expected (thankfully) and was completely pitch black. I couldn’t see the hand in front of my face (or I should say the fins in front of my face). I held onto the leg of Gabriel’s swim trunks when we went over the lip and down into the hole - I wasn’t nervous but it’s a bit disorienting. Then, you can finally see the deep blue and freedom! My max depth on that dive was 126 feet when we came out of the throat. That’s my max depth of any dive to date.

Fish & Creatures:

Angelfish - queen, french, gray, rock beauty...
Blue tang
Ocean surgeonfish
Great barracuda
French grunts
Porkfish
Yellowtail damselfish
Sergeant major
Blue chromis
Graysby
Yellowmouth grouper
Yellowfin grouper
Parrotfish - blue, rainbow (both initial & terminal), queen, stoplight...
Bluehead wrasse
Squirrelfish
Splendid toadfish
Sand dollar pea crab
Smooth trunkfish
Queen triggerfish
Black durgon
Sargassum trigger (I call this the Jay Leno fish)
Bearded fireworm
Yellowline arrow crab
Pederson shrimp
Banded coral shrimp
Yellow headed wrasse
Gray snapper
Blue striped grunts
Horse eye jacks
Spotfin butterflyfish
Honeycomb cowfish
Pipefish (wasn’t able to positively id species)
Trunkfish
Spaghetti worms

Flamingo tongues - loads of them
Spiny lobsters
Yellowhead jawfish
Bridled goby
Yellowface pike blenny
Eyed flounder
Nurse sharks
Southern stringray
Numerous sea cucumbers
Hawksbill turtles

All in all, I’d say it was a near perfect trip. The only thing that would have made it better was to be able to do more dives and get a night dive in (next time). We are planning a trip back in December. We will probably stay at Hotel Pepita because it’s uber cheap ($40 a night - approx) and closer to town (although, not like there is a lot going on in town -- I’m a Playa del Carmen convert -- I’m used to A LOT going on!)

I’ll try to post some pictures when I can.

[fishin42]

very nice report, thanks. glad to hear of an ID enthusiast. it is nice to know what ur looking at isn't it. I believe a "dove" is a bird, at least where I come from.
thanks for the id on the elysia, i've always just called them nudibranches. They are amazingly beautiful too. We found our first ones on our last day of our last trip in July. Can't wait to get back in Nov.

[BTravlin]

Nice report.

You'd make a good REEF volunteer.

[sctom]

Great report, thank you for sharing.

[u2girlie]

very nice report, thanks. glad to hear of an ID enthusiast. it is nice to know what ur looking at isn't it. I believe a "dove" is a bird, at least where I come from.
thanks for the id on the elysia, i've always just called them nudibranches. They are amazingly beautiful too. We found our first ones on our last day of our last trip in July. Can't wait to get back in Nov.

Great photo! They're hard to get pictures of. We found a painted elysia right next to a lettuce sea slug. Very cool. We also saw two painted elysia getting to know each other a little better!

Nice report.

You'd make a good REEF volunteer.

Was thinking that while we were diving (and after when we were going through my notes on my slate). I need to look into that!

Great report, thank you for sharing.

Thank you! It's my first dive report I've ever written so wasn't sure what to post.

[BTravlin]

Was thinking that while we were diving (and after when we were going through my notes on my slate). I need to look into that!

You should talk with deborahdelamar. She would probably know if it's a possibility or not.

[MMM]

Thanks for your report. I have those 3 books at my house in Coz and consult them regularly as I log my dives. Glad you had a great time!

[blue steal]

Nice report, thank you. I remember at the BA dive shop they had two excellent ID books, one for fish and one for other critters and I would borrow them and try to ID everything while enjoying the afternoon with a cold Victoria.