Best 3-Day Dive Plan for Cozumel?

[SeaHunt]

We will be in Coz in October (13-17) and will do 3/2 tank morning dive and we will have the ability to select each days dives sites in advance. We will not be doing the more advanced north sites this trip and do not intend to do the Devils Throat either. We don’t want to dive the same site twice and of course we want to do the deepest dive first. Also, we are all experienced adult divers, no kiddos involved.

So here goes, what would your 3-day dive plan look like if you could pre-plan the sites? Perhaps you could even elaborate as to why you selected one or more of your choices

Can’t wait to read your opinions.

Thanks again,
Jim

 

[ronrosa]

Do you want to avoid advanced sites or is it a distance issue ?

 

[SeaHunt]

Distance isn't an issue since we plan on being on a smaller and faster boat. Just don't want to mess with the difficult or relatively difficult dive sites on this trip.

Jim

 

[ronrosa]

As long as your with a decent dive operator and don't want to do any advanced sites, I would leave the site selection to them. Just tell them you don't want any repeats and no advanced dives. There are plenty of great begginer and intermediate sites. You will probably do at least 3 of the different palancar sites.

 

[5615mike]

I agree with ronrosa. You could dive palancar and columbia three times each and not see all of both reefs. Both are quite large and varied.

 

[mediakzar]

As some posters have noted, you should talk to your dive master and get his impute as conditions at individual sites can change daily. And there are lots and lots of good dives there. But with that said:

3 Really Good Deep Dives
The southern section of Columbia Deep. Columbia Deep is the name given to a large section of reef on the southern end of the typical resort diving area. The area just north of Punta Sur is our favorite section. It offers huge coral formations that rise from a depth of over 200 feet, a portion on a deep wall and lots of crevasses and caves.

Cedral Wall is a beautiful wall with changing topography and excellent fish life. And for some reason, it doesn’t get half the diver traffic that some less desirable walls get.

Palancar Horseshoe--Some parts of the shallower portion of Palancar Horseshoe are full of broken coral and little fish life. However, other sections of the area known as Little Horseshoe are a winding maze of pristine pinnacles that rise from a depth of over 100 feet and top out at around 30 feet from the surface.

3 Good Shallow Dives
At Punta Tunich you will find a very quick current over some colorful low profile coral and lots of fish. Sometimes, diving here feels like flying.

Paso de Cedral. This site gets a little too much activity but it's a very pretty dive. Eexpect to see a variety of reef fish, spotted moray eels, grouper, lobster, crab, an occasional turtle and some nice vistas through openings in the coral.

San Francisco Wall. This wall tops out at about 50 feet and the best coral is at 65 feet and above. There is good and varied fish life available and while there is a current, it is usually gentle. All this makes San Francisco a good choice for an introduction to drift diving on a wall.


Joel
http://www.mxtravel.com/cozumel/cozumel_diving.html