Trip report May 12-24 2004

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ggunn

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Location
Austin, TX, USA
# of dives
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Cozumel Trip Report 5/12-24/04

I just returned from one of the most enjoyable trips I have
ever had to Cozumel. It's an annual gathering of family and
friends in Paradise every year since 1977.

The schedule:

Wed May 12 - Arrival, shore dive at the hotel

Thurs May 13 - Dives at Palancar Gardens and Paseo de Cedral

Fri May 14 - Dives at Colombia and Tormentos
Close encounter with a big eagle ray at Colombia!

Sat May 15 - Dives at Maracaibo and Punta Tuniche, and a night dive
from shore at the hotel

Sun May 16 - Excursion around the island. Boogieboarding at Chen
Rio and Playa Bonita

Mon May 17 - Deep sea fishing. I caught a 100 lb marlin blanco!

Tues May 18 - Dives at Colombia and Yucab

Wed May 19 - Deep sea fishing

Thurs May 20 - Dives at Punta Sur Cathedral (wow!) and Punta Tuniche,
and a night dive at Las Palmas

Fri May 21 - Deep sea fishing

Sat May 22 - Dives at Palancar Horseshoe and La Francesca

Sun May 23 - Dives at Palancar Horseshoe and San Francisco, fiesta on
Plaza at night

Mon May 24 - Last minute shopping, departure

Diving highlights:
Eagle ray at Colombia, swimthroughs at Punta Sur Cathedral, safety stop
at the end of Palancar Horseshoe, turtles asleep under the reef at Las
Palmas, many turtles everywhere, freeswimming nurse shark at Tormentos,
big scorpionfish at La Francesca, octopus and squid at night off the
hotel, BA divemaster Jorge. The only dive I was lukewarm towards was
the deep wall at Maracaibo (158'); it took a long time to get down and
a longer time to get up, with only about 10 minutes to look around once
we were at depth. Oh, and 2/3 through the night dive at Las Palmas,
another op dumped a big group right on top of us, who made no effort
whatsoever to keep themselves separate, and suddenly there were 15
divers piled atop each other trying to get a glimpse of the same
octopus. What are these people thinking???


The accomodations:
Caribe Blu, formerly Lorena, and before that La Perla. I can't really
speak comparatively about the place, since I have only twice stayed
anywhere else; it's a little rustic for some, but perfectly suited to
our needs. The new owners and management, Alejandra and Jeanie, are
very personable and went to great lengths to ensure our enjoyment of
our visit. High marks, though I thought that the room renovations (faux
seashore) were just a little cheesey. I miss the shower curtain rods
in the bathrooms. The drying racks outside the rooms and the new
hammocks are really nice; I can leave my hammock at home next time.

The dive company:
Blue Angel, my first experience with them. The DM's were professional,
knowledgeable, amiable, safety conscious, and attentive. Once we showed
our skills level, they left us alone to dive our computers. Destinations
were by consensus. BA was economical, plus gave us a discount on our
rooms. High marks.

The weather:
In a word, excellent. In spite of thunderstorms predicted throughout our
stay, none developed. The humidity was low, the breeze was constant, and
the rain we experienced was only a minor shower or two. The north to
northeast wind made it a tad rocky on our fishing trips, but it did not
quash our enthusiasm.

The fishing:
Over three days, we caught 12 dorado, 2 sailfish, 3 barracuda, and the
aforementioned big white marlin. 4 to 6 foot seas with the occasional 8.
The tournament the previous weekend was won by the Marlin Negro, which
brought in a 364 lb marlin azul. The crew on our boat wished I'd caught
that marlin a day earlier; it might have won 2nd place.

The food:
La Choza, Las Gavilanes (sp?), Casa Mission, La Perlita, La Moreno, Capi
Navigante, El Moro, Casablanca, Pancho's Backyard, Sonora, Guido's, Casa
Denis. Best new find for us - La Perlita. Taken off my short list -
Casa Mission (the food is OK but very much overpriced).

General news:
The exterior of the development next to Plaza las Glorias is complete,
and they have started another about the same size right next to it. The
Servi Playa has been moved a bit south, and the gap between it and Acuario
is being filled by another development of some sort; Darwin's place on the
water is gone. The new Pemex station near the southern cruise ship docks
is open now. The main drag in town is all torn up for some sort of
drainage project; they are laying pipe down the middle of the northbound
side.

All in all, it was another wonderful trip to Cozumel. I met a few
Scubaboarders (christi, moodiejeff, nikkyo, and ice[?]), and I missed a
few others that I wanted to meet. I met some other folks that I will try
to stay in touch with. The diving was great, the weather was great, the
food was great, the company was great, the hotel was great, the fishing was
great... Right offhand, I can't think of a single thing that WASN'T great.
Heavy sigh. We are already planning our next year's trip.

Cheers,
 
Gordon

Sorry we missed you in Houston. Our flight was delayed in Tulsa due to crew and we were changed to AA with connection through Dallas. Arrived about 2 hours later than scheduled. Went to Casa Mexicana and the pool was smaller than 1/2 the size of mine at home!...........and the elevator was out..........I requested a top floor room to get away from the street noise. I also asked them if the cruise ships were parked in front of the hotel and they said no in emails. We got there and there were two parked right in front of hotel. Didn't really want to look at them for 10 days so with all that we moved to our fall back position at FA. Had a great time.

Heard about the big Marlin that won the tourney. Taxi drivers all talking about it. Martin of DWM entered a boat but did not do all that well. Owner of LaChoza had two boats in the trouney and Sat. night when we were eating an early dinner they wheeled in 7 Mahi to the kitchen. Can you say FRESH!

La Pearlita........right on Gordon! We ate there for the first time at the suggestion of our buddy Ray, owners son, of El Moro. What great food! It's on our short list as well. We had: Prima, La Veranda, La Pearlita, Conchita Del Caribe, Ponchos(ok not great but good Mole sauce), Coco's-no miss breakfast, Ernestos - also great breakfast, LaChoza, also missed Casa Mission due to last trips marginal food, Guidos. Several we made twice.

We were finally able to dive Devils throat and Cathedral. Very surprised that my wife said to date is her favorite dive. Maybe I can get her to cave dive with me afterall! Dive was short, 38minutes with 7 deco but quite enjoyable. Not for beginners.

Columbia shallows is a don't miss dive. First time and we had a great time. 33 feet and more to see than I have seen on any reef. 4 of the largest Parrots I have ever seen together, 2 balloon fish one huge, schools of fish everywhere, 14ft nurse, 10 ft nurse, great for my first photo op with my new rig.

Had many great dives and can't wait for our trip back in Sept. Will probably dive with Martin again. The only thing that bothered me was Martin telling me that his SP steel 95's with 2200-2300 of air was the same as AL 80 with 3000. Doesn't take a mathmatics major to do the math on that one! Thankfully he did not charge me for the larger tanks. Did first half of trip on mix and the last three days on air.

Sorry we missed you. Glad you were able to put some faces with text!

Believe it or not they said they hope to have the streets fixed by DECEMBER. Unbelievable.
 
5615mike:
Gordon

Sorry we missed you in Houston. Our flight was delayed in Tulsa due to crew and we were changed to AA with connection through Dallas.

Continental had a lot of that that day; there were tornados around Houston the night before, and Houston is their hub, so they had probs all over. My mom's plane was delayed in Lake Charles, LA, for the same reason, and she saw our plane taking off for CZM as she was landing in HOU. Her hubby told the Continental counter folks in a loud firm voice that he was NOT going to spend the night in Houston, so Continental routed them through Mexico City and they got to CZM about 7:30.

From reading your self description, I approached the biggest guy I could find from our plane in the CZM airport and asked him if he was 5615mike, who of course was not, but who was a really nice guy on his first trip there, and we were able to give him and his bud some tips.

Glad you had a good trip; maybe we'll see ya next time.
 
ggun, a question, if you don't mind. Could you please tell me more about boogie boarding on the east side? I'm going in December with my non-diving wife and kids. I know that they would really enjoy it if I spent a day not diving to take them over to the east side to explore. We all would enjoy boogie boarding and if I knew some basics like where you got the board it would be a big help.

Thanks in advance,
Bruce
 
diveborg:
ggun, a question, if you don't mind. Could you please tell me more about boogie boarding on the east side? I'm going in December with my non-diving wife and kids. I know that they would really enjoy it if I spent a day not diving to take them over to the east side to explore. We all would enjoy boogie boarding and if I knew some basics like where you got the board it would be a big help.

No prob. If you head over to the east side by the northern route, i.e., by the road that runs past the two in-town Pemex (gasoline) stations, when you get to the beach there will be a place on your right between the road and the water called "Senor Iguana's" (Mescalito's will be on your left). They will ask you to leave $50 and an ID for a deposit, and you can take the board off their grounds; you need to return it by 5pm. There is surf there, but I've never gotten in it.

There are other places where you can rent them, (Mescalito's, Punta Moreno), but I know Mescalito's won't let you take them away from their place.

BTW, when boogieboarding, it helps a lot to have fins to get going fast enough to catch a wave.
 
to finally meet you Gordon! Sorry we couldn't chat more, but I'll still be here on your next trip I'm sure!

I'm glad to hear you had such a wonderful trip! See you next year!
 
Christi:
to finally meet you Gordon! Sorry we couldn't chat more, but I'll still be here on your next trip I'm sure!

I'm glad to hear you had such a wonderful trip! See you next year!

It was nice to meet you, too, although every time our paths crossed, one or the other or both of us were going off to do more diving and stuff. No complaints about that, though! ;^)

BTW, I talked to several folks who were diving with you, and they all had nothing but good things to say about your operation.

Cheers,
 
It was great meeting you, your wife, and your whole family. I had a great time diving with you guys. Sorry I didn't make that night dive but after hearing the story about that other dive group maybe it was for the best. Would you believe my right hand is still bothering me? I think it's getting worse.... maybe I'll go to the doctor if it doesn't get better soon. Lets do this again some time....Paul
 
Now thats a vacation. Makes me want to go back tomorrow. Glad you had a good (and busy) time.
 
ggunn:
No prob. If you head over to the east side by the northern route, i.e., by the road that runs past the two in-town Pemex (gasoline) stations, when you get to the beach there will be a place on your right between the road and the water called "Senor Iguana's" (Mescalito's will be on your left). They will ask you to leave $50 and an ID for a deposit, and you can take the board off their grounds; you need to return it by 5pm. There is surf there, but I've never gotten in it.

There are other places where you can rent them, (Mescalito's, Punta Moreno), but I know Mescalito's won't let you take them away from their place.

BTW, when boogieboarding, it helps a lot to have fins to get going fast enough to catch a wave.

Thanks so much for the information. Was there a cost for rental or were they free except for the deposit. Where did you find the best waves? I'm thinking that the place you got the boards wasn't the best since you didn't board there.
 

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