trip report 5/23-5/30 fiesta americana and dive house

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d56nut

Contributor
Messages
205
Reaction score
1
Location
Arizona
# of dives
50 - 99
Hi All,

This was our second trip to Cozumel this year! We were there in February and stayed at fiesta americana and dove with dive house. We were so happy with both that we decided to use both again! So, here's the report:

May 23rd: Flew out of Chicago on US Air and had a layover in Charlotte. Flew from Charlotte to Cozumel on US Air. Both legs of the flight were great...even landed early in Coz!!! Had transfers to Fiesta Americana and it was great because we were the first stop! Got a great room!!! It had a sitting room, balcony, large bedroom area and nice bathroom. Headed over to the dive shop and got all the paperwork taken care of.

We used computers for all dives.

May 24th: First Dive: Palancar Gardens -- 80 feet for 29 minutes (hubby is somewhat of an air sucker but he got better as the week went on!). Second Dive: Punta Tunich - 60 Feet for 32 Minutes....saw a great balloon fish and lots of lobster and those tiny drum fish. Third Dive: Our first NIGHT DIVE!!! We went to Yucab. 60 Feet for 38 minutes. Saw an 8 foot Nurse Shark, a gorgeous eel that kept changing colors, huge lobster, and snakes!

May 25th: First Dive: Palancar Pinnacles/Caves. 90 Feet for 34 minutes. Lots of swim throughs and great marine life. Second Dive: Tormentos. 60 feet for 48 minutes. Saw spiny starfish, crabs, lobsters, etc.

May 26th: Santa Rosa Wall. 83 feet for 33 minutes. This is always one of my favorite dives! Beautiful coral formations/reef. Saw a huge 4 foot grouper inside one of the swim throughs. Second Dive: San Francisco Wall. 60 feet for 39 minutes. This also ranks in my top 5 places to dive! Tons of angelfish, grunts and juvenile damsels. Gorgeous anenomes. Near the end of this dive we saw a huge puffer fish!!!

May 27th: C-53 Wreck. 75 feet for 30 minutes. This was our first wreck dive. It was okay. I'm glad we did it but it cured me from wanting to wreck dive...kind of boring. Second Dive: Bolones. 63 feet for 45 minutes. Very nice dive! Saw our first spotted moray eel. Also saw 2 huge lobsters and a barracuda. Tons of other marine life.

May 28th: San Francisco Wall (never a problem for us to do this dive more than once in a week!). 83 feet for 39 minutes. Swift current. Saw a barracuda, eagle ray and an enormous turtle amongst tons of other marine life. Second Dive...our last dive of the week...Cardona. 45 feet for 52 minutes. Although this dive was beautiful it was our worst dive...lost my digital camera!!! Over 300 pics gone! Camera was insured so no problem on getting a new (already got the insurance check and the new cam). Good thing hubby dives with a camera, too (film cam...sealife reefmaster). I definitely want to do this dive again so I can enjoy it more!

Now...on to food! We ate in town 3 times. Went to La Choza for lunch. Great tortilla soup and great chicken fajitas! On another day we went to Casa Denis...it was as good as everyone said it would be! Had the mixed fajitas (shrimp, beef, and chicken). Hubby had sopes. The two of ate dinner for 17.00...not bad. On our third trip to town we at a LaMission. Apparently there are two of them. One is above Viva Mexico...it's extremely loud and extremely warm in there. We chose to go around the corner to the quiet one! I had the best grilled shrimp I've ever had!!!

The hotel...one word...awesome! We chose the all inclusive plan again. The breakfasts are awesome...made to order omlettes, fruit, pastries, etc. For lunch we usually ordered off the menu...the lunch buffet does leave something to be desired. But, the menu choices are wonderful!!! The dinner buffets were good. We also had 2 days where we could eat in the special restuarant. You get the best meals here...filet mignon, etc. And...we got to know the man that ran that restuarant and he invited us for a 3rd day (no extra charge!).

The dive operation. We absolutely love Dive House. Pirate is our favorite divemaster and we requested him several weeks before we arrived so we got to be with him every dive. It was great! We pretty much got to go to every dive site we wanted to! Tipping does pay off!

We met Dennis (Boosted) from Scuba Board and his girlfriend and got to dive with them once. Hope they enjoyed it as much as we did!!!

Any questions, just ask!

Michelle
 

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