NAIBdiver1
Contributor
December 2004
I wasnt sure if Id like Cozumel, but my girlfriend had been there the year before and really wanted to go back, so I went along and I had a great time !
We staid at Hotel Cozumel and our dives where with Dive Paradise. (Arranged through Bay Adventures). The hotel and dive operation staff where great. The rooms where clean and the AC worked fine. You couldnt find an unfriendly person if you tried. Ive read a number of times on this forum that the food at Hotel Cozumel wasnt very good I heartily disagree. There were good choices and plenty of healthy food. Fresh fish and veggies. Salad bar and soup. Pasta prepared fresh and the deserts where good too. Breakfast and lunch (great fresh salsa) had plenty of choices as well. They even made a special birthday cake for my girlfriend. It was real "Mexican" food. Some of the little evenig entertainment was good, some wasn't. The one big outdoor buffet they had one evening was outstanding !
At first I was freaked out by the MULTITUDE of divers. I thought for sure that the boats would be jammed, but Dive Paradise had plenty of boats and they are very organized in assigning divers to boats. We never where in the water with more than six divers in our group. All the fills were 3100 + I was disappointed though that Nitrox wasnt readily available. Maybe in the future.
The dive sites chosen where by popular vote amongst the divers and there was no problem on the distance south. The dive briefings where great as well as the dive masters. As long as Im mentioning DMs my first stage started leaking air and DM Antinio took it to the shop where he worked out of to be repaired, promised me it would be returned in an hour and a half. He personally brought it to the hotel, repaired and in the promised time, ready for my afternoon dive. The repair cost $10 (US) now all of you out there know your local dive shop wouldnt have it ready in an hour and a half, personally take it to your home and charge you $10.
We did 2 tanks in the morning for 5 days as well as an afternoon dive for 4 days. I have to say that without a doubt the afternoon dives where always the best dives of the day with more animals. Especially turtles. On our dives we saw all the animals that would be expected (only larger) and both my girlfriend and I got lots of great video. I especially liked the deeper swim throughs and in our group all the divers with video cameras (4) took turns being the first through various swim throughs. Oh yea, night dives at the hotel where really good too. Even though there wasnt coral and it wasnt spectacular at night there were lots of different animals. I got video footage of 3 of the largest Caribbean octopus Ive ever seen as well as an Atlantic Torpedo Ray that didnt know he wasnt suppose to be that far south or west. The night hotel shore dives lasted well over an hour each time and they were a lot of fun. These were not included in our package, so we had to pay for a tank (well worth it)
As far as current and drift diving, Currents ranged from ripping to almost nothing. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of St. Lawrence (Ont) diving - only a little warmer and more pretty stuff to see.
I chose to only take u/w video equipment (no still u/w camera on this trip) because of drift diving. I think that was a good choice. It would be hard to hover over a coral head and do lots of macro there. If nothing else, you'd burn up a lot of air trying.
Water temps where 79 - 80 3mm for me and 5mm for her. We were both very comfortable.
Evenings wed walk to the local supermarket for snacks and sodas. We went into town for the Sunday night fiesta and visit shops and go see the harbour that was fun. On our last day we hired a taxi for the day and did a tour around the island that included the Mayan ruins. Out taxi driver was days away from taking his tourist license test, spoke English very well and gave us a great tour. We were his final practice.
Well, being skeptical about going to Cozumel at first, I cant wait to go back !
One last though - the wreck dive (C-53) was fun and we saw lots of animals including a migration of eagle rays, but I think they should relax the "no glove" rule on this one. (Lots of sharp metal and lots of fireworms)
NAIBDiver 1
I wasnt sure if Id like Cozumel, but my girlfriend had been there the year before and really wanted to go back, so I went along and I had a great time !
We staid at Hotel Cozumel and our dives where with Dive Paradise. (Arranged through Bay Adventures). The hotel and dive operation staff where great. The rooms where clean and the AC worked fine. You couldnt find an unfriendly person if you tried. Ive read a number of times on this forum that the food at Hotel Cozumel wasnt very good I heartily disagree. There were good choices and plenty of healthy food. Fresh fish and veggies. Salad bar and soup. Pasta prepared fresh and the deserts where good too. Breakfast and lunch (great fresh salsa) had plenty of choices as well. They even made a special birthday cake for my girlfriend. It was real "Mexican" food. Some of the little evenig entertainment was good, some wasn't. The one big outdoor buffet they had one evening was outstanding !
At first I was freaked out by the MULTITUDE of divers. I thought for sure that the boats would be jammed, but Dive Paradise had plenty of boats and they are very organized in assigning divers to boats. We never where in the water with more than six divers in our group. All the fills were 3100 + I was disappointed though that Nitrox wasnt readily available. Maybe in the future.
The dive sites chosen where by popular vote amongst the divers and there was no problem on the distance south. The dive briefings where great as well as the dive masters. As long as Im mentioning DMs my first stage started leaking air and DM Antinio took it to the shop where he worked out of to be repaired, promised me it would be returned in an hour and a half. He personally brought it to the hotel, repaired and in the promised time, ready for my afternoon dive. The repair cost $10 (US) now all of you out there know your local dive shop wouldnt have it ready in an hour and a half, personally take it to your home and charge you $10.
We did 2 tanks in the morning for 5 days as well as an afternoon dive for 4 days. I have to say that without a doubt the afternoon dives where always the best dives of the day with more animals. Especially turtles. On our dives we saw all the animals that would be expected (only larger) and both my girlfriend and I got lots of great video. I especially liked the deeper swim throughs and in our group all the divers with video cameras (4) took turns being the first through various swim throughs. Oh yea, night dives at the hotel where really good too. Even though there wasnt coral and it wasnt spectacular at night there were lots of different animals. I got video footage of 3 of the largest Caribbean octopus Ive ever seen as well as an Atlantic Torpedo Ray that didnt know he wasnt suppose to be that far south or west. The night hotel shore dives lasted well over an hour each time and they were a lot of fun. These were not included in our package, so we had to pay for a tank (well worth it)
As far as current and drift diving, Currents ranged from ripping to almost nothing. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of St. Lawrence (Ont) diving - only a little warmer and more pretty stuff to see.
I chose to only take u/w video equipment (no still u/w camera on this trip) because of drift diving. I think that was a good choice. It would be hard to hover over a coral head and do lots of macro there. If nothing else, you'd burn up a lot of air trying.
Water temps where 79 - 80 3mm for me and 5mm for her. We were both very comfortable.
Evenings wed walk to the local supermarket for snacks and sodas. We went into town for the Sunday night fiesta and visit shops and go see the harbour that was fun. On our last day we hired a taxi for the day and did a tour around the island that included the Mayan ruins. Out taxi driver was days away from taking his tourist license test, spoke English very well and gave us a great tour. We were his final practice.
Well, being skeptical about going to Cozumel at first, I cant wait to go back !
One last though - the wreck dive (C-53) was fun and we saw lots of animals including a migration of eagle rays, but I think they should relax the "no glove" rule on this one. (Lots of sharp metal and lots of fireworms)
NAIBDiver 1
