Tim Ingersoll
Contributor
Just returned from a week in Cozumel 3/26/05-4/2/05. Travelled with my wife and two kids as well as another couple and their three children,. We brought along a young lady to help with the kids and basically let us go out to eat at night. That worked okay except she somehow got the impression that it was her vacation. C'est la vie.
Flew Air Canada direct from Toronto to Coz on Saturday 3/26/05. Only down side was we got in rather late (7:00 p.m.). We arrived and were met at the airport by a representative from Aldora Divers and Cozumel Vacation Rentals. It was nice to be so well met.
We were escorted to the house we rented. http://www.cozumel-vacation-rentals.com/coronado.htm Nice place and highly recommended. We had a total of five kids and five adults and never felt crowded. The house is located about 200 yards past Fiesta Americana right before the Uvas Beach Club.
We took the first day off as a family day. That made our first day of diving Monday. You guessed it . . Norte! No diving Monday.
Our dive master for all diving was Bill "Memo" LaRosa. He is still the best DM I have ever had the pleasure of diving with and someone I now consider a true friend. Bring him some Reese's Peanut butter and you have a friend for life! (You can't get decent peanut butter in Mexico). Aldora was very professional as usual and no complaints. The manager Memo (different person) was glad to see me again and went out of his way to accommodate anything we needed.
I was travelling with a friend who had an open water referral. Our first day of diving was now Tuesday. We were picked up and dropped off at the Fiesta Anericana pier. Very convenient. Pick-up time was 8:00 a.m. Drop-off was 1:00 p.m. Water temp was 80 degrees. Vis was usually about 75 feet. All second tanks were EAN 32. Deepest was to 115 feet although that was the exception. Most dives were 80 feet or shallower. We dove three days as follows:
Palancar Gardens, Yucab, Delilah, San Francisco (2x) and El Cedral.
Highlights of the diving were an octopus, three large green moray eels out and swimming, four nurse sharks, multiple turtles (green, loggerhead, hawksbill), sea hares, spotted yellow ray, brown spotted moray, squat shrimp, striped coral shrimp, and the list goes on. Suffice it to say it was a fantastic three days of critter hunting.
My newbie friend had a blast and says he is hooked. It was cool to watch the evolution of a diver from first ocean dive to sixth. He developed quickly and his confidence was extremely good the last day to the point where he was doing swim-throughs.
The really freaky thing is that I dove with the same family that I dove with last year when I got bent. They refused to believe that I ended up bent last year when we all dove the same profile. It took a lot of convincing before they believed.
The fourth day of diving was cancelled. . .you guessed again. . Norte! It was okay though because the women don't dive and were not convinced that the whole purpose of coming to Cozumel was so that we could spend as much time underwater as possible
We ate out at the usual faves for our family. . Guido's (2x), Mesa 17, Prima. All excellent and as expected. We ate at the house a couple of times and just sort of winged it for the last day.
Activities. We visited the Rasta Bar at Punta Sur. Very nice. The surf was raging. We went to Chakanaab (sp.?) National Park which impressed me as sort of like a beach theme park. My son was psyched to see the archeological exhibit when we saw it on the map. They had a very nice little trail winding through the jungle with various replicas of Mayan ruins. It was actually very interesting. What amazed me was the park was packed, and I mean packed, but we were the only ones in the section devoted to the history of the island and the Mayans. Ditto for the museum with coral displays, etc. God I love the quality pod people that cruise ships attract. We also checked out the ruin at El Cedral. Thats exactly what it was one ruin set among the gift shops and photo ops! It gave us a good giggle.
We got our rental car through LessPay. No complaints. Cheap and easy just the way I like it.
Overall it was great trip and we really enjoyed our too short trip to Coz. I am already considering the next venture. I truly believe that of all the places we have dove in the Caribbean Cozumel is the best bang for the buck.
Flew Air Canada direct from Toronto to Coz on Saturday 3/26/05. Only down side was we got in rather late (7:00 p.m.). We arrived and were met at the airport by a representative from Aldora Divers and Cozumel Vacation Rentals. It was nice to be so well met.
We were escorted to the house we rented. http://www.cozumel-vacation-rentals.com/coronado.htm Nice place and highly recommended. We had a total of five kids and five adults and never felt crowded. The house is located about 200 yards past Fiesta Americana right before the Uvas Beach Club.
We took the first day off as a family day. That made our first day of diving Monday. You guessed it . . Norte! No diving Monday.
Our dive master for all diving was Bill "Memo" LaRosa. He is still the best DM I have ever had the pleasure of diving with and someone I now consider a true friend. Bring him some Reese's Peanut butter and you have a friend for life! (You can't get decent peanut butter in Mexico). Aldora was very professional as usual and no complaints. The manager Memo (different person) was glad to see me again and went out of his way to accommodate anything we needed.
I was travelling with a friend who had an open water referral. Our first day of diving was now Tuesday. We were picked up and dropped off at the Fiesta Anericana pier. Very convenient. Pick-up time was 8:00 a.m. Drop-off was 1:00 p.m. Water temp was 80 degrees. Vis was usually about 75 feet. All second tanks were EAN 32. Deepest was to 115 feet although that was the exception. Most dives were 80 feet or shallower. We dove three days as follows:
Palancar Gardens, Yucab, Delilah, San Francisco (2x) and El Cedral.
Highlights of the diving were an octopus, three large green moray eels out and swimming, four nurse sharks, multiple turtles (green, loggerhead, hawksbill), sea hares, spotted yellow ray, brown spotted moray, squat shrimp, striped coral shrimp, and the list goes on. Suffice it to say it was a fantastic three days of critter hunting.
My newbie friend had a blast and says he is hooked. It was cool to watch the evolution of a diver from first ocean dive to sixth. He developed quickly and his confidence was extremely good the last day to the point where he was doing swim-throughs.
The really freaky thing is that I dove with the same family that I dove with last year when I got bent. They refused to believe that I ended up bent last year when we all dove the same profile. It took a lot of convincing before they believed.
The fourth day of diving was cancelled. . .you guessed again. . Norte! It was okay though because the women don't dive and were not convinced that the whole purpose of coming to Cozumel was so that we could spend as much time underwater as possible
We ate out at the usual faves for our family. . Guido's (2x), Mesa 17, Prima. All excellent and as expected. We ate at the house a couple of times and just sort of winged it for the last day.
Activities. We visited the Rasta Bar at Punta Sur. Very nice. The surf was raging. We went to Chakanaab (sp.?) National Park which impressed me as sort of like a beach theme park. My son was psyched to see the archeological exhibit when we saw it on the map. They had a very nice little trail winding through the jungle with various replicas of Mayan ruins. It was actually very interesting. What amazed me was the park was packed, and I mean packed, but we were the only ones in the section devoted to the history of the island and the Mayans. Ditto for the museum with coral displays, etc. God I love the quality pod people that cruise ships attract. We also checked out the ruin at El Cedral. Thats exactly what it was one ruin set among the gift shops and photo ops! It gave us a good giggle.
We got our rental car through LessPay. No complaints. Cheap and easy just the way I like it.
Overall it was great trip and we really enjoyed our too short trip to Coz. I am already considering the next venture. I truly believe that of all the places we have dove in the Caribbean Cozumel is the best bang for the buck.
