Spoiled by Coz, now what?
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Freed001
New
Thought I would throw in my two cents... I am new to diving (OWC Feb '08) and new to this board. I got the "scuba bug" and have dove 5 warm water places in 2008; Maui, Puerto Vallarta, Freeport, Cabo San Lucas, and Cabo Pulmo on the East Cape. I have never dove Coz (going in three weeks), so cannot compare Coz to these others.
If you want cheap, warm water, and tons of fish, I recommend Cabo Pulmo. My buddy and I went in Sept and the water temp was in the low 80's and air in the low 90's. It is definitely a dive place and not much else (1 store and 2 or 3 places to eat). Stayed at Cabo Pulmoe Dive Center (cabopulmo.com) Nice bungalow for $69 a night, but the whole town is off the grid (no phones, tv, and power is all solar). The drift diving was incredible. Huge schools of Jack, Yellowtail, Parrotfish, Trumpetfish, Barracuda, and Rays. To top it off, we saw tons of free swimming Green Eels and a couple of Bull Sharks lurking on the fringe.
If you want cheap, warm water, and tons of fish, I recommend Cabo Pulmo. My buddy and I went in Sept and the water temp was in the low 80's and air in the low 90's. It is definitely a dive place and not much else (1 store and 2 or 3 places to eat). Stayed at Cabo Pulmoe Dive Center (cabopulmo.com) Nice bungalow for $69 a night, but the whole town is off the grid (no phones, tv, and power is all solar). The drift diving was incredible. Huge schools of Jack, Yellowtail, Parrotfish, Trumpetfish, Barracuda, and Rays. To top it off, we saw tons of free swimming Green Eels and a couple of Bull Sharks lurking on the fringe.
H20Bubbles
Contributor
Great ideas, all. Keep 'em coming, I really appreciate it.
Bonaire sounds like real work--carry, drive and swim (sounds like punt, pass & kick)!
aa
I've never been to Coz (going in Feb), but Bonaire is my favorite to date. I really like shore diving and Bon is the place for that. Dive your schedule, your profile, etc. The reef extends the full length of the island, starts at 15fsw and drops sharply, almost a wall. So dense you can hadly see sand. We swim the surface to the drop-off (some places that's as little as 30 yards off shore) decend to 60-80fsw and cruise along until air is half gone. Move up to 30-50fsw & swim back until there's 5-600# left. Then poke around in the shallows until OOA. Your safety stop can last 15 minutes or more at that depth and there's still plenty to see. Pop up to check where your truck is parked so when you're OOA you don't have far to swim. Go get some lunch and drive to another site. The island is dive oriented; not many really nice 4-5 star places & not much to do for non-divers. There's good food to be found, we especially like Papaya Moon. Good food on Bonaire is pricy.
Southern Cross Club in Little Cayman. The diving was off the hook and the service at the resort is unrivaled. When you get to the resort they ask you to put your dive gear on the porch of your bungalow. After that, they handle everything for you. It's a little pricier....but the ultimate in dive spoiling.
ronski101
Contributor
Our favorite places to go besides coz are, bonaire, little cayman, grand turk. our priorities are diving quality, value, organization, food, accomodations.
driftwood
Contributor
Great ideas, all. Keep 'em coming, I really appreciate it.
Bonaire sounds like real work--carry, drive and swim (sounds like punt, pass & kick
aa
You can do Bonaire without the shore diving thing. I know that it is sacrilegious to tell someone to boat dive the 'shore diving capital of the world'. The last time we were at Buddy's the couple that went with us couldn't shore dive for medical reasons (knees). Not a problem, they run boats as good as those in Coz and the shore diving from Buddy's dock was easy. BTW, Buddy's house reef is excellent.
The only reservation that I have about recommending Bonaire to you is there is not much 'big' sealife on the west side of the island. On the plus side, Bonaire will show you exactly what a Carib reef should look like.
If you decide to go there, Delta and Continental are your best options for flights. I will never fly American again to Bonaire.
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