Trip Report..... Costa Maya and Cozulmel Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala 3/25/06 thru 4/1/06.
We had a great trip onboard the Norweigen Sun. There were 16 of my friends and family on this 7 day cruise from Miami. 4 of us were divers and dove in Costa Maya and Cozumel.
3/27/06 Dove Costa Maya with Dreamtime Diving (formally Blue Ha). I set this trip up in advance by calling the US phone number and spoke with Marco. Setting up this trip was pain free, I just gave a credit card to hold our spots. We took a cab from the port thru Mahhahal (however you spell it) to Dreamtime. The shop is directly across the street from the shoreline and their boats. The boats were 27 or so foot skiffs setup fairly well for diving but were a little narrow. There were 2 dive groups on our trip with separate dive masters. We did not go far from shore for our dives and as CJ mentioned above - we were in site of the cruise ship - but fortunately we were not abandon as CJ was
. The dive master was very informative and the boat and crew had the neccessary saftey priorities in order. They provided a Videographer to dive with us and she filmed our dive. We rolled into the water and proceeded on 2 dives - went back to shore between dives (did not get out of boat, but did have fruit and water). The diving was good, not great. The reef was in great shape and had lots of different coral to see. My disappointment was with the number of fish. My estimates are that we may have seen 200 fish total from these 2 dives. We saw 1 Baracuda and some Parrot fish and other typical reef based tropical fish. We dove a site called Fire something (they told us the spanish name) as it was lots of Fire Coral. Our second dive site was called 2 eyes (I think). Both dives were in the 70 foot range however we did mistakenly drop down at one point to the bottom of a ledge to 100ft. $120.00 for the video they took. Hopefully we will get it - they are shipping to us soon, hopefully.
Ratings 1 to 5 (5 being the best)
Overall - 3.5
Boat - 3
Dive master - 4
Dremtime - 4
Reef - 4
Sea life - 2
3/30/06 Cozumel we dove with BlueXTSea diving. I set this up in advance through email and their website (
www.bluextseadiving.com) and worked with Christi. I was able to pay using Paypal - 50% deposit was required. A referral from a ScubaBoard member poitned me to this group. The boat was about the same as dreamtime. There were just the 4 in my group on this dive (cost 81.20 per person after all taxes, park entry fees, etc...). Again setting this dive up was a piece of cake. The boat was waiting for us at one of the short peirs next to where the tendering boats drop you. Our divemaster Jaiviar did a great job as did the captain. I do not remember the names of the dive sites but Christi is going to send me dive stickers and the site names so I can include this in my logs. We dove 80ft the first dive and 35-40 the second. The reef in Cozumel was awesome. Since I have never dove there before I cant not tell you of the damage - I did see there was probably more sand on parts of the reef then what would be normal. But the hieght of these reefs was awesome - since I am new to diving (this was my 15th dive) I was very impressed with how tall the reefs were here - much different then I have seen in Costa Maya or Key Largo. Again, although not as disappointed, I expected to sea more fish, rays, etc... We were lucky to see one Turtle - he swam right at us and over our heads - we could have easily reached up and touched him. That was the best sighting. We saw a very very large lobster and several Barracuda. We saw one small ray in the sand and a few other lobsters, Parrot fish, snapper, and a todd or other camaflaged type fish. We stayed in the boat for our interval and had fresh fruit, muffins, and juice. We learned a lot about Coz from the dive master and we really enjoyed the conversation.
Ratings 1 to 5 (5 being the best)
Overall - 4
Boat - 3
Dive master - 4
BlueXTSea - 4
Reef - 4.5
Sea life - 3
Based on my desire to see Sea life and my experience on these dives - I would rather dive Key Largo, however - this is based on very limited number of dives and we may have had a great day on Key Largo and a not so great day in Costa / Coz as far as sea lfe is concerned. I will definitely be back to Coz for more diving and hopes of more sea creatures.
Belize - we did not dive, but did do the Zipline tour and Cave tubing. We had a great time but the river was not flowing as it usually does and we had to paddle our way through the cave. Also, we did not do the whole cave tubing experience as we had the zipline tour combined. The Zipline was very fun - but is over before you know it. And there are no animals to see - the website makes you believe you will see Holler Monkeys - NOT!
. None the less we had a great time and am not dissappointed.
Guatemala - I thought this was going to be the most boring port but I was wrong. We secured a van and driver after we got off the ship (was no problem, dont pay ship excursion prices). 16 of us piled into one van (comfortably), we paid the driver 150.00 and he drove us to a watefall that was very nice (not a uge waterfall). We swam and jumped off the waterfall and had a great time there for about an hour. One the way to the waterfall we passed through many villages and I was amazed at how primative these people live. I found seeing these communities very interesting and was very glad to have made this part of our trip. We had our driver take us to a resteraunt in a town so we could dine as the locals would. Honestly, the food was not very good but the experience was great and the Cervesa were cold
...
Thats about it...... all in all a successful trip.......
Thanks,
John
