June 2013 - Back to the Summer Again

[BettyfromToronto]

Yes Cozumel has seahorses



and lots of turtles



and of course spotted eagle rays

 

[cvchief]

Somebody say seahorse?

 

[Mossman]

I have never heard of Holbox, only Isla Mujeres. I understand they are supposedly regulated by the Mexican government in terms of price and water time. Guess I need to do more research.

My son (13) has almost 70 dives in the Bahamas and Belize and had seen many nurse/reef sharks already. My daughter (11) is brand new diver so she will be excited to see anything (she loves seahorse, is there any in Cozumel?). I have over 1000 dives (just over 300 ocean dives) in the past 20 years and I haven't seen a whale shark yet so that is sort of like a dream of mine to see one myself.

I understand they are closer to Cancun so I need to take a taxi from the hotel to the ferry/airport and get to Cancun and from there, get on a boat somehow (so it's a full day event). My question is is there any dive op/tour operator in Cozumel that sells a package that do all the arrangement for me or do I need to book the trip with some whale shark op out of Cancun and do all the travel arrangement myself and try to hook up with the Cancun op when I get there? Thanks

You may want to start a separate thread for this. Trick would be getting off Cozumel and onto Isla Mujeres before the whale shark boats leave the dock. I'm guessing an overnight would be involved.

We found one off Roatan, a baby. Snorkeled with it for a couple of minutes before some idjit grabbed for its tail and off it went into the deep blue. But diving with the beasts is much better IMO. Galapagos in the summer, that's where you really want to go.

 

[WestHoustonDiver]

There's 5 of us diving with Scuba Mau on Fri, June 21....

 

[wjwitt]

error

 

[wjwitt]

My wife and I did the whale shark tour in Sept 2012. We were staying at the Villa Aldora and we used 'Whale Sharks Cancun' (whalesharkscancun.com). John, a fellow diver staying at the Villa made the arrangement. I believe it was $125 per person. We got up fairly early to take the first ferry over to Playa del Carmen. The tour picked us up near where the ferry docks and took us into Cancun. That took at least an hour as we picked up several other people at various hotels along the way. We got to the departure point which is a bit north of the town of Cancun. We had a briefing and then we boarded boats which carried about 10 snorkelers each. The boat ride out took about 45 minutes to an hour to get to where the whale sharks were. You will not be alone when you are with the whale sharks. I counted 35 boats in the area while we were there! Traffic lights would have been useful! We spent a couple of hours there and it was very interesting. We took out wet suits along, so we did not have to wear the snorkel vests. Two or three snorkelers were in the water with the sharks. Even though they move fairly slowly, if you want to get decent pictures you need to swim fairly strenuously to keep up with them and get good positioning for pictures. I would say each snorkeler had 3-5 times in the water lasting 10-15 minutes. After that was over we motored back to the west side of Isla Mujeres where we anchored and they served us beer, chips, guacamole, and shrimp salad. That took about an hour and then we motored back to Cancun. I believe we got back to the Villa on Cozumel aroung 6:30 PM. The whole affair lasted about 13 hours. It made for a long day. Glad I did it, but would probably not do it again. When you buy the ferry ticket just buy the one way pass as there are two different ferries that transport people back and forth. You don't want to sit and wait for the one you bought a round trip ticket for. Just walk up and buy the one way ticket for which every ferry is next.

 

[Mossman]

There's 5 of us diving with Scuba Mau on Fri, June 21....

Slowly fleshing out our list. Are all the other June divers out there making their plans at the last minute?

June 2013 "Back" Roll:

atatt & dtatt (+ 3 kids), June 11-22, Cozumel Palace, Scuba Mau
Mossman, June 14-22, Secrets/Palace, Living Underwater
Rhodesaz, mid-June, Occidental Grand, [pending]
WestHoustonDiver + 5, June 21, day trip, Scuba Mau
VicScubaVentures, June 29-July 6, Scuba Club, Scuba Club
ilympt +2, June 29-July 10, Allegro, Dive with Martin

 

[atatt]

Mossman, can you please update atatt and dtatt to no kids and change the dates from 6/11-6/23 ? It's just the 2 of us, no kids and adding an extra day, it's like Christmas in June!!! almtree:

 

[Mossman]

Mossman, can you please update atatt and dtatt to no kids and change the dates from 6/11-6/23 ? It's just the 2 of us, no kids and adding an extra day, it's like Christmas in June!!! almtree:

I'll be thinking about Christmas when I'm still sweating from the June heat late at night! Congrats on scoring a babysitter. I hope your 12 days of "Christmas" are blessed even if Santa doesn't show his chubby face.

June 2013 "Back" Roll:

atatt & dtatt, June 11-23, Cozumel Palace, Scuba Mau
Mossman, June 14-22, Secrets/Palace, Living Underwater
Rhodesaz, mid-June, Occidental Grand, [pending]
WestHoustonDiver + 5, June 21, day trip, Scuba Mau
VicScubaVentures, June 29-July 6, Scuba Club, Scuba Club
ilympt +2, June 29-July 10, Allegro, Dive with Martin

 

[Mossman]

I decided to really give the Palace a challenge by upgrading to the Private Pool & Solarium suite at Secrets since they still have their opening special running and I've never had a private rooftop pool before. Secrets reviews have been slowly improving as they work the bugs out. But the Palace has had years to get it right. I hope the Palace can measure up.

Private pool added $55/night to the bill but I know it will be worth every penny (also includes second bathroom and 450 sq ft more space). If not, I'll simply drink an extra $55 worth of booze each day to get my money's worth.

So where are all the other June divers? Tell me they're not all going to Bonaire for that "invasion" thing. June is awesome in Cozumel. Just like May, only a little hotter. Meanwhile, Bonaire has deadly box jellies in June. Google "box jellyfish bonaire june" if you don't believe me. I'll take a Cozumelian thimble jelly over a deadly Bonairean box jelly any day. Just sayin'.

Come on, June is around the corner, help fill up the list!

June 2013 "Back" Roll:

atatt & dtatt, June 11-23, Cozumel Palace, Scuba Mau
Mossman, June 14-22, Secrets/Palace, Living Underwater
Rhodesaz, mid-June, Occidental Grand, [pending]
WestHoustonDiver + 5, June 21, day trip, Scuba Mau
VicScubaVentures, June 29-July 6, Scuba Club, Scuba Club
ilympt +2, June 29-July 10, Allegro, Dive with Martin