Diver Kat
Contributor
Due to the hurricane, we werent even sure if wed be able to do our trip, but luckily by Thursday night, we had confirmation that we had a room at Villa Las Ancles as Caribe Blu had no power still. Getting there ... well Continental decided to throw us a curve by canceling the 9:15 AM flight, and automatically moving us to the Sunday morning flight. We waitlisted for the Sat afternoon flight, but after a very long ordeal (a long story for another time!), we didnt get on. A Customer Service Rep finally took pity on us, showed us where we could call Mexico for free, got us a hotel room in Houston and dinner vouchers, and sent us off to get our luggage. Amazingly, our luggage with large Stand-by tags did get to go to Coz on the PM flight ... another long story the things we found out about security and Continental you dont want to know!! Anyway on to Coz!!
Got in Sunday morning no problems and luckily all of our luggage was waiting for us. Off to the hotel to check in. Lovely little place, just a few blocks from the Plaza, but very quiet, and very comfortable. Dropped the bags, and off the La Choza one of our favorites - for lunch. Did some wandering, some un-packing then off to Casa Denis for dinner. 1st visit there and dinner was very nice. The margaritas were VERY strong! Strolled the Plaza after dinner, and although all the families were out and about as usual, there was no music. We found out that there was no power for them to set-up the music.
Monday 8:00AM Pedro, the owner of Villa Las Ancles & Caribe Blu, drove us to the Blue Angel dive shop. This was a nice bonus to staying in town having a pre-set ride to the shop each morning. Got to Blue Angel, got all checked in and assigned to our DM Jorge. We were able to stay with Jorge all week on a variety of different boats and he was wonderful. Watchful if anyone needed help, but always let you dive your air & computer. And I swear he knows the location of every swim-thru on every reef by heart!!
The Dives
Day 1: Punta Tunich it was sad to see the amounts of broken coral from the storm, as well as so much covered with sand but it was also reassuring that the fish life was abundant, and seemed to be doing well. There was quite a bit of particles in the water. Viz was good, but not great. It did tend to improve as the week went on. Saw a free swimming good sized Green Moray, and the current was running strong on the reef. Dive 2:Yucab tremendous amounts of broken finger coral everywhere. Spotted a good number of Splendid Toadfish, a few lobster, several Spotted Drum.
Day 2: Palancar Gardens excellent swim-thrus, a number of turtles and large lobsters. Dive 2: Tormentos dropped off the boat right down to a nurse shark cruising around. Also saw a good size Tiger Grouper as well as a large Barracuda. Everyone was thrilled to see a good-sized Seahorse in the sand flats at the end of the dive.
Day 3: Santa Rosa Wall again great swim-thrus and very large roaming lobsters Ive never seen so many just walking around the slopes before. Dive 2: Las Palmas nice dive, lots of large grouper around. Dive 3: did a shore dive on the reef off Blue Angels shoreline. A lot of rubble from the storm, but good fish life.
Day 4: Cedral Wall & Paradise ..... both good dives, as always, sad to see the storm destruction, but happy to see lots of active fish life. We had a videographer on the boat with us, so ended up with a great DVD of our dives he did a great job of putting it all together and great shark shots! 3: did another shore dive .... found a good sized Lizardfish hanging around, a small flounder, tons of juvies, cutest little Porcupine fish ...
Day 5: Last day of diving (and also our Anniversary!) did Palancar Caves (for the first time) and dropped down into a large school of Horse-eyed Jacks. Beautiful towering coral heads, and not as much damage. Still lots of sand covering areas, but a amazingly beautiful dive. Last stop Francesa Reef.... on this dive, it was noticeable that the fish had not returned here in mass. I did find a good sized King Crab, and another turtle wandered by our safety stop.
On to the food ..... we ate at some old favorites, as well as some new spots. Heres a quick review
The ever-wonderful La Choza already mentioned above, along with a 1st trip to Casa Denis. 1st time dinner at El Foco was good, 1st time to El Capi Navagante was very good -a touch pricey- but I followed the fisherman in with the bucket of fresh Snapper, and it was Yummy! 1st time Lunch at Sabores EXCELLENT, and CHEAP!! Couldnt believe all the food we got for $12!! And the ladies are as sweet as can be! Old favorite Especias ate dinner there twice. Both times the food was great, but apparently Adrians place has become so popular you need to make reservations (we were turned away on Tues. nite) and service was extremely slow on both Wed. & Fri. nites. Did a dinner at La Choza as well, and had the house specialty of the fish now I know why everyone raves about it! Did a 2nd lunch at Sabores was even better than the 1st (Yucateca Pork Chops! YUM!) and still as cheap. Also did a 1st time lunch at Miss Dollar which does a deal similar to Sabores but is a larger and more restaurant type place. Again the food was good, and extremely cheap.
Also last but seriously not least!! we each did 2 Ashiatsu massages with Sally Hurwitch (AKA Coz Sally) of Barefoot in Cozumel 1 the day we arrived, and 1 the day before we left. She is truly amazing!! What a way to start & end the week. She is a certified massage therapist, and these are no run of the mill massages. All I can say is, Sally has magic feet sounds weird, but check out her website and youll understand. It really was therapeutic!! http://www.barefootincozumel.com/ Sorry for the length ...I think it's still the English Major from a previous life kicking in!!
Got in Sunday morning no problems and luckily all of our luggage was waiting for us. Off to the hotel to check in. Lovely little place, just a few blocks from the Plaza, but very quiet, and very comfortable. Dropped the bags, and off the La Choza one of our favorites - for lunch. Did some wandering, some un-packing then off to Casa Denis for dinner. 1st visit there and dinner was very nice. The margaritas were VERY strong! Strolled the Plaza after dinner, and although all the families were out and about as usual, there was no music. We found out that there was no power for them to set-up the music.
Monday 8:00AM Pedro, the owner of Villa Las Ancles & Caribe Blu, drove us to the Blue Angel dive shop. This was a nice bonus to staying in town having a pre-set ride to the shop each morning. Got to Blue Angel, got all checked in and assigned to our DM Jorge. We were able to stay with Jorge all week on a variety of different boats and he was wonderful. Watchful if anyone needed help, but always let you dive your air & computer. And I swear he knows the location of every swim-thru on every reef by heart!!
The Dives
Day 1: Punta Tunich it was sad to see the amounts of broken coral from the storm, as well as so much covered with sand but it was also reassuring that the fish life was abundant, and seemed to be doing well. There was quite a bit of particles in the water. Viz was good, but not great. It did tend to improve as the week went on. Saw a free swimming good sized Green Moray, and the current was running strong on the reef. Dive 2:Yucab tremendous amounts of broken finger coral everywhere. Spotted a good number of Splendid Toadfish, a few lobster, several Spotted Drum.
Day 2: Palancar Gardens excellent swim-thrus, a number of turtles and large lobsters. Dive 2: Tormentos dropped off the boat right down to a nurse shark cruising around. Also saw a good size Tiger Grouper as well as a large Barracuda. Everyone was thrilled to see a good-sized Seahorse in the sand flats at the end of the dive.
Day 3: Santa Rosa Wall again great swim-thrus and very large roaming lobsters Ive never seen so many just walking around the slopes before. Dive 2: Las Palmas nice dive, lots of large grouper around. Dive 3: did a shore dive on the reef off Blue Angels shoreline. A lot of rubble from the storm, but good fish life.
Day 4: Cedral Wall & Paradise ..... both good dives, as always, sad to see the storm destruction, but happy to see lots of active fish life. We had a videographer on the boat with us, so ended up with a great DVD of our dives he did a great job of putting it all together and great shark shots! 3: did another shore dive .... found a good sized Lizardfish hanging around, a small flounder, tons of juvies, cutest little Porcupine fish ...
Day 5: Last day of diving (and also our Anniversary!) did Palancar Caves (for the first time) and dropped down into a large school of Horse-eyed Jacks. Beautiful towering coral heads, and not as much damage. Still lots of sand covering areas, but a amazingly beautiful dive. Last stop Francesa Reef.... on this dive, it was noticeable that the fish had not returned here in mass. I did find a good sized King Crab, and another turtle wandered by our safety stop.
On to the food ..... we ate at some old favorites, as well as some new spots. Heres a quick review
The ever-wonderful La Choza already mentioned above, along with a 1st trip to Casa Denis. 1st time dinner at El Foco was good, 1st time to El Capi Navagante was very good -a touch pricey- but I followed the fisherman in with the bucket of fresh Snapper, and it was Yummy! 1st time Lunch at Sabores EXCELLENT, and CHEAP!! Couldnt believe all the food we got for $12!! And the ladies are as sweet as can be! Old favorite Especias ate dinner there twice. Both times the food was great, but apparently Adrians place has become so popular you need to make reservations (we were turned away on Tues. nite) and service was extremely slow on both Wed. & Fri. nites. Did a dinner at La Choza as well, and had the house specialty of the fish now I know why everyone raves about it! Did a 2nd lunch at Sabores was even better than the 1st (Yucateca Pork Chops! YUM!) and still as cheap. Also did a 1st time lunch at Miss Dollar which does a deal similar to Sabores but is a larger and more restaurant type place. Again the food was good, and extremely cheap.
Also last but seriously not least!! we each did 2 Ashiatsu massages with Sally Hurwitch (AKA Coz Sally) of Barefoot in Cozumel 1 the day we arrived, and 1 the day before we left. She is truly amazing!! What a way to start & end the week. She is a certified massage therapist, and these are no run of the mill massages. All I can say is, Sally has magic feet sounds weird, but check out her website and youll understand. It really was therapeutic!! http://www.barefootincozumel.com/ Sorry for the length ...I think it's still the English Major from a previous life kicking in!!
