Paradise Hunter Trip Report

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Friday 3/28/14:

Nice day of diving. Last day with Jeremy and Living Underwater. Same group on the boat. Forgot to mention that it's a Midwest group. Mix of Buckeyes, Spartans and me the only Wolverine. Everyone behaved themselves. Everyone was a competent diver.

San Francisco: Air Temp 83F, Water Temp 81F, Vis 80', Surface waves, Low current, MD 105, BT 72. Couple nurses, splendid toad fish, couple killed lionfish.

Santa Rosa Wall: Air Temp 83F, Water Temp 19F, Vis 80', Surface waves, Low Current, MD 70, BT 61. Turtles, Stonefish. Lot's of lobsters out and about as the boys are looking for some action during mating season.

Diner at La Perlita. The coconut lionfish was excellent, but the fish soup was even better!

Watched the MI game at Kelly's. Not as busy as last night with the Badger crew at the bar.

FYI the Churro Guy comes around the hotel a couple time a day for those that are interested. Not a big sweets guy, so I haven't partook in the fried legends.


Looks like the sharks have some competition!

PH

 

[cicopo]

Looks like a great trip so far.

 

[Mossman]

Santa Rosa Wall: Air Temp 83F, Water Temp 19F, Vis 80', Surface waves, Low Current, MD 70, BT 61. Turtles, Stonefish. Lot's of lobsters out and about as the boys are looking for some action during mating season.

I'm sure you mean scorpionfish. Unlike the lionfish, stonefish have yet to leave their Indo-Pacific territory.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Correct Scorpion.

 

[Tunaman68]

BA has no issue with other dive ops picking up at their pier either

With one glaring exception....

Sorry we didn't introduce ourselves!! We really enjoyed our week there as usual!!!

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Sat. 4/29/14

Really enjoyed diving with Jeremy, he is a great person who runs a great business. Very much on top of everything and takes great care of his clients. I will be diving with him again soon. That said, I'm looking forward to diving with Raul and Bottom Time Divers. He is the original person I dove with here in Cozumel and have always enjoyed his company and diving skills. Very nice guy with a great sense of humor. He goes nice and slow in the water and finds lots of small life.

Raul picked me up at 8:10, which gave me the time needed to have breakfast at BA. Must say that the included breakfast is nice. Table service off the menu, with @ dozen entrees to pick from. Hot and cold.

Raul has a traditional panga boat with a 200 on it. While it's not as big a the Jewfish, it still goes faster than most. He takes a max of 8 divers, but usually has 2-5. Full service, keeps your gear. Safety conscious.

BTW uses AL80s, but you can get AL100s if you like, in nitrox as well. I dove with AL100s and had nitrox 36 on second dives.

Four on the boat besides myself, a couple from Denver and another couple from Miami.

Palancar Caves: Air Temp 83, Water temp79, Vis @80, MD 103, BT 67 Many turtles and other usual suspects on the reef.

Palancar Gardens: Same temps and vis. MD 64, BT 75. Nice dive with lot's of sunlight.

Compared to other trips, this is over all the mildest current I have dove in here.

Dinner at La Choza, had the mustard fish and it was great!

Weather has been great. Still no rain and it's sunny 3/4 of the time with occasional clouds rolling through.

Spent some time snorkeling on this trip as I plan out a future vacation with kids.

PH

 

[Queen Triggerfish]

I'm loving this day-by-day trip report. Feels just a teeny tiny bit like if I shut my eyes hard enough, I'd be there too.

I've never stayed at BA, but it's near the top of my list for a future trip. Are you traveling alone this trip? If so, is Blue Angel as friendly to solo travelers as I imagine? (Okay, you probably don't know what "I imagine," but I've gotten that impression from a few discussions on here over the years.)

Glad to hear that the island is hopping.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

I'm loving this day-by-day trip report. Feels just a teeny tiny bit like if I shut my eyes hard enough, I'd be there too.

I've never stayed at BA, but it's near the top of my list for a future trip. Are you traveling alone this trip? If so, is Blue Angel as friendly to solo travelers as I imagine? (Okay, you probably don't know what "I imagine," but I've gotten that impression from a few discussions on here over the years.)

Yes I'm traveling solo. I think this works fine for a solo traveler. There are lot's of guests hanging around the pool, lobby and restaurant, so socializing is easy. I didn't dive with BA, although plenty of people are and I'm sure that there would be ample opportunity to meet others on the boats. It's also easy to keep to yourself if your just looking to relax.

PH

---------- Post added April 1st, 2014 at 09:00 AM ----------

Sun, 4/30/14

Back on the boat with Raul and the couples from Miami and Denver. The couple from Miami are long time clients of Raul's and are of Cuban decent. They are an absolute riot. As is the case, every time I'm on his boat, he has some colorful people diving with him. Makes for a fun time top side.

Mix of sun and clouds today. Air Temp 83F, Water temp81F. Slow current.

Palancar Bricks: VZ 80', BT 65, MD 112'. Another nice dive. Huge crab, schooling grunts, 8 barracuda, turtles. Found a reddish brown nudibranch. Not sure exact species. I have pic I will try to upload. Couple lionfish.

After our 75 minute SI, we were headed out to Cedral Pass when it was discovered that the Miami couple's brand new UW camera was not on the boat. We scratched the second dive choice and went back to were we ended Bricks to look for her camera. Raul ended up finding it after about ten minutes as we moved into Gardens. It was luckily at 110'. He didn't make much of it, but I didn't think they had any chance of finding it.

It appears that she dropped the camera when she removed her BC/Tank to hand it up to the boat captain. Not quite sure how you don't realize it at the time, but at least it ended well. For what it's worth, she lost her mask after the first dive the next day and Raul retrieved it with a snorkel and mask. Needless to say she was harassed by all of us for the next two days. Still, they were fun people and I would dive with them again.

Palancar Gardens: VZ 100', BT 76, MD 61' Many large angle fish, couple of 20# parrot fish, groupesr, a lion fish and one camera. Slippery dicks in the sand.

Watched NCAA games at Kellys. They make a great cheese burger. Diner at Otates. Had the pazole and some pork chop and chorizo tacos.

PH

---------- Post added April 1st, 2014 at 09:17 AM ----------

Mon 3/31

The last day of diving always makes me appreciate the dives that day even more. Seven days goes much to quick. I always try to extend a vacation a couple days via the weekends when I can. Couldn't do it this time and the week has flown by.

Cloudy today. Rain clouds in area, but had no rain. Air temp 84, Water temp 81. Current a bit stronger.

Santa Rosa Wall: Viz 70, BT 67, MD 123'. Large sting ray, huge cuda, big porcupine fish.

Cedal Pass: Viz 80, BT 65, MD 72'. None stop action! Lots of nurse sharks (5) and turtles (6), large green moray, two juvenile spotted drums, two splendids, mutton snapers, black grouper, permits, horse eye jacks.
Fabulous dive!

Went over to EL Cid to look around. Have a friend who has stayed there a few times and likes it. It looks like a smaller version of Park Royal. It's nestled right next to PR and has the same glass and metal work as PR. Are they owned by the same co.?


Diner at La Cocay. Had some tapas and a duck confit pizza. Everything looked good on the menu and I'm putting high on the list for the next trip.

PH

 

[ColoDale]

I've known and dived with Raul for about 15 years. Not only a good DM/owner but a good guy who goes above and beyond. Same for Jeremy with LU. We hope to be back in May.

 

[PARADISE HUNTER]

Back in MI and finally getting caught up with work and home.

I had a few final thoughts on Blue Angel that I thought I would share. The hotel is popular one on the this board and wanted to share my observations.

First of all, I enjoyed the stay and would stay there again. I was surprised at the amount of volume that was going on. All aspects of the business were busy. While the hotel is on the smaller size, the property was a fun and happening place to spend time. There were plenty of people hanging out by the pool, relaxing with books and laptops in the lobby, having meals and drinks in the restaurant and lots of folks coming and going from dive boats and snorkeling. Lots of activity.

I was also surprised at the size of the Blue Angel dive shop. The shop itself is not very big, but the number of DMs and clients they have is. For some reason I had the opinion that it was a smaller op. While it's not the size of Dive Paradise or Aqua World, they are not a one or two boat operation. They have multiple boats heading out in the morning and again in the afternoon. Most of the boats were full. They also had students training in the pool and ocean everyday. While I didn't dive with them, everyone I dealt with was very pleasant.

Given the fact that there is not any dining options that are close walk to the hotel, it was nice to have a quality restaurant on site. The breakfasts were good, the happy hour excellent and the lunch/dinner menu was very good with enough options. The view/atmosphere was top notch. The acoustic guitar music every night was a nice touch. It was nice to either hang out on the deck with a drink or open the sliding door and enjoy the music before calling it a night.


The rooms were perfect for a diver. Plenty of space for gear, lots of hot water and water pressure, safe in the room, comfortable beds and it was nice to have a five gallon water cooler at the end of every floor.

The only complaint I would have would be the road noise. I know this will ruffle the feathers of some of the long time patrons of the hotel, but one can not pretend that it's not an issue. If you were on the ocean side of the hotel, you couldn't hear it. But if you were in your room and either a large truck or motorcycle went by, it was very noticeable. Even music from travel speakers and MP3 couldn't drown it out. It was enough that it would wake me up most every morning around 4 a.m. even with ear plugs. What I don't understand, is why the don't address the issue. They have all of the wall structure in place to enclose the hallways in glass windows and doorways. Having stayed multiple times at the Hotel Barracuda, I have witnessed what a huge difference that makes. I'm not trying to compare the two, B.A. is a significant upgrade from the Cuda. I also don't think it would be a huge expense. Even if it were, after seeing the amount of business going on there, I think they could afford it or at least handle the project in sections.

The shore dives were fun. A great spot for a check out dive, night dives or comfortable place to work on skills.

The snorkeling was also nice, but definitely dependent on the size of the waves, given the iron shore and large amount of sea urchins.

Great place for divers or couples without young kids.

PH