Real Adventures in Cozumel

[Dave Dillehay]

Many of you already know of the Aldora Adventure Dives to the north Caves of Sleeping (Big) sharks etc , but yesterday we had a new twist of adventure. After viewing the sleeping sharks and Dolphins, we were able to use our chase boat to go ashore in the shallow water near the north lighthouse to a Mayan structure that might have been their "lighthouse" in ages past. While enjoying a lunch of lion fish and lobster ceviche Memo's little beagle wandered off in the bush, only to be grabbed by a big Boa. With a yelp, Memo responded and was able to rescue the dog, and even kill the 12 foot Boa.




Now he brought me back some lion fish Ceviche but it tasted a bit like Chicken !

There are a lot of strange things going on in Cozumel.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[cicopo]

Yikes

 

[Scubagolf]

One very lucky beagle.��

 

[drrich2]

Death by constrictor is very unpleasant, if you've ever watched, though the animal is of course doing what it was designed to do. That said, I'm a dog lover and I'm glad the beagle was rescued.

Did they eat the snake? Some people do. Never got to try it myself.

Richard.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Maybe I ate it…the supposed lion fish ceviche tasted like "chicken"!

Dave

 

[El Graduado]

The small ruins on the tiny island in Rio de la Plata (one of the lagunas at the north end of Cozumel) was never any kind of light house. The Maya knew how to build tall towers and pyramids. If they were building a lighthouse, why would they make one that would be so low and hard to see? Why would they put it inside a laguna? The berm that separates the laguna from the sea is high enough to block the view of the ruins from the sea. The ruins were simply a small oratorio and adjacent building, very similar in use and purpose to the set of buildings at “Tumba de Caracol” in Punta Celarain. The building at Celarain has also been touted as a Mayan lighthouse, but that claim is also incorrect. For one thing, I crawled through the entire interior of that little building on my hands and knees and found no sign of fire damage or soot. If a fire had been built in it to make a beacon light, the soft lime mortar of the walls and ceilings would have been severely damaged by the heat. Another point that makes the whole “Caracol was a lighthouse” idea absurd is the fact that it is such a small, low-to the-ground structure. Then, there is the problem with line-of-sight. There is one other building visible today that lies to the north of El Caracol, but the sand dune that breaks the line of sight from El Caracol and the sea hides the ruined remains of three other buildings and from what I saw in the 1970s before they were covered by the sand dune, at least two large, phallic columns. If the low, small building of El Caracol was meant to be a lighthouse, why would the Maya erect these other buildings and phallic columns between it and the sea, blocking the line of sight?

The remnants of a sacbe (mayan road) connects the small island in Rio de la Plata to the berm that separates the sea from the laguna to the north and to the shore of the island on the south. Below is a shot from Google Earth showing this sacbe:




Below are two photos that the Peabody expedition took of the two buildings on the small island in the 1950s:





Below is a photo of the two ruins as they look today:

 

[Dave Dillehay]

Well, maybe it was a customs house, as the stone steps (some in the water) leading to it was clearly a landing site for travelers from the mainland. This steps seem to be of the same time as the buildings.

Dave

 

[El Graduado]

The "steps" are actually part of the sacbe. The maya did not have an aduana system. The building was an oratorio, like a chapel, a place where small ceremonies were held. The sacbe leads to Santo Tomas, one of the Mayan towns that was on the north end which were connected, in turn, to San Gervasio and Xamancab.

Below is a map I drew showing the locations of those towns, including the small island ruins of Arrecife:

 

[AaronRiot]

Many of you already know of the Aldora Adventure Dives to the north Caves of Sleeping (Big) sharks etc , but yesterday we had a new twist of adventure. After viewing the sleeping sharks and Dolphins, we were able to use our chase boat to go ashore in the shallow water near the north lighthouse to a Mayan structure that might have been their "lighthouse" in ages past. While enjoying a lunch of lion fish and lobster ceviche Memo's little beagle wandered off in the bush, only to be grabbed by a big Boa. With a yelp, Memo responded and was able to rescue the dog, and even kill the 12 foot Boa.

View attachment 220188


Now he brought me back some lion fish Ceviche but it tasted a bit like Chicken !

There are a lot of strange things going on in Cozumel.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Really hope you guys used all that meat, it'd be a shame to waste such a creature...

Death by constrictor is very unpleasant, if you've ever watched, though the animal is of course doing what it was designed to do. That said, I'm a dog lover and I'm glad the beagle was rescued.

Did they eat the snake? Some people do. Never got to try it myself.

Richard.

Death by constriction really isn't that bad a death. Suffocation and a tight squeeze. Very quick. Over the years I've rescued a few constrictors and weened them from live to frozen-thawed meals, which gives me a little insight on the matter.

 

[Hawkwood]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A few off topic posts have been removed.

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As a complete "aside"...having been to Cozumel only a couple of times, I find the history stuff by El Graduado interesting reading.