diverrex
Contributor
Just completed our second trip to Coz and with Blue XT Sea. Christi runs a nice op. They are fun to dive with and take good care of you. We did 14 dives over 6 days. Dive times averaged 65 minutes, with a night dive on Paradise Reef at 79 minutes and one on Columbia Shallows (maybe our best dive) at 85 minutes. Water temps were between 82 and 85. The usual DM’s of Blanca, Pedro Pablo and Arturo were helpful with divers when needed but not bossy. They pretty much let us dive our computers, starting the ascent with 700 psi. When someone ran low they sent their sausage up and that diver went up to safety stop depth with their buddy or solo if they felt comfortable and the rest of us continued the dive until we were low on air. Boat Captains Hector and Adan were great on the boat, helping with equipment & cameras and had the boat right there when we surfaced. Hector always had a container of fresh water to dump over your head after the dive. The fruit, muffins and juice tasted great during the SI. One thing about Christi’s trips is it isn’t just the staff that are great but her op attracts good dive buddies. We had good divers and fun people on the boat all week.
My wife did her AOW this trip and the way Christi runs the class works out great for a vacation diver. First she sends out the book ahead of time so the reading and knowledge reviews can be done before leaving home. The class is private so the student not only gets good instruction but doesn’t spend any vacation time having to watch other students go through skills. And Christi just puts the instructor on the same boat so my wife was with me the whole time, except when we went to dive she went with Arturo and I went with the group. On a couple of dives my wife and Arturo met up with the group after she completed that dive's skills and we completed the dive like normal. The instruction she received was as good if not better than what I had here in the states. I'd highly recommend Arturo as an instructor.
Our best meals were at Lo Cocay and Kinta, with the food maybe a little better at Lo Cocay but Kinta being a little less expensive. But both have great food, service and ambiance, and while more costly than the traditional restaurants we can’t get that quality of dining here in LA for those prices so it is still a relative bargain. Other good meals were at Sorrisi and Pancho’s Backyard.
Travel trip we learned this time: when in Houston with a short connection time find one of those motorized carts. I always thought those were just for elderly people or people having a hard time walking. We only had an hour to get through immigration, get bags, go through customs and to the gate. I asked a driver where our gate was and he told us to jump in and he would get us there on time. I think picking a young male driver helps, they get to play race car driver for the moment.
Here are a bunch of photos.
Queen Angelfish
Rock Beauty
Spotted Moray at Chun Chacab reef
Arturo watching a turtle
my only Splendid Toadfish sighting of the week at White House reef, with an Arrow Crab sharing the crevice on the left
Barracuda
a pair of Gray Angelfish
a French Angelfish trying to hide from me
juvi Angelfish from the night dive on Paradise reef
Sharptail Eel also from the night dive
Spotted Drum
Threespot Damselfish
Queen Triggerfish
Anemone
Blanca
My wife did her AOW this trip and the way Christi runs the class works out great for a vacation diver. First she sends out the book ahead of time so the reading and knowledge reviews can be done before leaving home. The class is private so the student not only gets good instruction but doesn’t spend any vacation time having to watch other students go through skills. And Christi just puts the instructor on the same boat so my wife was with me the whole time, except when we went to dive she went with Arturo and I went with the group. On a couple of dives my wife and Arturo met up with the group after she completed that dive's skills and we completed the dive like normal. The instruction she received was as good if not better than what I had here in the states. I'd highly recommend Arturo as an instructor.
Our best meals were at Lo Cocay and Kinta, with the food maybe a little better at Lo Cocay but Kinta being a little less expensive. But both have great food, service and ambiance, and while more costly than the traditional restaurants we can’t get that quality of dining here in LA for those prices so it is still a relative bargain. Other good meals were at Sorrisi and Pancho’s Backyard.
Travel trip we learned this time: when in Houston with a short connection time find one of those motorized carts. I always thought those were just for elderly people or people having a hard time walking. We only had an hour to get through immigration, get bags, go through customs and to the gate. I asked a driver where our gate was and he told us to jump in and he would get us there on time. I think picking a young male driver helps, they get to play race car driver for the moment.
Here are a bunch of photos.
Queen Angelfish
Rock Beauty
Spotted Moray at Chun Chacab reef
Arturo watching a turtle
my only Splendid Toadfish sighting of the week at White House reef, with an Arrow Crab sharing the crevice on the left
Barracuda
a pair of Gray Angelfish
a French Angelfish trying to hide from me
juvi Angelfish from the night dive on Paradise reef
Sharptail Eel also from the night dive
Spotted Drum
Threespot Damselfish
Queen Triggerfish
Anemone
Blanca
