ALS7657
Registered
I told Smokey I would do this so here goes......We stayed at the Plaza Las Glorias from 5/31 - 6/7 and had a large group from South Carolina, about 20. In my only other trip to Coz, 9/01, my wife & I stayed at the Diamond Allegro and were spoiled by the all-inclusiveness, that's where we met Smokey. This trip we roughed it in the beautiful downtown area, no bands on our arm to give us free food & drink at any time of the day or night. The PLG is nice, a little aged but that's what makes it. The suite was spacious and the beds are firm....HARD actually but they are kings. The pool is great and a night dive from the dock is cheap & fun. If you go there make friends with Lorenzo at the door. He can hook you up at lunch & dinner. Just tell him what you are looking for and he'll give you a little slip of paper that will get you a free drink or free apps at the local restaurants. He got free apps for a group of 12 one night at Ponchos Backyard !
The eatery at the PLG is OK, kinda pricey for breakfast but we found the Rock Java Cafe and Jeannies Waffles House just down the street to work fine. The neat thing about staying here is that it is only a 10-15 minute walk to downtown or a $8 cab fair for 4-5 people. We took advantage of this every night and hit Carlos & Charlies and Senor Frogs many, many times during the week.
The food was fantastic, Ponchos, Pepe's Grill, Guido's, The French Quarter, La Mission, Primas & Especias were most of the places we dined. Especias is really great. Adrian is the grandson of the family that built the Casa Denis, the oldest restaurant on the island. Don't be fooled by the appearance, it doesn't look like much and is very small but the food was excellent. I had the grouper but some that had the filet mignon said it was the best they had ever had on the island. The desert was great and listening to Adrian tell the history of the island is well worth the wait. He will then have you sign his guestbook, something that has been in the family since the early 50's. After you sign he will show you where Jackie Kennedy, Placido Domingo, Jim Nabors and others have signed. Of all the great places to eat he makes you feel at home !!
Now to the diving....how could I wait this long.....We used Dive Paradise, the others in our group had used them for years but it was my first with them. Jose was our divemaster along with several others. We usually had at least 10 and most of the time 15 diving each day. We rode in the Tango each day and had a blast. It's roomy and plenty of space to stretch out during the ride to the dive site. We dove the usual sites, Palancar Garden, Chancanab Reef & Shallows, Paradise Reef & Shallows, Delila, La Francesca Reef, Columbia Reef & Shallows, Yucab Reef and had fantastic dives. The night dive at Paradise Reef was awesome. There was one dive that I'll have to mention, it was like being on a rollercoaster or as my friend Smokey would say,"we were the pins and the water was the bowling ball!". On 6/2 we headed out for our first dive at Palancar Bricks. The current was fairly strong but they thought we could manage it. With so many on our boat we broke up in groups of 5-6 and headed out. We took the plunge and after giving the OK, headed down. As we did the currents were pulling in all directions, it was the first time I has experienced this, you would go right, you would go left, then up then down. I don't mean a couple of feet here and a couple of feet there I mean 10-15 feet here 20-30 feet there! The currents through the reefs were going everywhere and as we tried to hang-on I watched as Smokey and Larry were swept one way and Page & I swept another way.....others were going in all directions, it was the weirdest of my 70 dives to date. By this time we were at 84 feet and our DM, Mario, had signaled to us to abort this mess so as I inflated my BC I watched as I was pulled down another 20 feet to 106.....inflating the whole time. Just as I was about to ditch some weight we started to come up. Our safety stop was all over the place, you would be at 10 feet then 30, 15 then 25. We managed to hang in there and get a good stop then hit the surface. It took the boat a while to gather us up, people were spread out all over the water on this dive, it was a ride I'll never forget !!
After stretching out on the boat and telling our tales we headed over to Paradise Reef and got in a great 45 minute dive. Dive Paradise did a really good job all week. They had plenty of snacks and lots of laughs between dives. They caught fresh Conch one day and fed us. If you use them ask for Mario Lopez, he has a beard. He will go out of his way to find things for you. He kept my wife by his side on almost every dive and found more lobster, crab and turtles than I had seen before. He keeps the group together nicely and regularly checks with each person to keep the dive safe.
Well, if you took the time to read this I hope I didn't bore you. I just had to recall the one wild ride we took and I promised Smokey I would. Smokey is a Virginian but so is my wife so I want hold that against them. Smokey and his wife Shirley, they call her Pearl, met us there and the three of us had some awesome dives together, Pearl doesn't dive. Overall it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back and do it all over again...........This week has been a blur, trying to get back to work mode but finding myself daydreaming about life in Paradise !!
The eatery at the PLG is OK, kinda pricey for breakfast but we found the Rock Java Cafe and Jeannies Waffles House just down the street to work fine. The neat thing about staying here is that it is only a 10-15 minute walk to downtown or a $8 cab fair for 4-5 people. We took advantage of this every night and hit Carlos & Charlies and Senor Frogs many, many times during the week.
The food was fantastic, Ponchos, Pepe's Grill, Guido's, The French Quarter, La Mission, Primas & Especias were most of the places we dined. Especias is really great. Adrian is the grandson of the family that built the Casa Denis, the oldest restaurant on the island. Don't be fooled by the appearance, it doesn't look like much and is very small but the food was excellent. I had the grouper but some that had the filet mignon said it was the best they had ever had on the island. The desert was great and listening to Adrian tell the history of the island is well worth the wait. He will then have you sign his guestbook, something that has been in the family since the early 50's. After you sign he will show you where Jackie Kennedy, Placido Domingo, Jim Nabors and others have signed. Of all the great places to eat he makes you feel at home !!
Now to the diving....how could I wait this long.....We used Dive Paradise, the others in our group had used them for years but it was my first with them. Jose was our divemaster along with several others. We usually had at least 10 and most of the time 15 diving each day. We rode in the Tango each day and had a blast. It's roomy and plenty of space to stretch out during the ride to the dive site. We dove the usual sites, Palancar Garden, Chancanab Reef & Shallows, Paradise Reef & Shallows, Delila, La Francesca Reef, Columbia Reef & Shallows, Yucab Reef and had fantastic dives. The night dive at Paradise Reef was awesome. There was one dive that I'll have to mention, it was like being on a rollercoaster or as my friend Smokey would say,"we were the pins and the water was the bowling ball!". On 6/2 we headed out for our first dive at Palancar Bricks. The current was fairly strong but they thought we could manage it. With so many on our boat we broke up in groups of 5-6 and headed out. We took the plunge and after giving the OK, headed down. As we did the currents were pulling in all directions, it was the first time I has experienced this, you would go right, you would go left, then up then down. I don't mean a couple of feet here and a couple of feet there I mean 10-15 feet here 20-30 feet there! The currents through the reefs were going everywhere and as we tried to hang-on I watched as Smokey and Larry were swept one way and Page & I swept another way.....others were going in all directions, it was the weirdest of my 70 dives to date. By this time we were at 84 feet and our DM, Mario, had signaled to us to abort this mess so as I inflated my BC I watched as I was pulled down another 20 feet to 106.....inflating the whole time. Just as I was about to ditch some weight we started to come up. Our safety stop was all over the place, you would be at 10 feet then 30, 15 then 25. We managed to hang in there and get a good stop then hit the surface. It took the boat a while to gather us up, people were spread out all over the water on this dive, it was a ride I'll never forget !!
After stretching out on the boat and telling our tales we headed over to Paradise Reef and got in a great 45 minute dive. Dive Paradise did a really good job all week. They had plenty of snacks and lots of laughs between dives. They caught fresh Conch one day and fed us. If you use them ask for Mario Lopez, he has a beard. He will go out of his way to find things for you. He kept my wife by his side on almost every dive and found more lobster, crab and turtles than I had seen before. He keeps the group together nicely and regularly checks with each person to keep the dive safe.
Well, if you took the time to read this I hope I didn't bore you. I just had to recall the one wild ride we took and I promised Smokey I would. Smokey is a Virginian but so is my wife so I want hold that against them. Smokey and his wife Shirley, they call her Pearl, met us there and the three of us had some awesome dives together, Pearl doesn't dive. Overall it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back and do it all over again...........This week has been a blur, trying to get back to work mode but finding myself daydreaming about life in Paradise !!
