Well, I wrote this trip report for a friend, so I thought that I would post it here...
I went to Cozumel over the Memorial day weekend. This was my 3rd trip there and my mother's 6th. Usually we stay at a hotel closer to town and use Dive Paradise, but we wanted to try something different and use a different operator this time, so we stayed at the Reef Club and used San Dollar Sports. There was nothing wrong with the Reef Club, but it is more suited for people who want to sit by the pool and drink... and we were there to dive. We still had a good time, we always do.
We were nervous (or at least I was) at what we would find at the Reef club after reading some of the posts on SB... but it really wasnt as bad as expected. Since we are divers, we missed some of the better meals... mainly the staple of our diet was Guacamole ... but that was fine with us... we love the stuff! Of course, we ate it on other food, not just Guacamole itself. So as read here on SB.. the food wasnt that great, but it wasnt really that bad either... but inconvienent times for Divers - mainly ate from the snack bar/grill.
We were disappointed to hear that Sand Dollar only does night dives on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I think I like Night Dives way better than day dives - you get to see other creatures in action (octopus, lobster, crab, eels...) and since it is dark, you focus your attention just on what your light is shining on, so you tend to see more since you are not distracted by the rest of the ocean. We arrived on Friday and wanted to do a night dive, but were too late in signing up (the check-in line was enormous!) so we called up Dive with Martin and did a night dive with them on Saturday Night. We saw 4 octopus, several huge crab and lobster, a small spotted eel and a huge spotted eel. I think Octopus are my favorite. It is so neat how God created them to just change colors back and forth and forth in an instant.
We dove everyday (Sat thru Tues) 2 dives in the morning and did a night dive Sat Night and Monday Night - a total of 10 dives. We usually get more dives in there with Dive Paradise, but that is okay. The first dive of the trip is always the worst for us... i guess just being anxious. I had just replaced my Canon Camera (from being flooded on a trip to CSSP) and it was the first time to dive with the camera again.... but of course, it flooded in the tank before I even splashed!! We jumped in, but could not descend for the life of us! Probably because we had just found out about the camera and were upset and thrown off by the whole situation. We finally got down (with the help of the divemaster, Miguel) and had an okay dive.... well, I should say a great dive, I mean, I was in Cozumel!! But we did have a problem making our safety stop too. The first few feet on the descent is hard to get past for some reason (in salt water anyway) and to make a safety stop, i have to be between 20 and 18 feet... if I hit 15, I tend to ascend to fast. The second dive was much better - always is. Mom still had her video camera so at least we still got some footage. Sunday's dives were much better, we were on a different boat, but the same divers from the day before (different dive masters). And the 3rd day was back to being bad again... Miguel was our dive master again and as we were all geared up and ready to splash, Miguel came over and kinda harped on us... making sure we had the right amount of weight and that we would make our safety stop. Well, that shook us up a little and of course, couldn't descend. I just knew that we would pass the 5 minute wait limit and get aborted for the dive... but we finally got down and were okay. The rest of the dive was fine. It is amazing how diving is so all inclusive... your attitude, your body, everything affects how you dive. The last day was wonderful! Buoyancy was great, the water was great. We had a great time.
We probably wont go back to Reef Club or Sand Dollar next time...not that they were bad, but just going to try something different again... we did miss being close to town. Maybe Dive with Martin or Blue XTSea next time....
I went to Cozumel over the Memorial day weekend. This was my 3rd trip there and my mother's 6th. Usually we stay at a hotel closer to town and use Dive Paradise, but we wanted to try something different and use a different operator this time, so we stayed at the Reef Club and used San Dollar Sports. There was nothing wrong with the Reef Club, but it is more suited for people who want to sit by the pool and drink... and we were there to dive. We still had a good time, we always do.
We were nervous (or at least I was) at what we would find at the Reef club after reading some of the posts on SB... but it really wasnt as bad as expected. Since we are divers, we missed some of the better meals... mainly the staple of our diet was Guacamole ... but that was fine with us... we love the stuff! Of course, we ate it on other food, not just Guacamole itself. So as read here on SB.. the food wasnt that great, but it wasnt really that bad either... but inconvienent times for Divers - mainly ate from the snack bar/grill.
We were disappointed to hear that Sand Dollar only does night dives on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I think I like Night Dives way better than day dives - you get to see other creatures in action (octopus, lobster, crab, eels...) and since it is dark, you focus your attention just on what your light is shining on, so you tend to see more since you are not distracted by the rest of the ocean. We arrived on Friday and wanted to do a night dive, but were too late in signing up (the check-in line was enormous!) so we called up Dive with Martin and did a night dive with them on Saturday Night. We saw 4 octopus, several huge crab and lobster, a small spotted eel and a huge spotted eel. I think Octopus are my favorite. It is so neat how God created them to just change colors back and forth and forth in an instant.
We dove everyday (Sat thru Tues) 2 dives in the morning and did a night dive Sat Night and Monday Night - a total of 10 dives. We usually get more dives in there with Dive Paradise, but that is okay. The first dive of the trip is always the worst for us... i guess just being anxious. I had just replaced my Canon Camera (from being flooded on a trip to CSSP) and it was the first time to dive with the camera again.... but of course, it flooded in the tank before I even splashed!! We jumped in, but could not descend for the life of us! Probably because we had just found out about the camera and were upset and thrown off by the whole situation. We finally got down (with the help of the divemaster, Miguel) and had an okay dive.... well, I should say a great dive, I mean, I was in Cozumel!! But we did have a problem making our safety stop too. The first few feet on the descent is hard to get past for some reason (in salt water anyway) and to make a safety stop, i have to be between 20 and 18 feet... if I hit 15, I tend to ascend to fast. The second dive was much better - always is. Mom still had her video camera so at least we still got some footage. Sunday's dives were much better, we were on a different boat, but the same divers from the day before (different dive masters). And the 3rd day was back to being bad again... Miguel was our dive master again and as we were all geared up and ready to splash, Miguel came over and kinda harped on us... making sure we had the right amount of weight and that we would make our safety stop. Well, that shook us up a little and of course, couldn't descend. I just knew that we would pass the 5 minute wait limit and get aborted for the dive... but we finally got down and were okay. The rest of the dive was fine. It is amazing how diving is so all inclusive... your attitude, your body, everything affects how you dive. The last day was wonderful! Buoyancy was great, the water was great. We had a great time.
We probably wont go back to Reef Club or Sand Dollar next time...not that they were bad, but just going to try something different again... we did miss being close to town. Maybe Dive with Martin or Blue XTSea next time....
