(Belated) hello from North Carolina

[Cara_NC]

I feel you man. I totally refused to support local diving when the local operators made wearing a face mask on a dive boat out in the wide open ocean "mandatory".

Glad all that foolishness is over with.

It was actually because I didn't want to take any risks with rental gear and crowded boats cause my dad is sick

 

[Cara_NC]

How was Cozumel?

It was awesome! Getting used to drift diving took a couple dives cause I'm a slow mover who likes to hang around and nerd out over coral usually, lol. But it was all gorgeous, a lot of life on the reefs and soooo many dive sites available that we rarely saw other groups. Great visibility the whole week. Definitely need to go back!

 

[Cara_NC]

Welcome back, if you are near Raleigh, come join us a the quarry.

Planning to very soon! Was going to come out yesterday (my go-to shop is Gypsy) but work got in the way, ugh

 

[LadyMcGyver]

Hey all! I actually joined ScubaBoard a year ago and then promptly forgot, so here I am introducing myself. I started diving in 2020, and then Covid shut the world down 4 days after I got my certification. Thanks to that mess and life changes, I didn't get back in the water until 2023, when I turned 30 and decided screw this, I'm going to the Caribbean for my birthday. Did a refresher class, picked a location, had an amazing extended weekend in Curaçao, and got completely re-hooked.

So fast forward a year and I'm coming off a week in Cozumel which was beautiful, and getting into local diving here in North Carolina. Glad to meet everyone!

Sounds almost identical to my story except add 25 years! (When I turned 55 and said screw this! LOL. Happy Diving!

 

[LadyMcGyver]

Welcome back, if you are near Raleigh, come join us a the quarry.

Fantasy Lake?

 

[LadyMcGyver]

It was awesome! Getting used to drift diving took a couple dives cause I'm a slow mover who likes to hang around and nerd out over coral usually, lol. But it was all gorgeous, a lot of life on the reefs and soooo many dive sites available that we rarely saw other groups. Great visibility the whole week. Definitely need to go back!

When were you in Cozumel? Did you feel the area was safe (away from resort)

 

[Cara_NC]

When were you in Cozumel? Did you feel the area was safe (away from resort)

I was there March 9-16 this spring, and super safe! I went with my aunt, and we got an AirBnb downtown about 2 blocks off Benito Juarez Plaza. Wandered around town eating at different little restaurants all week, it was incredible. So many nice people, such a great vibe. I went for walks by myself at night too down to the waterfront or around the plaza for churros and marquesitas (I'm still DREAMING about them). We didn't rent a car, just walked everywhere and got taxis as needed.
I have a bit of Spanish, much better now but while I was there enough to order a cab and give directions, order in a restaurant, and sort of have a brief conversation. The only time I ran into "issues" at all was one little taco restaurant about 8 blocks from the square - they could see I was having trouble with the language so they went and got their guy that spoke English, I was able to get enough info to know which were pork or beef
But yeah in general, huge fan. I'm not a resort person and far prefer staying somewhere I can get more of a feel of the place and try as much food as humanly possible. We dove with Salty Endeavors on the north end so they had pickups all the way down the island, we had about a 5-10 minute walk to our pier pickup each morning, it was absolute perfection.

 

[herman]

Fantasy Lake?

Yea, they have upgraded it a lot in the last year or so.