Caribe Blu/BXTS/28Apr-5May/2005 vs 2007/report & new lessons learned (long!)

[aa777888]

Intro

This was our second trip to Coz, the first being in May 05. Per the Scubaboard conventional wisdom we did the Caribe Blu/BXTS thing then for 4 days and had such a good time we decided to do it over again this year for 7 days.

We met fellow Scubaboarders Jay & Cheryl and also Dimitri. All very pleasant to dive with. Dimitri was extra fun because he kept giving us little jobs to do, picking up after him and finding stuff out for him and such

2005 vs. 2007—we noticed quite a few differences!

In 2005 we flew in and out of Cancun because we had a company event there. This time we flew right into Coz. Much more convenient obviously, although it is always amusing when your large, commercial jet has to back-taxi the active runway to get to the terminal, there being no other taxiways.

The whole island seems much neater and cleaner, having been apparently scrubbed by the hurricanes, but there are signs that things will be settling back into the normal state of repair soon enough.

Street signs have been changed to placards mounted on the buildings. The few that survived the hurricanes are looking a bit sad. In general we found them harder to find and read.

Prices are definitely up (except for the taxis) and businesses definitely want their American dollar’s worth. Almost without exception every charge was in dollars and when offered pesos it was quickly recalculated at a rate that varied from place to place. In 2005 they’d just take the pesos. $80/night vs. $65/night at Caribe Blu. Our lunch bill at Rendez Blu (we loved eating lunch there every day after diving) was easily up by 25%. Etc., etc.

The main plaza seemed a bit quieter to us in the evening, with fewer vendors hawking their wares at that time of day than in 2005. Much more pleasant.

Caribe Blu is in a higher state of repair than when we stayed in 2005 and the new shorefront is much nicer and the property is much cleaner and in our opinion has a much better “vibe” than such places as Villablanca or the Barracuda (we toured them this trip out of curiosity). We do miss the little tidal pool though, gone in the hurricanes . The wireless internet in the lobby is a fabulous new feature. A printer is all they are missing and if they would run an antenna to the top of one of the hammock poles we could get it in our rooms, too. The attached Blue Angel dive shop and Rendez Blu restaurant are doing a booming business compared to when we were there in May 05 but maybe they were just in a lull then.

BXTS pampering, while still very nice, is not quite as aggressive as it was in 2005. In ’05 one would be bombarded immediately with water, towels and the fresh water sprayer as soon as you sat down after a dive and the snacks came out underway to the SI location. This year the water came quick, towels a little later, there was no fresh water sprayer and snacks came out on arrival at the SI site. Still just fine and perhaps a little less overwhelming even, but we did miss the fresh water sprayer.

BXTS newer boat, Bandida II, is a fine vessel and is fast, dry and functional. But put us on the list of those who still prefer Shamu with her lower freeboard and more plentiful shade. A canopy on Bandida II would be a welcome addition. Nevertheless it’s great to see Christi growing her business.

Dining

Breakfast: was juice, cereal and leche (it isn’t milk if it comes from an aseptic box container :14 out of our refrigerator. Easy and quick so we could sleep a little later.

Lunch: was Rendez Blu above the attached Blue Angel dive shop. We love Rendez Blu. We went there for lunch every single day and they never disappointed. Simple, delicious, hot and filling and a great atmosphere. Good for breakfast (taquitos!), too.

Dinner: our favorite place is La Choza. Second favorite is El Capi Navigante (get the grouper). We don’t have a third favorite yet. We’ve tried or looked at the menus at most of Christi’s and Gordon’s lists and were rather underwhelmed at most. We even walked into/past most of the fancy, touristy type places on Melgar. Guido’s is at the top of the must try list for next time, as is La Mission on 30th which we never quite got to either.

Diving

Not much to say here that hasn’t already been said in other trip reports. Coz is Coz. We played musical boats and DMs for 5 days, diving with Arturo, Juan, Pedro, Blanca (and Pedro that night) and Arturo again. Highlights include:

• BXTS was on-time and very efficient as always everyday.
• Arturo could not have been more helpful in helping us blow the rust off our diving on the first day.
• Juan had us laughing the entire time on the surface.
• Pedro’s tour of Palancar Bricks had us on a part of it we didn’t see last time and it was much nicer.
• The current at Punta Tuniche left us with little time to enjoy each sight we saw.
• Blanca’s method for dealing with the jellies that annoyed us at every safety stop is going into our dive repertoire—a quick purge from her regulator under them and off they go!
• The night dive was a bit crowded for us. For some reason every time we would swim away to get a little space somehow we would wind up amongst everyone again. We spent a lot of air swimming away ahead of the crowd.
• We saw, in no particular order: turtles swimming and feeding, toadfish hiding, big green eels swimming and spotted ones hiding, drumfish, triggerfish, lionfish, stonefish, flatfish, mating cowfish, nesting sergeant majors, giant angels, tiny squid, big groupers (one swam by 6” from my head), some small rays, monster lobster, huge crabs, octopus big and little, big squid, sea snake, sea slugs, sleeping fish. Nothing real big that swims. No sharks of any type. A lot less fish than in 2005 and in particular a lot less at Paradise. From our hotel balcony we watched a pod of dolphin chase a “Fury” catamaran as it passed by to the south—I wanted to run down and dive in but of course they’d be long gone and I’d get run over by boat traffic:14:

One issue was tank fills. Out of the 22 tanks we had only 5 or 6 of them read higher than 2800 on our computers (Uwatec Air Z’s). Pam was having more trouble than I and we did find out that Pam’s computer reads 50-60psi less than mine—we’ll investigate this more closely now that we’re home. We swapped out a couple of the more egregious examples in the 2500-2700 range as did others on the boat from time to time. I don’t pretend to understand the politics and realities of tank fills on the island, other than that I’ve heard they all come from the same plant, but it would be nice to see them filled a little higher.

(continued next reply...)

 

[aa777888]

New lessons learned

The first time we went down we just went with the flow and learned the lay of the land. We were only there 4 days anyway. This time we went more prepared but still learned a few things.

• You really, really want a room with a refrigerator at Caribe Blu. We got one by accident and it was just great. MUCH better than buying and messing with ice twice a day. If they can swing it for you that’s the way to go. We loaded up on beer and snacks at the Chedraui store on day 1 and never had to make another trip, although we did buy some pineapple juice the last day as we were getting tired of the drink mixes we brought with us.
• We relied on the Santander ATM (no fee for us BofA customers) as we did last time, but this time we needed more money. We should have made a special trip into the bank the first day to get the denominations we wanted as NO ONE except the big restaurants will handle anything over a 100 peso note. With everyone paying scrupulous attention to the exchange rates this may now be more of a pain than it’s worth. Unlike a couple of years ago in most cases you’ll save nothing paying with pesos. We’ll probably just bring dollars next time.
• Torn or old banknotes are not accepted. This is silly since they are still perfectly good (the bank will happily take them if there is more than half left). Don’t accept any yourself or you’ll be stuck with them unless they are small enough to use as tips.
• Never try to go to Rendez Blu after 1pm when Blue Angel is busy. If you are running late getting back with BXTS leave the rinsing for later or you’ll wait another hour for lunch because the Blue Angel boats will come back and disgorge their own hungry divers right after BXTS drops you.
• Bring an extra mask and fins for snorkeling (if so inclined, as we are) so you don’t have to drag ‘em to and from the boat each day. We didn’t think of this
• Bring a good showerhead and wrench from home. Showerhead and air conditioner performance at the hotel are a total crapshoot. We found this out as we got to move to a better room the second day thereby getting a ‘frig and a great A/C but a crazy bad shower head (almost no flow at all). At least showerheads are something you can do something about yourself. Chedraui had the exact same ultra-low flow showerhead for sale so don’t count on them, either.
• If you’ve got computers and cell phones and gadgets bring a powerstrip as the very few plugs in the hotel room are filled with lights.
• We should have asked for AL100s. Another thing we just didn’t think of. On the first couple of days it would have allowed us air hogs to ascend with the bulk of the group instead of 5 minutes early and on the last few days it would have let us swim and explore a bit more instead of working so hard at relaxing (that sounds funny, doesn’t it?) as our efficiency went up. Worth the extra $5 and we would have paid it if we had thought of it then.
• Don’t carry ANY nail care stuff through Mexican airport security. They were taking it all except nail clippers and made you snap the tiny little nail file off of those. They got mine. I wanted to perform a comparison stab test on them with my mechanical pencil (OK) and nail clipper file (not OK) to demonstrate the stupidity of it but I don’t like Mexican jails. Dumbest thing I ever saw. Also, the guy at the magnetometer was completely beside himself that my leather belt with brass belt buckle made it through OK. Hysterical. :shakehead
• Don’t buy any drinks in the gate area with the intent of taking them on the aircraft out of Cozumel. Even though you’ve already been through “security” they hand search your bags on the way out to the tarmac to again relieve you of any drinks you purchased in the gate area so you are stuck with what they might give you on the aircraft.
• Last but not least, don’t let Continental or anyone else sucker you into less than a 2 hour layover in Houston. Customs takes about an hour, you will miss your connection (we did, turning it into a hell ride home).

 

[Christi]

Nice thorough report Scott!

I apologize for any low fills you may have had. Unfortunately, we don’t have much control over that since they are all filled by a central fill station and delivered to us each morning. I always order a few extra tanks for that very reason and if totally necessary (if we cannot get them to bring us new tanks), the DM’s will take the lower fills. It really depends on where the truck is at that moment and how busy they are. Sometimes, they don’t even have spares because they are running at full capacity and then some. Also, FWIW, the fill station won’t swap out tanks that have 2800 or more in them. Trust me, we do all we can to remind them to FILL the tanks. We all go through the same thing with the fills and it's extremely frustrating.

I do my very best to keep divers with the same crew as much as possible. However, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. We have to juggle the crew’s days off, as well as the ever changing roster of divers…this is more true during high season, which we are just now rounding out. Often two couples will be replaced by a group of four who cannot be separated or vice versa…OR…we have people who are not diving on consecutive days, etc. etc. These things require me to rearrange the boat schedules accordingly. Additionally, since three out of our four DM’s are also instructors…they may or may not have students on any given day so that causes a DM change. All of these things as well as other factors go into scheduling the boats each and every day.

Extending the canopy for Bandida is on the short list of projects I wish I could have had it done right away, but it wasn't possible through our recovery time from Wilma. It will require the boat to be out of the water for a couple of weeks because putting a canopy on her also requires lowering the sides (which means extensive fiberglass work). Otherwise…even the short people’s heads won’t clear the canopy frame. We’ve already designed it and got it in the pipeline….we just need to wait for some down time.

The sprayers are a challenge to keep working, but we’re not giving up on them yet! The original sprayer was a DEMA purchase a few years ago and it was the greatest thing since sliced bread Sadly, it finally gave out and went to “sprayer heaven.” We’ve tried several other models of it that we can find locally. Unfortunately, they just don’t hold up well to the salty air and spray. The “original” version is something I’m trying to find again, so hopefully we’ll have them back soon!

After complaints of salty snacks (from seaspray)…the crew has been instructed to wait until the boat stops for the SI to uncover the snacks…but they should be offering water and towels once your gear is off.

I’m glad you had a nice trip and we hope to see you again next year

 

[cowdog77]

Wow, good report.....and thorough.
Thanks for taking the time.

 

[aa777888]

No sweat on the musical chairs, Christi, that wasn't meant as a dig. We're not the world's greatest divers and we just figured we were getting moved to the boat with the most air consumption every day :14:

That makes sense on the snacks, although strangely I like eating salty pineapple. There's something about biting into some delicious, juicy fruit when you've still got that salty, seawater taste in your mouth and the juice displaces it...yes, I'm weird! Too much time on boats, I guess. The water and towels do come out, no problems there.

Yeah, the fresh water sprayer does kick ***! Yours is the only boat we've ever seen it on, which is probably why we missed it. Too bad they don't hold up well. And major surgery for Bandida? Wow :11:

Thanks for the good report reviews. It's the "engineer's report." If you want the "poet's report" you have to read Sharky's

Scott

 

[Christi]

That makes sense on the snacks, although strangely I like eating salty pineapple. There's something about biting into some delicious, juicy fruit when you've still got that salty, seawater taste in your mouth and the juice displaces it...yes, I'm weird! Too much time on boats, I guess. The water and towels do come out, no problems there.

OK...yes, you're wierd...HAHA!

Yeah, the fresh water sprayer does kick ***! Yours is the only boat we've ever seen it on, which is probably why we missed it. Too bad they don't hold up well. And major surgery for Bandida? Wow :11:

I promise I'm working on both of these...I wish we could have gone through with our initial plans for Bandida as soon as we purchased her (a week before Wilma)...but we have Wilma to thank for that

 

[parrotheaddiver]

Good Report.....and yes Christi's op is Top Shelf nothing better once you have had the best

 

[underachiever]

BXTsea isn't the only one with the low fills. (you will see the trucks around town that drop off and pick up tanks) ( one explanation I have heard is that when they are filled, they may be at 3000 but cooling off and such causes them to end up being less) Some more of us air hogs were concerned also. My wife more so than me. In fact we did request a larger tank for her (first dive of the day) after a couple of days of having to head up before some of the rest of the group. Worked out OK after that. Actually we did not get charged for the larger tanks.

 

[Cozoholic]

I cant wait to go back, we'll be there June 2-9.
How were your beds @ Caribe Blu? Last year it seemed like one bed was new, and the other had springs popping up. Perhaps they are in the middle of replacing them- Anyone ?

 

[Christi]

BXTsea isn't the only one with the low fills. (you will see the trucks around town that drop off and pick up tanks) ( one explanation I have heard is that when they are filled, they may be at 3000 but cooling off and such causes them to end up being less)

You are correct. When the island is busy, the fill station is working non-stop and they are sending out tanks as fast as they are filled...which means they don't have time to go back and "top them off" once they cool down.

In reality...the 200psi doesn't equate to much more bottom time...although I know it seems like alot to those that need all the air they can get That wasn't meant to be rude by the way...just teasing

Also, on the other side of the coin...overfilling the AL 80's is a bad idea. At one point we were geting 3400psi to 3500psi fills...which is a huge accident waiting to happen. We take appropriate precautions on those occasions as well and let some of the air out. These tanks and valves are only rated to 3000psi.