lawofgravity
Guest
Hi everyone, just back from a fabulous trip in Cozumel, staying at the Fiesta Americana and diving with Dive with Martin. We hated to leave but as they say, all good things.....We found a good deal on Expedia flying in from Vancouver with connections in Lost wages and Houston. We decided on the European plan at the FA as we wanted to try some of the restaurants in town. Here are the details.
Fiesta Americana Dive Resort.
We stayed in room 527, which was large, comfortable with a beautiful view of the ocean. There's nothing like waking up each morning, and sitting out on the balcony with a cup of coffee watching the day start. The staff were extremely friendly with the exception of the receptionists who looked overworked. The beach was manmade and you definitely have to go down early to stake out the prime spots. As some suggested, we walked up to Dzul Ha beach and snorkeled back. Lots of life inlcuding some giant parrotfish, sting rays and a sea snake. The toilets are pain in the *** and if you're over six feet, you might have to sit side stradle. I'm 5'7 and my knees barely had room. Twice, I hit my head against the wall when I pulled my.....well you know. All in all, a decent resort and I would stay there again if we got a good deal.
Restaurants.
La Choza, we heard it was in flames the week before, but would have never guessed. Loved their shrimp fajitas and pina coladas
La Morena, conch ceviche, chicken fajitas and strong margaritas
Casa Denis, conchita pibil
Especias, cheap and filling. 10p empanadas
We never had the option to go AI through expedia so we had to stock up on snacks and drinks at Chedraui. We did try some of the food off the room service menu and it was decent and well priced for hotel food.
Diving
$200 for 4 days/2 tanks that includes unlimited shore diving, free rentals, 1 night dive and 1 video. You can't beat that. We took advantage of the free rentals by not bringing our heavy cold BCs with us. It saved us a lot of packing room and we managed to fit all our gear into two small rolling suitcases. Their BCs were weight integrated Sherwood Avids and were in good shape. The rest of their gear looked fine with the exception of their regulators which need an overhaul. Some had no mouthpieces on the octos and some had no caps for the first stages.
Day 1, Palancar Caves and Paso el Cedral
Day 2, Santa Rosa Wall and San Francisco Reef, morning winds push the dive to 11:30, unbelievably beautiful colours on Santa Rosa
Day 3, Columbia Deep and Columbia Shallows. Saw our first turtles, green eel and eagle ray on CD, and our first Splendid toad fish on CS.
Day 4, Palancar Horseshoe and Punta Tunich. more turtles, eels and a second eagle ray which passed right between our group. Awesome!
I have to complement Martin Aguilar on his operation. His staff are fantastic, always friendly and helpful, thinking of our safety first. Sandwiches, buns, fruit, fresh oj and water were provided between and after dives. We loved diving with Pablo who has a bit of the devil in him. I still chuckle everytime I think about some of the things he did underwater, and there was one instance where his actions bit him back, literally. But it was all in an effort to make each of our dives memorable and he certainly succeeded. He has an uncanny knack to spot things out of nowhere.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone on this forum for all their great help and suggestions. Thanks especially to Sharky for all his suggestions. We have become Cozumelholics and look forward to returning possibly later this year. Thanks again!!!
Fiesta Americana Dive Resort.
We stayed in room 527, which was large, comfortable with a beautiful view of the ocean. There's nothing like waking up each morning, and sitting out on the balcony with a cup of coffee watching the day start. The staff were extremely friendly with the exception of the receptionists who looked overworked. The beach was manmade and you definitely have to go down early to stake out the prime spots. As some suggested, we walked up to Dzul Ha beach and snorkeled back. Lots of life inlcuding some giant parrotfish, sting rays and a sea snake. The toilets are pain in the *** and if you're over six feet, you might have to sit side stradle. I'm 5'7 and my knees barely had room. Twice, I hit my head against the wall when I pulled my.....well you know. All in all, a decent resort and I would stay there again if we got a good deal.
Restaurants.
La Choza, we heard it was in flames the week before, but would have never guessed. Loved their shrimp fajitas and pina coladas
La Morena, conch ceviche, chicken fajitas and strong margaritas
Casa Denis, conchita pibil
Especias, cheap and filling. 10p empanadas
We never had the option to go AI through expedia so we had to stock up on snacks and drinks at Chedraui. We did try some of the food off the room service menu and it was decent and well priced for hotel food.
Diving
$200 for 4 days/2 tanks that includes unlimited shore diving, free rentals, 1 night dive and 1 video. You can't beat that. We took advantage of the free rentals by not bringing our heavy cold BCs with us. It saved us a lot of packing room and we managed to fit all our gear into two small rolling suitcases. Their BCs were weight integrated Sherwood Avids and were in good shape. The rest of their gear looked fine with the exception of their regulators which need an overhaul. Some had no mouthpieces on the octos and some had no caps for the first stages.
Day 1, Palancar Caves and Paso el Cedral
Day 2, Santa Rosa Wall and San Francisco Reef, morning winds push the dive to 11:30, unbelievably beautiful colours on Santa Rosa
Day 3, Columbia Deep and Columbia Shallows. Saw our first turtles, green eel and eagle ray on CD, and our first Splendid toad fish on CS.
Day 4, Palancar Horseshoe and Punta Tunich. more turtles, eels and a second eagle ray which passed right between our group. Awesome!
I have to complement Martin Aguilar on his operation. His staff are fantastic, always friendly and helpful, thinking of our safety first. Sandwiches, buns, fruit, fresh oj and water were provided between and after dives. We loved diving with Pablo who has a bit of the devil in him. I still chuckle everytime I think about some of the things he did underwater, and there was one instance where his actions bit him back, literally. But it was all in an effort to make each of our dives memorable and he certainly succeeded. He has an uncanny knack to spot things out of nowhere.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone on this forum for all their great help and suggestions. Thanks especially to Sharky for all his suggestions. We have become Cozumelholics and look forward to returning possibly later this year. Thanks again!!!
