We got back Wednesday 5/4 from a 14 day trip to Cozumel. Overall, the trip was great, just like all the others. We had a great place to stay, my wife and I dove 40 total tanks, everyone in our group caught some fish, we had many outstanding meals, the weather was mostly great (a little rain from time to time - no big deal), and we got home with all our stuff. We celebrated my mom’s 94th birthday at Buccanos Saturday 4/23.
Day to day deets harvested from the Current Currents thread:
We went to San Clemente and Paradise yesterday 4/21, and La Francesca and Tormentos today 4/22. Current at San Clemente and Paradise was moderate and kept changing. Current at Tormentos was practically nothing, but at La Francesca it was an E ticket ride. Strong wind from NNE both days.
Paseo Cedral and Yucab today 4/23. Cedral was ripping; we ended up in Santa Rosa. Yucab was very slow but north to south. The wind is still pretty strong from NNE. At Yucab we saw the big loggerhead with the propellor damage to his shell (Charlie?).
Sunday 4/24: Around the island with the Thundering Herd. Mescalito’s, Coconuts, etc.
Monday 4/25: Bricks and Paradise, and Cielo Cruise in the afternoon: Nice and slow currents; three (!) eagle rays
Tuesday 4/26: Fishing. 15 small dorado
Wednesday 4/27: La Francesa and Tormentos. Nice current.
Thursday 4/28: Fishing. Five dorado (four small, one middling), one barracuda, one tiny tuna, two sailfish. Wife dove Bricks again and San Clemente Shallows.
Friday 4/29: Palancar between Bricks and Caves along with it seems like every other diver on the island, Villablanca Wall
Saturday 4/30: Fishing. Slow day, five small dorado
Sunday 5/1: Cedral and Tuniche. The most leisurely Tuniche dive in recent memory. We saw Charlie again.
Monday 5/2: Columbia Deep (zero current) and Santa Rosa Shallows
Monday 5/2 night dive: San Clemente Shallows. Simply stunning; so many octopus we lost count of them, and a huge crab just trotting around in the open
Tuesday 5/3: Palancar Bricks => Caves and Paseo Cedral => Santa Rosa Shallows; finally saw a big nurse shark. Great way to end the trip
We dove with DM’s Ramon, Andy, Julio, Marcos, Miguel (a freelancer), and Mateo; all were excellent. We met and dove a couple of times with fellow Scubaboarder Sharkygill. He helped us get out of a pretty severe surge in the shore entry area when we had an equipment issue (thanks again, Rich!).
A word about the hotel Blue Angel. It still is my hotel of choice, and all the accolades I have given it over the years still apply, with one caveat. A descriptor I have applied to it in the past is “quiet”, but now I must back off from that just a bit. Some of the difference is due to the hotel itself and some of it is not.
Blue Angel now has live bands performing on the lawn facing the rooms for 2-3 hours 5 days a week (Tues - Sat) starting around 6PM (this had started with three days a week last year). They are pretty loud and some are more intrusive than others. The musicianship is top notch, though, so no complaints there; it’s just that even in the rooms with the sliding doors closed it’s pretty loud. The hotel staff also tend to play the sound system in the lobby pretty loud and sometimes until 11PM or so, but in fairness they do respond to requests to turn it down when sleeping is problematic.
Also, there are now two nightclubs nearby who play bass heavy dance music (thump - thump - thump) most nights until 1AM or later. The worst offender is at the Caletita between the hotel and the lighthouse, but there is another set up outside in the strip center just past the OXXO across the street. One night both clubs kept it up until after 3AM. Again in fairness it was the weekend when the rescheduled Carnaval was starting up and the whole island was partying, so it may not have been typical.
I do not say any of this with any intent of discouraging anyone from staying at Blue Angel; it is still a wonderful spot - far and away my favorite hotel on the island. I just would like those who read this not to be surprised that it’s not as quiet as it used to be.
Anyway, it was a great trip and we are already looking at dates in 2023. We will be staying at and diving with Blue Angel. We have earplugs.
Gordon in Austin
Day to day deets harvested from the Current Currents thread:
We went to San Clemente and Paradise yesterday 4/21, and La Francesca and Tormentos today 4/22. Current at San Clemente and Paradise was moderate and kept changing. Current at Tormentos was practically nothing, but at La Francesca it was an E ticket ride. Strong wind from NNE both days.
Paseo Cedral and Yucab today 4/23. Cedral was ripping; we ended up in Santa Rosa. Yucab was very slow but north to south. The wind is still pretty strong from NNE. At Yucab we saw the big loggerhead with the propellor damage to his shell (Charlie?).
Sunday 4/24: Around the island with the Thundering Herd. Mescalito’s, Coconuts, etc.
Monday 4/25: Bricks and Paradise, and Cielo Cruise in the afternoon: Nice and slow currents; three (!) eagle rays
Tuesday 4/26: Fishing. 15 small dorado
Wednesday 4/27: La Francesa and Tormentos. Nice current.
Thursday 4/28: Fishing. Five dorado (four small, one middling), one barracuda, one tiny tuna, two sailfish. Wife dove Bricks again and San Clemente Shallows.
Friday 4/29: Palancar between Bricks and Caves along with it seems like every other diver on the island, Villablanca Wall
Saturday 4/30: Fishing. Slow day, five small dorado
Sunday 5/1: Cedral and Tuniche. The most leisurely Tuniche dive in recent memory. We saw Charlie again.
Monday 5/2: Columbia Deep (zero current) and Santa Rosa Shallows
Monday 5/2 night dive: San Clemente Shallows. Simply stunning; so many octopus we lost count of them, and a huge crab just trotting around in the open
Tuesday 5/3: Palancar Bricks => Caves and Paseo Cedral => Santa Rosa Shallows; finally saw a big nurse shark. Great way to end the trip
We dove with DM’s Ramon, Andy, Julio, Marcos, Miguel (a freelancer), and Mateo; all were excellent. We met and dove a couple of times with fellow Scubaboarder Sharkygill. He helped us get out of a pretty severe surge in the shore entry area when we had an equipment issue (thanks again, Rich!).
A word about the hotel Blue Angel. It still is my hotel of choice, and all the accolades I have given it over the years still apply, with one caveat. A descriptor I have applied to it in the past is “quiet”, but now I must back off from that just a bit. Some of the difference is due to the hotel itself and some of it is not.
Blue Angel now has live bands performing on the lawn facing the rooms for 2-3 hours 5 days a week (Tues - Sat) starting around 6PM (this had started with three days a week last year). They are pretty loud and some are more intrusive than others. The musicianship is top notch, though, so no complaints there; it’s just that even in the rooms with the sliding doors closed it’s pretty loud. The hotel staff also tend to play the sound system in the lobby pretty loud and sometimes until 11PM or so, but in fairness they do respond to requests to turn it down when sleeping is problematic.
Also, there are now two nightclubs nearby who play bass heavy dance music (thump - thump - thump) most nights until 1AM or later. The worst offender is at the Caletita between the hotel and the lighthouse, but there is another set up outside in the strip center just past the OXXO across the street. One night both clubs kept it up until after 3AM. Again in fairness it was the weekend when the rescheduled Carnaval was starting up and the whole island was partying, so it may not have been typical.
I do not say any of this with any intent of discouraging anyone from staying at Blue Angel; it is still a wonderful spot - far and away my favorite hotel on the island. I just would like those who read this not to be surprised that it’s not as quiet as it used to be.
Anyway, it was a great trip and we are already looking at dates in 2023. We will be staying at and diving with Blue Angel. We have earplugs.
Gordon in Austin
