Trip Report Cozumel April 15-29, 2023

[ggunn]

We got back Saturday, April 29 from a two week stay at Blue Angel. The first week there were 11 of us counting family and friends, so we did a lot of different stuff, but the second week there were only 6 of us, so Carol and I dove every day.

The breakdown:

Saturday, April 15 - We got up at 3AM to get to the Austin airport by 4:30AM for our 6:30AM Southwest flight to Houston Hobby, where we had a 4 1/2 layover before our noon flight to Cozumel that arrived a little after 2PM. We had issues in all three airports (coming and going), but the details are boring. Insert your favorite rant about airports and flying; you won’t be far off the mark. We moved into our rooms and had dinner at the BA restaurant before falling facedown into bed. Travel is exhausting.

Sunday, April 16 - We dove in the afternoon with Julio on the Jibara; I prefer morning dives but we needed the time to get our gear together and finish resting up from the day before. We first dove Cedral but the current was ripping and pushed us most of the way through Santa Rosa. Our second dive was at Yucab where the current was much more reasonable but going the wrong way. We saw more nurse sharks (five or six) on those two dives than we did on any day the rest of the trip. We had dinner at La Mission.

Monday, April 17 - At around 10:30AM the 11 of us climbed in our favorite driver’s taxi van and went on an excursion around the island. We made the usual stops - Mescalito’s, Señor Iguana’s, Punta Moreno, Coconut’s, El Mirador, Rasta’s (the one on the ocean side, aka Bob’s Marley Bar), and Tree (a huge ceiba that I am pretty sure is the largest tree on the island). We sat out a thunderstorm in the Punta Morena parking lot but the weather was pretty good the rest of the day. We got back to BA around 6PM and we had dinner at La Choza.

Tuesday, April 18 - First day fishing with the same crew we go out with every year on the La Graaan Cosa. It was a pretty slow day; we landed two small dorado (mahi mahi) and one small barracuda. Dinner at El Moro.

Wednesday, April 19 - We got pushed to the 10AM dive on the No Problem; it wasn’t a big deal but I asked the dive shop to send us out on the 8AM smaller boats thereafter, and they mostly complied. We dove with Julio again (he’s great). We first went to La Francesa and the current was even faster than it was on Sunday; we blew through La Francesa and Cedral and most of Santa Rosa. Dives like that are not much fun for me. The second dive was on Paradise and it was lovely. Dinner that night was at Buccanos At Night where we had a big group there to celebrate my mom’s 95th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!

Thursday, April 20 - The second day fishing was far better and the best of the trip. We caught two small dorado, one small barracuda, one very large (~60 lbs) wahoo, two large (~40 lb) dorado, and one very nice white marlin (100lbs+). One of the large dorado and the white marlin were mine, and they wore me out.. Dinner was at the BA restaurant and I slept very well that night.

Friday, April 21 - Diving with Julio again at 8 on the Jibara. We had a great dive at Colombia Deep for the first dive and decided to give Cedral another try for the second dive; we started in the “hills” section of Cedral and went into the inside section of Santa Rosa. It was much better, both for current and for critters.

Saturday, April 22 - The third day fishing was somewhere between the first and second day’s catch. We caught three barracudas of varying size, three small dorado, and my mom caught the smallest bonita I thank I have ever seen, but hey, she’s 95! Dinner was at La Parilla, which is not on my short list. They overcooked my tuna (I told them “very rare; show it the fire from across the room” but they turned it into tunafish), which I ordered because they were out of octopus. Tuna and octopus are the only non-beef items on the menu, and I get all the beef I want at home in Texas.

To be continued...

 

[ggunn]

Continued....

Sunday, April 23 - There was no 8AM small boat that day, so we went out on the No Problem again, diving with Andy (another great DM). We dove San Clemente and Paradise again; Andy was apologetic about taking us back to Paradise, but there was no need. The only time I am reluctant to dive there is at night when there are traffic jams both on the surface and at depth. It was my mom’s actual birthday, so we did it up again at Casa Mission.

Monday, April 24 - We went out on the Blue Angel II at 8AM with my old friend and fellow Deadhead Matteo. It turned out to be one of the best dives of the trip; we started in the middle of Palancar Bricks and drifted into Caves for the first tank and the current was perfect. For the second tank we got in in the middle of Yucab and drifted into Tormentos. Two eagle rays! We had dinner at ‘Ohana and got to hang with Matteo for a while.

Tuesday, April 25 - 8AM diving with Matteo again on the Blue Angel II. It was a real treat for us to dive with him; usually he stays very busy with students. First we had a great dive on Santa Rosa Wall, but then we dove Villablanca in the worst current I have experienced in several years. We got blown away from the group and surfaced with my buoy in the ferry lane by the lighthouse even though we had put in south of El Cid. It could have been very bad if there had been a ferry coming or going. If that happens again I am calling the dive. For dinner, on a recommendation Carol and I went to La Conchita del Caribe and it was the best meal of the trip. I had octopus grilled in mucho ajo and she had sea bass stuffed with several kinds of seafood. Both portions were huge, and the bill for the entreés, four glasses of vino blanco, and a plate of flan (two spoons) was 908 pesos!

Wednesday, April 26 - Once again we dove with Matteo at 8 on the BA II. We dove a different section of La Francesa first, where Carol got some great shots of a big nurse shark in a swimthrough. The swimthrough had a vertical exit, and as I was coming out a huge lobster was coming in; it and I were suddenly nose to nose about 6 inches apart, and I don’t know which of us was more startled. We dove another section of Yucab after that. That afternoon we dove from shore to try to find the seahorses Matteo told us about, but we couldn’t find them. We went out again that night, but they were replacing the downed pilings that held up the fence around the stingray pen and they were running an underwater jackhammer to excavate the bases. That sucker was LOUD and it pretty much ran everything off, including us.

Thursday, April 27 - We dove at 8 with Andy on the BA II, and we went to Palancar Caves first. We had planned to do both Colombias, but it was getting rougher and rougher the farther south we went, so we stopped and dove Palancar Caves (a different section than we had done before). It was spectacular, but getting back into the boat was challenging. We found out later that all of Palancar was closed right after we hit the water. Anyway, after that we dove the shallow part of San Clemente and it was very nice. It was getting late in our trip, and although we had been asking about it all week it did not look like we were going to be able to get a night boat dive in, but fellow Scubaboarder Sharkygill graciously let us join his group on their chartered trip to San Clemente on the No Problem that night. It was a beautiful dive, and we saw the hugest green turtle ever who posed for many pictures. Thanks, Rick!!! Dinner back at BA.

Friday, April 28 - Last day diving. Heavy sigh. We went out with Matteo again at 8AM on the BA II and had two more great dives on San Francisco Wall and Tormentos. We finally made it to La Perlita for dinner; we had tried twice before and it was closed - once because it was Tuesday (closed all day) and once because it was 7:31PM (they have started closing at 7:30). They were out of lionfish but they had grouper, so I had them prepare it the same way they do their coconut pez leon. It was very good, but not quite as good as the lionfish.

Saturday, April 29 - Fly home day. You can’t go back if you don’t leave. There was lots of boring travel stuff with weather delays, a madhouse in customs in Houston, a sprint between gates, snafus with the luggage, me forgetting where I parked the damn car… You know, travel. I love being other places but I hate getting there and back. Anyway, we started packing at about 8AM and pulled into the driveway at around midnight. Whew! I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.

Epilogue:

Overall we were very pleased with most everything, but with a caveat. For the past few years, in order not to have so much cash with me while I am traveling, I have been using an ATM to get pesos to pay my dive bill and hotel incidentals, but this year it burned me a bit. Blue Angel bills for everything in US$ and they were using an exchange rate of 20:1 even though the official rate was 18.0:1 the day I checked out. This cost me about US$230 more than if I had paid in US$. Lesson learned.

A cold front blew through on our second day there and it closed the port for a few hours; after that it was unusually cool and dry for a few days. That was nice.

One thing that was different from when I was there last year was that the hotel was a bit quieter, which was a good thing. Last year there was loud music (why do they love that monotonous pounding low end so much?) virtually every night until midnight or later from two nearby locations; one was a restaurant/bar between BA and the lighthouse, and the other was across the street a little past the OXXO store. Both were quiet this year. Also, the live bands on the lawn at the hotel play 4 nights instead of 5 and they have mostly gone to using backing tracks instead of live drums which brought the volume down a bit. Sylvia was in great form, as usual.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, yeah, the BA restaurant is closing at 9:30PM nowadays, so you might not be able to eat there after a night dive; maybe it’s a seasonal thing. When we were there was no Bohemia Oscura anywhere on the island. BA had a hammock for me to hang right outside my door; I was in it every morning at about 5AM to watch the island wake up. And although we never did find the seahorses out by the stingray pen, apparently everyone else who went looking for them found them. Our new friend Young (Hi, Young!) found four of them; we are eagerly waiting for her to send us her pix.

All in all it was a great trip.

Gordon

 

[lionfish-eater]

HSBC bank at the south end of the square has an ATM in the lobby that gives USD if you have that problem again. No exchange fees

 

[ggunn]

HSBC bank at the south end of the square has an ATM in the lobby that gives USD if you have that problem again. No exchange fees

Thanks; I wish I has known that. I went to two other banks and neither could give me US$

 

[Regulated]

Excellent trip report. My buddy and I enjoyed a week in CZM in late March. Currents can be, um, interesting. Currency too. Ironic that the hotel provided a more favorable exchange rate (by 10%), but it ended up costing you money due to paying in pesos for a bill in USD. Usually the deal is the opposite - you pay in USD for a bill in pesos and lose a bit in the transaction.

I tend to use ATM pesos for smaller purchases. The key to Mexican ATMs is, accept the fee, decline the conversion. Then your bank decides the conversion rate. My bank refunds ATM fees, so it doesn't cost anything to pull cash.

There is always the option to pay bigger bills with a credit card that doesn't charge a foreign-transactions fee. You will get the official exchange rate if billed in pesos, and if billed in dollars, you know in advance the amount you'll pay.

 

[mediumone]

Thanks; I wish I has known that. I went to two other banks and neither could give me US$

There's one in Chedraui as well.

 

[ReefHound]

Some thoughts, no need for quotes.

Currency. This is why when people ask "pay in pesos or dollars" and everyone and their brother chimes in to say pesos, I advise to pay pesos if the price is in pesos and pay in dollars if the price is in dollars. Many if not most of the tourist excursions are priced in dollars. We avoid the issue with our dive op because Roberta's lets me pay by Zelle, which I do after the last dive. I believe she also accepts paypal without a fee.

We dived this past week and didn't encounter what I would call "strong" currents though some were moderate.

Seahorses are invisible to me, as well. I look and look and never find one. It's rare when the DMs find one either so they are not that common or easy to spot when you can't linger in one area a long time.

 

[ggunn]

Some thoughts, no need for quotes.

Currency. This is why when people ask "pay in pesos or dollars" and everyone and their brother chimes in to say pesos, I advise to pay pesos if the price is in pesos and pay in dollars if the price is in dollars. Many if not most of the tourist excursions are priced in dollars. We avoid the issue with our dive op because Roberta's lets me pay by Zelle, which I do after the last dive. I believe she also accepts paypal without a fee.

This was never an issue for me in the past when the official exchange rate was pretty stable and BA's rate was very close to it, but this time for a couple thousand dollar dive bill an 18:1 vs. a 20:1 rate was significant. Thanks to those who posted ATM alternatives that return US$, I was under the mistaken impression that the only ATMs that did that that were the standalone ones out on the sidewalks in town.

 

[horn34]

Some thoughts, no need for quotes.

Currency. This is why when people ask "pay in pesos or dollars" and everyone and their brother chimes in to say pesos, I advise to pay pesos if the price is in pesos and pay in dollars if the price is in dollars. Many if not most of the tourist excursions are priced in dollars. We avoid the issue with our dive op because Roberta's lets me pay by Zelle, which I do after the last dive. I believe she also accepts paypal without a fee.

We dived this past week and didn't encounter what I would call "strong" currents though some were moderate.

Seahorses are invisible to me, as well. I look and look and never find one. It's rare when the DMs find one either so they are not that common or easy to spot when you can't linger in one area a long time.

That's cool, wish Aldora did that. I just always make sure to bring $500-1000 in USD to pay for dives, since Aldora doesn't move their prices often and they give a 10% cash discount.

 

[Tunaman68]

on a recommendation Carol and I went to La Conchita del Caribe and it was the best meal of the trip.

We were introduced in February for the first time and were blown away! I couldn't stop eating the garlic shrimp...or the ceviche, or.... . Good to know about BA and the exchange rate. Going for a couple weeks in Oct so I'll bring my good ole USA bankwad this time. We had nutso currents in Feb as well. Hoping with the rain and humidity in October come calm seas and low currents (and no hurricanes!!)