Campana
Guest
Michele and I went to Cozumel to meet her two sisters, their hubbies, her mom Ann, and her cousin Janice, who were all on a cruise. We left for the airport at 5 a.m. for our 8 a.m. flight. Security was a little easier than expected other than getting wanded because of all the foil life saver and gum packets in the pockets of my 9 pocket shorts. The flight on Champion Air, chartered by FunJet vacations, was totally uneventful, and we landed a little early at Coz. Transportation was provided to Casa Del Mar, and the van ride is around 15' even letting off several others at other hotels. At Casa Del Mar, they didn't have our reservation card and there was a lot of scurrying about, but of course we got a room. The room had two beds, which looked about half way between full and single. Well, we sleep together even under adverse conditions so I spent the night with my arm on the night stand. Anyway, after a quick Guacamole and chips, Bob and I went across the street and the little dive op found us a boat with Deep Blue. Kathy, Bob's wife and my wife's sister, couldn't dive due to congestion. My mother in law, the cousin, the other sister in law and her husband were already drunk by 10 a.m.
Deep Blue took us out, saying we would be doing two shallow dives, Yucab and Paradise, which was a little disappointing, but any diving is better than no diving. A young couple from New York protested and we ended up going to Palancar, one of my favorites. At 2:49 we hit the water and descended to 91 feet, along the beautiful wall, after a short swim through a cavern. The reef appeared very healthy and the fish life was the usual outstanding. Bob, my brother in law, had struggled getting down, having a new 3-2 mm wetsuit and not enough lead, and he terminated his dive at around 20' or so, so I just swam along with the others in my bathing suit and T shirt. Having dived the day before in 63 degree water at the Scuba Park, it really felt nice; the single Al80, my tiny Halcyon wing, my aluminum backplate, and 12# of lead. The Divemaster, Gabriel, worked hard to find interesting fish and stuff and the dive progressed nicely in the light drift. After around 20' we started easing up the wall, a couple of the divers had used a lot of air and would be retiring from the dive early. After our obligatory 3' safety stop, we surfaced. After a short interval of around 50', we hit the water at Yucab a shallow area further North. There, we were treated to a couple of Splendid Toadfish, one of which came all the way out of his (her?) hole. We also say plenty of French Grunts, Parrot Fish, Angel Fish of all varieties, a lot of Blue Chromis, and the usual little characters that inhabit this shallow, rather level area. The coral is nearly continuous, with a few breaks. We spent an hour exactly cruising along, and then surfaced. Bob had continued to have problems and terminated his dive early again. I talked to him about his wetsuit and offered him my .5 mm skin for the next day.
That night, we taxied to La Prima Pasta, the best restaraunt in Cozumel, in my opinion. We had various shrimp dishes on pasta, and it was all outstanding. I drank my annual Vino Tinta, only about 4 glasses though. We wandered around a bit in the sparse crowd of tourists, and my sisters in law shopped while my brothers in law gripped about it.
Back at the Hotel, we had a few Rum and Diet Cokes and went to bed in the tiny, rock hard bed. A nice day altogether; Cozumel is one of the easiest and most convenient places for us to go and we end up there about 3 times each year. The Peso is around 10 to the dollar, and you can use dollars or pesos interchangably. If the taxi fare is 40 pesos, you can give them $4, and if you have pesos, and they ask for dollars, its OK too.
We agreed to head over to Del Mar Divers to give them a try, my brother in law agreed to scout it out in the morning, since he can't sleep very well.
Day two later.
Deep Blue took us out, saying we would be doing two shallow dives, Yucab and Paradise, which was a little disappointing, but any diving is better than no diving. A young couple from New York protested and we ended up going to Palancar, one of my favorites. At 2:49 we hit the water and descended to 91 feet, along the beautiful wall, after a short swim through a cavern. The reef appeared very healthy and the fish life was the usual outstanding. Bob, my brother in law, had struggled getting down, having a new 3-2 mm wetsuit and not enough lead, and he terminated his dive at around 20' or so, so I just swam along with the others in my bathing suit and T shirt. Having dived the day before in 63 degree water at the Scuba Park, it really felt nice; the single Al80, my tiny Halcyon wing, my aluminum backplate, and 12# of lead. The Divemaster, Gabriel, worked hard to find interesting fish and stuff and the dive progressed nicely in the light drift. After around 20' we started easing up the wall, a couple of the divers had used a lot of air and would be retiring from the dive early. After our obligatory 3' safety stop, we surfaced. After a short interval of around 50', we hit the water at Yucab a shallow area further North. There, we were treated to a couple of Splendid Toadfish, one of which came all the way out of his (her?) hole. We also say plenty of French Grunts, Parrot Fish, Angel Fish of all varieties, a lot of Blue Chromis, and the usual little characters that inhabit this shallow, rather level area. The coral is nearly continuous, with a few breaks. We spent an hour exactly cruising along, and then surfaced. Bob had continued to have problems and terminated his dive early again. I talked to him about his wetsuit and offered him my .5 mm skin for the next day.
That night, we taxied to La Prima Pasta, the best restaraunt in Cozumel, in my opinion. We had various shrimp dishes on pasta, and it was all outstanding. I drank my annual Vino Tinta, only about 4 glasses though. We wandered around a bit in the sparse crowd of tourists, and my sisters in law shopped while my brothers in law gripped about it.
Back at the Hotel, we had a few Rum and Diet Cokes and went to bed in the tiny, rock hard bed. A nice day altogether; Cozumel is one of the easiest and most convenient places for us to go and we end up there about 3 times each year. The Peso is around 10 to the dollar, and you can use dollars or pesos interchangably. If the taxi fare is 40 pesos, you can give them $4, and if you have pesos, and they ask for dollars, its OK too.
We agreed to head over to Del Mar Divers to give them a try, my brother in law agreed to scout it out in the morning, since he can't sleep very well.
Day two later.
