Trip Report Cozumel- October 10-20, 2021

[Tunaman68]

Great pics. Just got back and had a great time and thought the reefs looked incredible as well!!

 

[ggunn]

No deco necessary, unless you insist on diving such a deep profile.

I don't; quite the contrary, in fact. The way my dive there went there was no avoiding it.

 

[Doc Harry]

I LOVE PUNTA TUNICH WALL

Coz is a haven for us, too. We've been to Coz three times during the pandemic. One trip, we were the only tourists on the main street downtown, and almost all of the businesses were closed.

I hate flying United, almost as much as I hate flying through Texas. On our last trip United cancelled our flight and changed it to an overnight trip through Texas. They didn't even inform us until 2 weeks before the flight, and United had given away our first class seats. The United reservations representative, regarding our displeasure with losing our seats, and moving us to coach:

"I don't care. Take it or leave it."

I can't wait until Delta is flying to Coz again. After our last disaster trip with United, we are NOT going to Coz again until we can fly Delta.

 

[DeltaWardog]

On our last trip United cancelled our flight and changed it to an overnight trip through Texas.

They did something similar to me before my departure late September, changing a direct flight into Cozumel to a long layover in Texas. The only reason I decided to put up with United's BS was because it was a direct flight. Fortunately I booked through AMEX travel and I just called them and they got me a full refund. If I'm gonna have a layover I'm gonna fly with Southwest, one of the few airlines that treats customers properly.

 

[stronj1]

I took a flight from Portland, OR to Cozumel via Houston with United Airlines.
This requires an overnight stay in Houston on the outbound flight only, as you cannot get to Houston with the time change early enough to catch the once a morning flight to CZM.

I decided to stay in an Air BNB this trip and found a reasonably priced one just around the corner from Tres Pelicanos, who I did all of my diving with.
Cost was $425 for 10 nights. I typically stay at Casa Mexicana or its sister hotel Suites Colonial.

I did 23 dives over the 9 days, with one excellent night dive at Paradise reef.

San Francisco Reefs and Santa Rosa reefs and wall were closed this month, but all other dive sites were open and in very good condition. The island was busier than it has been over the last year and a half. The cruise ships are coming back to the island and there seemed to be 2-4 there each day. The Palancar Reefs were extremely busy with dozens of boats on the early morning dives.

I got down to Maracaibo on this trip and a number of dives at Columbia. We took in a “new to me” dive site, as we chose to do a morning deep dive off of the Punta Tunich Wall (not to be confused with the shallower Punta Tunich dive site) that is regularly done as a second and shallower dive. The Punta Tunich wall is pristine and rarely dived. Nitrox is a must, as the shallowest part of the dive is at 60 feet.

Some of the highlights of the diving was seeing 4 black tip reef sharks all in formation cruising right nearby us. Lots of morays (spotted and green). A splendid toad fish out free swimming on the night dive (just a gorgeous fish). A flying gurnard in the shallows at La Francesa. About 10 octopus out and about on the night dive also. A few nurse sharks, lots of large crabs and all of the usual Cozumel reef fish.

The International Hospital no longer requires appointments for the antigen test required 72 hours prior to reentry back to the USA. Just show up and pay 450 pesos and be sure to have your passport. Results available and emailed within an hour. There are no COVID requirements for entering into Mexico via airlines.

I hit up all of my favorite local food spots, as well as excellent Italian food at Kooben Laab and Indian food at Bombay Delights.
I had some good times with new people I met on the dive boat from all over the US (Maryland, Louisiana, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Boston, MA).

I decided to leave my Sea life dive camera at home and instead tried out for the first time my new Sea Life Sport Diver housing which holds my iPhone 12 Pro Max, which became my dive camera. I paired it with my Sea Life Sea Dragon 3000 lumen dive light and had tremendous results with both video and still photos.
Here is a link to the housing, for those interested:

SportDiver Underwater Smartphone Housing

Cozumel has been a nice haven for me over the last year and a half pandemic. It is very reliable and straightforward. Water temps were 85 degrees consistently and visibility was almost always 100+ feet, with a couple of dives with cloudy/murky conditions that reduced visibility to 40-50 feet.

Here is a link to a 4 minute You Tube video of some of the diving:

And here are a few still pics

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Love that splendid toadfish picture! I've never seen one all the way out of its hole. Great trip report!

 

[PapaRod]

Awesome, I was just looking for some Night Dive info, bonus seeing your results with the SeaLife housing. Received one for Christmas and just got new iPhone 13 Pro Max, so excited to see what results I can get.