Trip Report Cozumel Palace & AquaSafari March 2021

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Kimela

Contributor
Messages
6,424
Reaction score
10,018
Location
Missouri
# of dives
500 - 999
We had a great time – as always – great service at the resort and fun dives with the crew. Greatly appreciate Mariano and Daniel as our dive guides (and Fernando), who helped us find wonderful things to shoot photos of. I was using my Inon S2000 for the very first time and had a blast with it and my TG6. We got in 4 days of diving and were blown out on 2 days. Evidently there is an opposite of a norte but I don’t think they call it a soute! The port closed all of one day, and reopened the next day at 1:30 – too late for us to get our dives in.

I got a nice shot of a juvenile thuridilla - which is a painted elysia, as far as I can tell. But this one, instead of being the typical red/blue/white was pink/blue/orange - and looked like thread in the sand until I got my camera on it. I posted it on ID Please (a FB page) and I got a message from someone asking if they could use it in the next critter ID book. Of course I said yes, but haven't heard back from them. Maybe they found a better shot - but I'm still absolutely tickled pink (pun intended). First picture below. I really like the tiny stuff - wish my eyes were a bit better.

Covid test – it was included in the cost of the resort package and was easy. We scheduled it ahead of time and showed up a few minutes early and were in and out (brains scratched) within 20 minutes. We flew American Airlines and used the VeriFLY app, which really streamlined the process.

We did a night dive on Paradise and I got some good shots. Unfortunately, I had the WORST mask fog EVER! Ya know how baseball players have a ritual or ‘lucky socks’ or what-have-you? I have a process. I deviated from the process. I’ll never do that again. What I do, works really well. I don’t know why I deviated. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

We left the resort for some tooling around town. We had coffee at Rockin Java – nice. On another evening we went to No Name Bar for cocktails at sunset – also nice. Cozumel is a great little island that we just might retire to someday.
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Great photos!

That little yellow one looks like a muppet.
 
A bunch of really nice shots Kimela. That strobe was definitely a good investment for you ! Thanks for posting

Thanks! I dragged my feet on a strobe for a few years but it really was worth the money and the slightly bigger rig. :)
 
Thanks! I dragged my feet on a strobe for a few years but it really was worth the money and the slightly bigger rig. :)
How close were you to that lionfish? My wife was trying to get a closeup of one one time and she was only looking at it through the camera as she drifted closer and closer to it as I nervously watched. Finally I couldn't take it any more; I grabbed a fin and pulled her back from it.
 
How close were you to that lionfish? My wife was trying to get a closeup of one one time and she was only looking at it through the camera as she drifted closer and closer to it as I nervously watched. Finally I couldn't take it any more; I grabbed a fin and pulled her back from it.

I think I got about 2 ft away - I was very aware that getting too close could hurt.
 
Nice photos!

Also, how close, to the little guys peeking out of their holes did have to get, and how long did you have wait for them to come back out?
 
I'm still trying to decide/figure out where we are going to go in May. Did you book Cozumel palace in a package with aquasafari, or did you do it separately? Seems like I remember a while back they offered you "credits" that you could use to book with AquaSafari but I didn't know if they were still doing that or not.
 
I'm still trying to decide/figure out where we are going to go in May. Did you book Cozumel palace in a package with aquasafari, or did you do it separately? Seems like I remember a while back they offered you "credits" that you could use to book with AquaSafari but I didn't know if they were still doing that or not.

The Palace booking includes 1500 credits for a 7 day stay - and that covers your diving plus a little more. Watch their website for deals. We were fortunate to purchase when they had their 2-for-1 deal - used the week in March and will return in May. With covid still wreaking havoc, maybe they'll offer that again?
 

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