Cozumel trip report 5/15-23/17 Scuba Du

[Erwin Poliakoff]

I returned from a very nice trip to Cozumel a couple of weeks ago. I went with my wife, and we stayed at the Presidente for 8 nights. I dove for 7 days (2 tank morning dives) and my wife dove for 6 days. The hotel had just finished some significant renovations last year, most of which were nice changes. My wife had some serious health problems last year, so this was her first time diving in over a year. We dove with Scuba Du, which is the on-site operator at the hotel. We hired a private dive guide just to play it safe. He was great, and it was nice having a private spotter. The diving was fantastic, as always, and the hotel was excellent. We particularly liked a new restaurant that was installed during the renovation, called El Cap, I believe. Food was great and the view was wonderful. We have been to Cozumel several times before, and the diving was as good as I remember; the visibility was fantastic. Sponges added great color to the reefscapes. the assortment of fish and the density of fish were both as good as I remember.

The whole set of pictures from the trip can be found here: 2017 Cozumel Flickr album, and here are some examples.


20_adj_DSC_2814 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr


15_adj_DSC_3154 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr


01_adj_DSC_2617 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr


54_adj_DSC_3050 by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr


04_adj_DSC_2751 a school of trunkfish by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr


07_adj_DSC_2913 peacock flounder by Erwin Poliakoff, on Flickr

 

[Ready4Launch]

What sites did you dive? I am going next month for the first time. Planning on diving for about 4 or 5 days straight.

 

[Erwin Poliakoff]

What sites did you dive? I am going next month for the first time. Planning on diving for about 4 or 5 days straight.

The way Scuba Du works (and other dive operators I have been with, too) is that they dive a deeper dive first (nominally 80 feet deep), followed by a shallower dive (~60 ft max depth). The first dives will be to one of the topography-rich sites, and the second dive will be to a "flatter" drift dive. I did not write down all of the dives sites, but I would say that I liked all of the first dives almost equally well. My favorites were the Palancar sites. I really enjoyed Palancar Bricks and Palancar Gardens. We also did Santa Rosa wall, which was excellent, but maybe not quite as good in my mind as the Palancar sites. I also should mention that my favorite dive from previous trips has been Palancar Horseshoe. With that said, I would dive any of these first dives again in a heartbeat; I love them all. For the shallower dives, I remember that we did Tormentos, which I like very much. We also dove Delilah and Francesca, which I believe are adjacent sites; they were both very good. Cedral Pass was not quite as scenic as those but the density and assortment of fish was fantastic. Lastly, I remember diving Paradise Reef. This was probably the least scenic of the dives and not the best in terms of reef health. On the other hand, there were more critters here than on any other dive, and it is great for macro photography. Of course, we did other sites, but I did not write them down. I hope that this summary helps a bit. I would not stress too much on the selection of sites, though. They were all memorable.
-Erwin

 

[judypots]

Great photos, Erwin. What camera do you use? My husband and I are going to Cozumel in December, staying at the Presidente as well. We went there 8 or 9 years ago when we were very new divers, so we're looking forward to this trip with a lot more dives under our belts. Your photos make my mouth water with anticipation!
Judy

 

[Erwin Poliakoff]

Great photos, Erwin. What camera do you use? My husband and I are going to Cozumel in December, staying at the Presidente as well. We went there 8 or 9 years ago when we were very new divers, so we're looking forward to this trip with a lot more dives under our belts. Your photos make my mouth water with anticipation!
Judy

Thanks so much, Judy. I am sure that you will have a great time. It is hard not to. To answer your question, I use a Nikon D7000 in a Nauticam housing. I use a Tokina 10-17mm lens for the wide angle shots and a Nikkor 85mm macro lens. For lighting, I use dual Inon Z240 strobes. I like looking at the photos, too, but they are nothing compared to the real thing. Have fun!
-Erwin

 

[cicopo]

Beautiful exposure on the Angel fish.