ski-diveSteve
Registered
Hola amigos,
I just returned from a week of diving in Cozumel. It was my first dive trip to the island, as my only other time there was on a cruise ship and a norte prevented me from diving. This was a reschedule for me as I was supposed to go down 11/5/05, two weeks after Wilma! I had a fantastic time and am so glad I went. The dives were awesome, no doubt the best I've ever had (other places I've been is Florida Keys, Bahamas, Texas Flower Gardens, Monterey).
Stayed at Villas Las Anclas, a small 6-room hotel. Found it on tripadvisor.com, it is rated #1 in Cozumel and deserves it. They have nice comfortable rooms, two stories with a queen bed upstairs, great A/C, awesome location one block from the water and three blocks from town square. Only a five-minute walk to Aldora's boat each morning. Only $70/night, unbelievable. Highly recommended.
My dives were with Aldora Divers and I was extremely pleased with them. People were in and out all week but I stayed with the same divemaster (Louis). Never more than 5 divers on the boat, and a couple days just two divers. They had other boats going out but kept the divers at a comparable level. I've read the most about Aldora in Undercurrent Magazine as well as this board. They went to all the good spots and took my requests seriously. A great, well organized, safe dive operation. These guys have it down and I will gladly dive with them again. Louis is an awesome divemaster, giving us all kind of information about the reefs and Cozumel in general. Underwater he was skilled in keeping the group together and pointing out little creatures everyone else would have missed. He had a few tips for me and I know I took my skills to a new level just by watching and learning from him. He had a ten foot long octupus on his setup so he could share air if someone went low before the rest of the group. Fortunately I did not have to make use of that! Surface intervals were done daily at Playa Mia, were we could eat, lounge in the sun, etc. Very relaxing. Playa Mia obviously depends on cruise ship tourists and several days they were slow when no ships were in. One day I got to meet Dave Dillehay, the owner of Aldora. He was very down to earth and I enjoyed talking to him about the dive business. He's a nice guy and splits his time between Cozumel and Texas.
The dives and the reefs:
Spectacular for me since I've never dove in Cozumel. Here's the list of what we did.
Monday: Santa Rosa Wall and Tormentos. Tormentos definitely had a lot of sand an hurricane damage, I think it was the worst that I saw all week. There were still interesting things.
Tuesday: Pallancar Bricks and Punta Tunich. The bricks were interesting and the terrain at Pallancar is phenomenal!
Wednesday: Columbia Deep and the wreck - Felipe. Columbia is awesome with little hurricane damage. I enjoyed the wreck a lot, Louis led the way and we penetrated all the rooms. You can sit on the ships toliets and pretend you are taking a shower.
Thursday: Punta Sur. Aldora honored my request to do the Devil's throat. Our whole group of five divers went in. It was a great experience. I love swim throughs and this was simply a longer one. Didn't seem to be as intimidating as everything I've read on it. If you are comfortable in the dark and don't mind a narrow tunnel, you'll be fine. It would be no place to panic though. Can't even remember what we did for Dive 2 that day as Dive 1 was so good. I did use Nitrox on the second dive Thursday and Friday as I pretty much maxed out my decompression limits with Aldora's 120 tanks and my conservative (Suunto Cobra) computer.
Friday: Pallancar Caves and San Francisco Reef. Again at my request. Great way to finish the week.
Saw many turtles and eagle rays all week. Only one nurse shark. Lots of fish. Plently to look at for sure. I was so thrilled with the reef topography I still would have enjoyed it with no fish! Yes, Wilma was here but the reefs are still in decent shape and are coming back. I could see new growth of purple finger coral on many sites. Water temp was 82 degrees all week, weather was partly-mostly cloudy with one evening of heavy rain.
The food!
Loved eating out in Cozumel. Many good places and great eating. Went with some of the suggestions mentioned on this board and did not regret it.
Casa Denis
La Choza
La Mission
Sonora Grill: Great fajitas!
Prima: One of the best steaks I've had, along with the catch of the day
Guido's: Wood fired pizza!
I'll sign off here as this is getting long. Just wanted to relay what a great time I had, can't wait to go back some day.
I just returned from a week of diving in Cozumel. It was my first dive trip to the island, as my only other time there was on a cruise ship and a norte prevented me from diving. This was a reschedule for me as I was supposed to go down 11/5/05, two weeks after Wilma! I had a fantastic time and am so glad I went. The dives were awesome, no doubt the best I've ever had (other places I've been is Florida Keys, Bahamas, Texas Flower Gardens, Monterey).
Stayed at Villas Las Anclas, a small 6-room hotel. Found it on tripadvisor.com, it is rated #1 in Cozumel and deserves it. They have nice comfortable rooms, two stories with a queen bed upstairs, great A/C, awesome location one block from the water and three blocks from town square. Only a five-minute walk to Aldora's boat each morning. Only $70/night, unbelievable. Highly recommended.
My dives were with Aldora Divers and I was extremely pleased with them. People were in and out all week but I stayed with the same divemaster (Louis). Never more than 5 divers on the boat, and a couple days just two divers. They had other boats going out but kept the divers at a comparable level. I've read the most about Aldora in Undercurrent Magazine as well as this board. They went to all the good spots and took my requests seriously. A great, well organized, safe dive operation. These guys have it down and I will gladly dive with them again. Louis is an awesome divemaster, giving us all kind of information about the reefs and Cozumel in general. Underwater he was skilled in keeping the group together and pointing out little creatures everyone else would have missed. He had a few tips for me and I know I took my skills to a new level just by watching and learning from him. He had a ten foot long octupus on his setup so he could share air if someone went low before the rest of the group. Fortunately I did not have to make use of that! Surface intervals were done daily at Playa Mia, were we could eat, lounge in the sun, etc. Very relaxing. Playa Mia obviously depends on cruise ship tourists and several days they were slow when no ships were in. One day I got to meet Dave Dillehay, the owner of Aldora. He was very down to earth and I enjoyed talking to him about the dive business. He's a nice guy and splits his time between Cozumel and Texas.
The dives and the reefs:
Spectacular for me since I've never dove in Cozumel. Here's the list of what we did.
Monday: Santa Rosa Wall and Tormentos. Tormentos definitely had a lot of sand an hurricane damage, I think it was the worst that I saw all week. There were still interesting things.
Tuesday: Pallancar Bricks and Punta Tunich. The bricks were interesting and the terrain at Pallancar is phenomenal!
Wednesday: Columbia Deep and the wreck - Felipe. Columbia is awesome with little hurricane damage. I enjoyed the wreck a lot, Louis led the way and we penetrated all the rooms. You can sit on the ships toliets and pretend you are taking a shower.
Thursday: Punta Sur. Aldora honored my request to do the Devil's throat. Our whole group of five divers went in. It was a great experience. I love swim throughs and this was simply a longer one. Didn't seem to be as intimidating as everything I've read on it. If you are comfortable in the dark and don't mind a narrow tunnel, you'll be fine. It would be no place to panic though. Can't even remember what we did for Dive 2 that day as Dive 1 was so good. I did use Nitrox on the second dive Thursday and Friday as I pretty much maxed out my decompression limits with Aldora's 120 tanks and my conservative (Suunto Cobra) computer.
Friday: Pallancar Caves and San Francisco Reef. Again at my request. Great way to finish the week.
Saw many turtles and eagle rays all week. Only one nurse shark. Lots of fish. Plently to look at for sure. I was so thrilled with the reef topography I still would have enjoyed it with no fish! Yes, Wilma was here but the reefs are still in decent shape and are coming back. I could see new growth of purple finger coral on many sites. Water temp was 82 degrees all week, weather was partly-mostly cloudy with one evening of heavy rain.
The food!
Loved eating out in Cozumel. Many good places and great eating. Went with some of the suggestions mentioned on this board and did not regret it.Casa Denis
La Choza
La Mission
Sonora Grill: Great fajitas!
Prima: One of the best steaks I've had, along with the catch of the day
Guido's: Wood fired pizza!
I'll sign off here as this is getting long. Just wanted to relay what a great time I had, can't wait to go back some day.
