Trip Report Cozumel Trip Report: April 1-10, 2021

[MMM]

I love doing San Francisco as a first dive and I like to dive it deep. And I see you have found one of my very favourite places to eat in Cozumel. We usually go once a week. Prices are SOOOO reasonable.

Woke up to beautiful skies, light breezes and the calmest seas yet. Our first dive was at San Francisco wall. Water temps have held steady at 79 degrees. San Francisco is a beautiful wall dive

I decided to have lunch today at K’ooben Laab and see what all of the hype here on the board is all about. I can now be counted among the number of big fans and this restaurant will be on my must places to eat 1-2 times per stay.

 

[Trailboss123]

TFS and how would you rate the condition of the reef? Looking forward to diving there with the family in May.

The reefs look great overall- exception was some stony coral disease holdover I saw on San Francisco Wall this morning. Mentioned in my post above.

 

[Trailboss123]

Tremendous!
Enjoy your dive and the trip mate. Take good care.

Hopefully I can do some dives in Thailand later this yr.

Thanks and I hope to dive with you in the Philippines one of these days.I have current plans to be there this December if they open up to foreign nationals.

 

[Trailboss123]

I love doing San Francisco as a first dive and I like to dive it deep. And I see you have found one of my very favourite places to eat in Cozumel. We usually go once a week. Prices are SOOOO reasonable.

I am surprised that a lot of dive ops choose to dive San Francisco as a shallow "top of the reef" 2nd dive. It is a gorgeous wall that slopes at nice degrees and gets quite vertical in places too.

 

[jbjclj]

Tuesday April 6th
Woke up to beautiful skies, light breezes and the calmest seas yet. Our first dive was at San Francisco wall. Water temps have held steady at 79 degrees. San Francisco is a beautiful wall dive when the first 20 minutes are spent on the deeper side and slowly move up the wall. I did notice that the stony coral disease has impacted this wall though. Many previous purple corals are now brown and white. I have not seen this elsewhere. Once we started making our way to the top of the wall in 38 feet we came eye ball to eye ball (literally) with a gorgeous spotted eagle ray. He decided to hang out with us and was happy with our company. He eventually took off, only to swoop back around in a 360 and feed in the sand for conch right in front of us once again. Was an incredibly long and majestic encounter. I was so mesmerized and fearful that anything I would do might cause him to leave, that I kept my camera and video light at bay and didn’t dare turn on my light and cause him to leave and ruin the experience.

Shortly thereafter a very large and old loggerhead turtle came our way and slowly made a close encounter fly by. It was a great end to the dive. The 2nd dive was at Tormentos. As with all of the dives this week, we had negligible to no current. For whatever reason there just is not any current and I have never finned so much in Cozumel. Couple of big lobsters and a very large green moray eel were seen on the dive. Also, lots of schooling triggerfish parading by in a constant flow down in the sand channel.

I decided to have lunch today at K’ooben Laab and see what all of the hype here on the board is all about. I can now be counted among the number of big fans and this restaurant will be on my must places to eat 1-2 times per stay. They do handmade, in-house pasta (6 different varieties to choose from) and another 7 sauces to match however you would like to go about it. They had 3-4 specials including a risotto that someone at another table ordered and was raving about. The salads are amazing. I ended up getting a spinach based “small” salad” that could have easily been a meal in itself combined with the free in-house made bread and tapenade they provide when you sit down. My salad had cucumber, cabbage, radish, carrot, pepitas, yellow bell pepper, heirloom tomatoes, squash, red onion and a house made delicious honey mustard dressing mixed together with that spinach. Balsamic dressing was also an option.

I also chose a pasta dish with tagliatelle noodles and pesto. It was an excellent meal and experience while seated in their rooftop dining area. Cost for pasta dishes run between $4 and $6 and my salad was $3. They have a larger version salad for $4.50. Additionally, they have a nice selection of Mexican white and red wines, soups and some to-go breads and pastries.
It is located on 30th (Also known as Avenida Jose Joaquin Coldwell) and just a few establishments north of Calle 5 Sur.

Definitely on for our night dive tomorrow night after our 2 morning dives. We have 6 divers for the night dive.
Same 6 were set to dive together Thursday morning, so we got together and agreed to push our AM dives to afternoon dives so everyone can sleep in after the late night dives.

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We had a group of 14 go to Kooben Laab right after they opened the roof. We preordered 4 different pastas that they served family style with salads and their delicious breads and desserts. Can't wait to go back (4 weeks)

 

[deepsea21]

There are tables located on the lobby/pool level where breakfast is served. For people with early morning start times for diving, it can be a bit of a crap shoot whether you can order and get served and eat in time. I recommend ordering through the folks at the lobby the night before if you want to be sure.

Great posts Trailboss... Yeah, when we went in December the new a la carte breakfast didn't work for us as the Casa Mexicana hadn't figured out that AM divers need breakfast earlier than the sit down and order process could meet compared to the buffet that was always opened at 7AM pre-covid. The Casa started the day before breakfast orders while we where there. Quite honestly, we didn't screw around with it and just grabbed some fruits and bakery at the Mega just down the street for the next day. It will be great when the buffet re-opens again but I sense that is in the distant future for Mexico as they can't vaccinate at the rate we are (just got my 2nd Moderna today - had absolutely no side effects from the 1st and so far, none from this 2nd but we'll see how I feel tomorrow). Regardless of how I feel, if I feel a little sick for a day so be it as I have friends who have had Covid and I certainly don't want to go through what they did... days and day s of sickness, some hospitalized on O2 for days, sent home with O2, etc. No thanks... Not me.

 

[Trailboss123]

We had a group of 14 go to Kooben Laab right after they opened the roof. We preordered 4 different pastas that they served family style with salads and their delicious breads and desserts. Can't wait to go back (4 weeks)

One of the guys that has been on the boat diving with me since I arrived and is a Chicago native, but now lives in Phoenix, has been raving to me about another Italian place that he swears I have to try. It is called La Cucina Italiana and is operated by a local woman out of her home. She makes a limited number of dishes per day (soups, entrees, salad, bread) and when it is gone, it is gone. So, sounds like a place you want to get too early, rather than late (maybe late lunch after diving or early dinner time).
La Cucina Italiana Restaurant - Home

 

[MMM]

I am surprised that a lot of dive ops choose to San Francisco as a shallow "top of the reef" 2nd dive. It is a gorgeous wall that slopes at nice degrees and gets quite vertical in places too.

I think the problem arises when dive ops have to pick up divers who are far south. Then it becomes economically unfeasible to go back north to dive San Fran for a first dive and then take divers back south after that...and then go back north again to drop off in town. In that case, it only works as a first dive if most divers are staying in or very near town.

 

[Trailboss123]

Great posts Trailboss... Yeah, when we went in December the new a la carte breakfast didn't work for us as the Casa Mexicana hadn't figured out that AM divers need breakfast earlier than the sit down and order process could meet compared to the buffet that was always opened at 7AM pre-covid. The Casa started the day before breakfast orders while we where there. Quite honestly, we didn't screw around with it and just grabbed some fruits and bakery at the Mega just down the street for the next day. It will be great when the buffet re-opens again but I sense that is in the distant future for Mexico as they can't vaccinate at the rate we are (just got my 2nd Moderna today - had absolutely no side effects from the 1st and so far, none from this 2nd but we'll see how I feel tomorrow). Regardless of how I feel, if I feel a little sick for a day so be it as I have friends who have had Covid and I certainly don't want to go through what they did... days and day s of sickness, some hospitalized on O2 for days, sent home with O2, etc. No thanks... Not me.

I am a bit reluctant to throw this out there for fear it might come back to bite me in the butt down the road when it becomes too popular and I won't be able to get a room; but there is this place that I have become aware of during this trip called Quinta Suites. I went over to check them out today on the recommendation of a few people. Functionally appointed suites with living room, kitchen and 1 or 2 bedroom options at a really inexpensive rate. They are basically catty-corner from 3P's on the NE corner of 5th and 5th. For anyone diving with Aldora or 3P's and want to do some of their own meals, this would be a great option.
https://www.quinta-suites.com/

 

[flyboy08]

Lucky you my friend! My wife dragged me to Steamboat to ski....kicking and screaming all the way!

enjoy you lucky......