Zhukov
Registered
I figured I'd cross-post my Cozumel trip report here since not everyone may see it in GD. My kids (19 and 16) got certified just prior, so our whole family went. We stayed at El Cid/La Ceiba right by the international cruise ship piers, which is where my wife an I went on our honeymoon back in 1992. The reason we stayed there and dove with Babieca is because you get free shore diving. Shore diving isn't great in Cozumel, but it's actually kind of worthwhile in front of the hotel, plus you can do night dives. We got in early enough last Sunday to do an afternoon checkout dive and get the weights adjusted - another nice thing. Turns out I was WAY low since I've gained a lot of weight since our last foray into the ocean. Ouch.
Babieca turned out to be just fine for diving. They used relatively small boats, about 8 divers, the boats were fast and the divemasters just fine. You can pretty much dive your computer or down to 700 psi, whichever comes first. Our dives were:
Hotel pier checkout dive
Palancar Gardens
Paso del Cedral
Santa Rosa Wall
Punta Tunich
Night dive off the hotel pier
Cedral Wall
Tormentos
Night dive off the hotel pier
Plata del Cedral
Yucab
I wish we had done Palancar again on the last day, but everyone really liked the amount of critters we saw on other sections of Cedral so we went back there again. Visibility was not as good as on some previous occasions - I would estimate around 75 -100 feet. We did have a crappy dive off of Punta Tunich - the current was ripping, and my daughter kind of freaked out and wanted to surface after 30 minutes. She was buddied up with my wife and had lost track of the rest of the group due to the current. They surfaced in rough water and it took them forever for a boat to pick them up as our guy was nowhere to be seen. They eventually got it sorted out, but ended up being pissed at the divemaster who lectured them (over the top) when they had followed the plan. Anyway - all is well that ends well and the everything else was great.
Panorama off of our balcony:
Sunset:
I have a Canon s110 point and shoot in a Canon camera housing. One thing to keep in mind is that water absorbs red light very quickly under water so everything looks blue the deeper you go. Flash can add color back, but I only had the little on-camera flash. Maybe next time I'll buy a cheap strobe. I also got better at the end of the week playing with the camera settings and using manual mode instead of full auto.
French angelfish - these things are actually pretty big, about 16" long:
Queen triggerfish:
Queen angelfish - they are even more vivid in person:
Sea turtle and French angelfish:
Nurse shark:
My whole family:
Sea turtle and rock beauty:
Some kind of flounder I think:
A drumfish - these are rare to see; it also shows how much more colorful things are with the flash able to do its stuff:
Brain coral:
Spiny lobster:
Barracuda:
Green moray eel:
Sea horse:
More incredible colors:
Babieca turned out to be just fine for diving. They used relatively small boats, about 8 divers, the boats were fast and the divemasters just fine. You can pretty much dive your computer or down to 700 psi, whichever comes first. Our dives were:
Hotel pier checkout dive
Palancar Gardens
Paso del Cedral
Santa Rosa Wall
Punta Tunich
Night dive off the hotel pier
Cedral Wall
Tormentos
Night dive off the hotel pier
Plata del Cedral
Yucab
I wish we had done Palancar again on the last day, but everyone really liked the amount of critters we saw on other sections of Cedral so we went back there again. Visibility was not as good as on some previous occasions - I would estimate around 75 -100 feet. We did have a crappy dive off of Punta Tunich - the current was ripping, and my daughter kind of freaked out and wanted to surface after 30 minutes. She was buddied up with my wife and had lost track of the rest of the group due to the current. They surfaced in rough water and it took them forever for a boat to pick them up as our guy was nowhere to be seen. They eventually got it sorted out, but ended up being pissed at the divemaster who lectured them (over the top) when they had followed the plan. Anyway - all is well that ends well and the everything else was great.
Panorama off of our balcony:
Sunset:
I have a Canon s110 point and shoot in a Canon camera housing. One thing to keep in mind is that water absorbs red light very quickly under water so everything looks blue the deeper you go. Flash can add color back, but I only had the little on-camera flash. Maybe next time I'll buy a cheap strobe. I also got better at the end of the week playing with the camera settings and using manual mode instead of full auto.
French angelfish - these things are actually pretty big, about 16" long:
Queen triggerfish:
Queen angelfish - they are even more vivid in person:
Sea turtle and French angelfish:
Nurse shark:
My whole family:
Sea turtle and rock beauty:
Some kind of flounder I think:
A drumfish - these are rare to see; it also shows how much more colorful things are with the flash able to do its stuff:
Brain coral:
Spiny lobster:
Barracuda:
Green moray eel:
Sea horse:
More incredible colors:
