Cozumel trip report May 2014
This trip was for a week from May 7 -14 and was a guys only trip. I met my friends from Ontario, Canada at the airport in Cozumel and who used Delta via Atlanta. I came down from Denver on American Airlines via Dallas. The trip down was uneventful.
We made it to the hotel and unpacked, had a few cold ones and prepared cameras. We stayed at Reef Regency/Sunscapes which was fairly uncrowded compared to February 2014.
Coming back I was hassled by a Customs guy in Dallas who wanted to know if I was a professional photographer (no), asked me for receipts for the camera (at home) and told me I needed to register the camera equipment. We talked for awhile. I told him I was an amateur and it was personal equipment. I cant tell if he was bored or needed entertainment. Guess Ill have to check into bringing receipts or registration. I wanted to tell him I did not have receipts for my underwear either but didnt.
Our flight from Dallas to Denver diverted to Colorado Springs due to what the pilot called weather issues. Odd that the plane next to us on approach (parallel runways) landed and we went around and then diverted. While in Co Springs, the guy next to me who was a small plane pilot, pulled up the arrivals to DIA when we were in the Denver area and afterwards and it showed all kinds of planes landing. I dont think we were on a training flight so I cant explain it. The pilot did announce that someone in seat 24B was not turning off his electronic equipment so we couldnt leave Co Springs until it was off.
The better stuff
We dove with Bottom Time Divers Raul Platas bottomtimedivers.net for the week. We had the three of us at the beginning of the week plus one person we met last year, Chris. We ended the week with a full boat.
The weather was hot with south winds so we had good weather all week. The winds did pick up enough that the more southern sites like Punta Sur were a bit choppy so we dove from the Palancars and north to Cedral pass and Cedral wall. We got a night dive in this trip to Cedral pass. Its been awhile for a night dive due to weather and Op availability. We were not disappointed. I expected a lot of octopus but we only saw 2-3 small ones however we had lots of puffer fish, large Green Morays in the open, several pesky nurse sharks, a couple of turtles, slipper lobsters and lots of sleeping fish. We did get in a day dive at the end of Punta Sur and start of Colombia Deep one day. We mostly dove that one over the top of the pinnacles.
We did see a massive Loggerhead turtle going north in an open stretch of sand a good distance from our group. He was on some sort of mission.
We had good dive times this trip. The currents were very slow at the sites we dove. My shortest dive was 64 min and a couple of 85 min dives were a bonus. Average was 74 min. There were divers that had longer times but they are smurfs. Water temps at depth were consistently 82 degrees
Dive Paradise is the onsite operator for the hotel complex (Secrets/Sunscape) and we were told that they were charging $3 per person per day to use the northern concrete pier. We used the southern wood pier.
This Green Moray had wedged itself upside down in a crack and barely acknowledged me. Raul (who did not see it in situ) said it was pregnancy related.
One of the Green Morays on the night dive out hunting
Green Turtle
Some landscape shots
Longsnout seahorse
This nurse shark stuck around trying to drive itself under ledges looking for food. Every time it did this a fish was inconveniently between me and the shark so no good shots of that.
I have started paying attention to corkscrew anemones for these Pederson Cleaner Shrimp.
Spot the fish
Shortfin Pipefish
Spotted Drum
I cant identify this one. Its about one half to three quarters of an inch big. It moves around a lot but does not leave its cove. I thought it was a juvenile Angel or juvenile of a small oval fish but not of my texts show it.
This trip was for a week from May 7 -14 and was a guys only trip. I met my friends from Ontario, Canada at the airport in Cozumel and who used Delta via Atlanta. I came down from Denver on American Airlines via Dallas. The trip down was uneventful.
We made it to the hotel and unpacked, had a few cold ones and prepared cameras. We stayed at Reef Regency/Sunscapes which was fairly uncrowded compared to February 2014.
Coming back I was hassled by a Customs guy in Dallas who wanted to know if I was a professional photographer (no), asked me for receipts for the camera (at home) and told me I needed to register the camera equipment. We talked for awhile. I told him I was an amateur and it was personal equipment. I cant tell if he was bored or needed entertainment. Guess Ill have to check into bringing receipts or registration. I wanted to tell him I did not have receipts for my underwear either but didnt.
Our flight from Dallas to Denver diverted to Colorado Springs due to what the pilot called weather issues. Odd that the plane next to us on approach (parallel runways) landed and we went around and then diverted. While in Co Springs, the guy next to me who was a small plane pilot, pulled up the arrivals to DIA when we were in the Denver area and afterwards and it showed all kinds of planes landing. I dont think we were on a training flight so I cant explain it. The pilot did announce that someone in seat 24B was not turning off his electronic equipment so we couldnt leave Co Springs until it was off.
The better stuff
We dove with Bottom Time Divers Raul Platas bottomtimedivers.net for the week. We had the three of us at the beginning of the week plus one person we met last year, Chris. We ended the week with a full boat.
The weather was hot with south winds so we had good weather all week. The winds did pick up enough that the more southern sites like Punta Sur were a bit choppy so we dove from the Palancars and north to Cedral pass and Cedral wall. We got a night dive in this trip to Cedral pass. Its been awhile for a night dive due to weather and Op availability. We were not disappointed. I expected a lot of octopus but we only saw 2-3 small ones however we had lots of puffer fish, large Green Morays in the open, several pesky nurse sharks, a couple of turtles, slipper lobsters and lots of sleeping fish. We did get in a day dive at the end of Punta Sur and start of Colombia Deep one day. We mostly dove that one over the top of the pinnacles.
We did see a massive Loggerhead turtle going north in an open stretch of sand a good distance from our group. He was on some sort of mission.
We had good dive times this trip. The currents were very slow at the sites we dove. My shortest dive was 64 min and a couple of 85 min dives were a bonus. Average was 74 min. There were divers that had longer times but they are smurfs. Water temps at depth were consistently 82 degrees
Dive Paradise is the onsite operator for the hotel complex (Secrets/Sunscape) and we were told that they were charging $3 per person per day to use the northern concrete pier. We used the southern wood pier.
This Green Moray had wedged itself upside down in a crack and barely acknowledged me. Raul (who did not see it in situ) said it was pregnancy related.
One of the Green Morays on the night dive out hunting
Green Turtle
Some landscape shots
Longsnout seahorse
This nurse shark stuck around trying to drive itself under ledges looking for food. Every time it did this a fish was inconveniently between me and the shark so no good shots of that.
I have started paying attention to corkscrew anemones for these Pederson Cleaner Shrimp.
Spot the fish
Shortfin Pipefish
Spotted Drum
I cant identify this one. Its about one half to three quarters of an inch big. It moves around a lot but does not leave its cove. I thought it was a juvenile Angel or juvenile of a small oval fish but not of my texts show it.
