Beetlejuice
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As my present for graduating college (UCSC, go slugs!) my mom asked me if i wanted to go on a river rafting trip or somewhere tropical where my boyfriend (Steve) and i could dive. I said diving please, how about Cozumel? So from 6/19-6/24, my parents, 3 brothers and boyfriend and I lived the good life in Cozumel. Steve and i are the only divers of the group and we definitely had the most fun. We stayed at El Cozumeleno, a nice, all-inclusive hotel just north of downtown. The hotel was very nice with great pools and a nice beach. The all-inclusive part made it less stressful, but can lead to over indulgence. My brothers, 25, 22, and 16 did not have the maturity to handle unlimited drinks at no cost to them. I advise any parents with teenagers or immature kids in their early 20s to avoid the all-inclusive experience. Everyone is given a wristband, green for under 18 and tan for 18 and over. We saw way too many teens with wristbands inside out (so they look white) and drunk at 5 in the evening. My brothers never left the hotel and were never sober, they were hungover and late so we missed our ferry to the mainland and our tour on our one non-diving day. Since Steve and i were diving we were able to enjoy the right number of margaritas and the all-inclusive experience. The only other gripe about all-inclusive and our hotel is the food. We ate at the hotel almost every meal, because it was included and already paid for. The food strated all tasting the same after a while and as a vegetarian the options for me were extremely limited. OK, why am i complaining, we had an awesome trip!
We dove through Aqua Safari downtown. We reserved space on the fast boat in advance. We only had 16 dives before our trip, and had never dove in warm water before. Our first day we dove with Chilango as our Captain and Miguel as our Dive Master, they were both excellent. We dove with two other couples that were older and much more experienced with us. We brought our shorties but decided to dive with just rash guard and bathing suit. We first dove Palancar and I spotted a scorpion sish in the sand. I was way underweighted, Steve pulled me down for our descent, but I had a lot of trouble during our safety stop. I sucke air way faster than everyone else, and kicked too much and went too fast. Our second dive was Yucab. Properly weighted i was doing much better. We saw French angelfish, Queen Angelfish, Parrot fish, Lobster, Grunts. It was great. I still went too fast and sucked too much air. compared to everyone else. So it was a cab back to the hotel and sippin Pina coladas in the pool for the rest of that afternoon. Next day get on the boat with Chilango, miguel and the same too couples. Miguel stresses that I need to be a lazy diver, not kick at all, watch my buyoncy control, let the current take me. We went to Santa Rosa wall, it was beautiful! We went through swim throughs, saw a crab, saw a huge Papano. It was great, i was doing better, but Steve and i still had to ascend before everyone else. Second dive we went to Paso de Cedral, my favorite spot of the trip. It's a flat reef with the deepest about 55 ft. The reef is gorgeous so much life, so many fish, we saw lots of lobsters. We went through this awesome series of swimthroughs, in and out through this reef, it was so cool! Miguel alsop showed us a sea horse. This dive I also felt more comfortable with my buyoncy control and air consumption. After we reach our time limit and Miguel signals for us all to ascend, he checks my guage and gives the biggest smile underwater when he sees I have over 1000 psi left, yay! During our safety stop, we see a 4-5 ft nurse shark below us, i was about 30 ft waay from it, but still cool. We decide to do that afternnon dive that day, so we eat lunch in town and walk around until it's time to get back on the bigger boat. The afternnon dives are usually at Paradise Reef, which is a 15 minute boat ride from town. We were with a group of twelve and some people weren't that experienced, I hadn't dove with a group that big before. Miguel was our dive master a gain, yay! We saw an awesome toad fish under a rock. It was neon blue and white striped, looked like an alien. Miguel handed me a water eye and signaled for me to squish it, whn i pressed on it, it popped and I screamed underwater and Miguel laughed. Once again i let the no deco limits and my computer determine my bottom time instead of my air consumption. Back to the hotel for some food, drink, and pool time. We weren't diving the next day so i had my share of Pina coladas and made a fool of myself at Kareoke night. The next morning, missed our tour and our ferry, blah. So my parents, Steve and I rented a car and cruised around the other side of the island we stoipped off at some beaches with gnarly waves. We checked out some ruins, saw lots of lizards. Went back and got some more pool time in. Steve is a volleyball coach/player and was happy that he was able to find some good beach volleyball games to partake in. Next day, last day in cozumel. We still have chilango as our Captain, but now Juaquin is our dive master and we are diving with 5 new other people. There was an inexperienced couple our age and a middle aged couple with a twelve year old son. Since the younger couple had only 6 dives and the 12 year old is only certified to go 60 feet, we went on two shallower dives, which i didn't mind a t all. We went to Delila, which was really pretty, we saw a ray and another nurse shark, it was 4-5 ft again, but this time I was only 15-20 ft away. The rest of our group went way faster than we would have liked, it's a hard thing to learn to not kick and just let the current take you, the current was the strongest at this sight than at any onther site of our trip. Our second dvive was at Tormentos, the current was not as strong and our group was more relaxed. We saw a cool ray, with orange and black spots, it was almost playing with us. We decided to do the afternoon dive again, but this time my dad, who had done a resort course earlier in the trip was going to join us along with an instructor. We went to Paradise Reef again and one group with us was an open water class. We tried to keep up with my dad, but he was going way too fast and when our dive master, Segio pointed out a King CRab, we lost them, which was eventually part of the dive plan. The King CRab was awesome, though, its claws were bigger than my hands. After 8 dives in cozumel, I feel like my air consumption and buoyoncy control has imporoved so much. We had such an awesome time. my dad is thinking of getting certified now. We loved our trip and had a great time. I loved the express entry we did with miguel on our second dives of the day, giant leap off the boat with bc deflated, meet you at the bottom!I would definite;y reccomend Aqua Safari, they were great, we rented from them and dove off the fast boat for very reasonable price. We added on the afternoon dives for only $9 more. Wow, I've written way too much here, anyone who has attempted to read this is probably bored. Well once iu started I just couldn't stop.
We dove through Aqua Safari downtown. We reserved space on the fast boat in advance. We only had 16 dives before our trip, and had never dove in warm water before. Our first day we dove with Chilango as our Captain and Miguel as our Dive Master, they were both excellent. We dove with two other couples that were older and much more experienced with us. We brought our shorties but decided to dive with just rash guard and bathing suit. We first dove Palancar and I spotted a scorpion sish in the sand. I was way underweighted, Steve pulled me down for our descent, but I had a lot of trouble during our safety stop. I sucke air way faster than everyone else, and kicked too much and went too fast. Our second dive was Yucab. Properly weighted i was doing much better. We saw French angelfish, Queen Angelfish, Parrot fish, Lobster, Grunts. It was great. I still went too fast and sucked too much air. compared to everyone else. So it was a cab back to the hotel and sippin Pina coladas in the pool for the rest of that afternoon. Next day get on the boat with Chilango, miguel and the same too couples. Miguel stresses that I need to be a lazy diver, not kick at all, watch my buyoncy control, let the current take me. We went to Santa Rosa wall, it was beautiful! We went through swim throughs, saw a crab, saw a huge Papano. It was great, i was doing better, but Steve and i still had to ascend before everyone else. Second dive we went to Paso de Cedral, my favorite spot of the trip. It's a flat reef with the deepest about 55 ft. The reef is gorgeous so much life, so many fish, we saw lots of lobsters. We went through this awesome series of swimthroughs, in and out through this reef, it was so cool! Miguel alsop showed us a sea horse. This dive I also felt more comfortable with my buyoncy control and air consumption. After we reach our time limit and Miguel signals for us all to ascend, he checks my guage and gives the biggest smile underwater when he sees I have over 1000 psi left, yay! During our safety stop, we see a 4-5 ft nurse shark below us, i was about 30 ft waay from it, but still cool. We decide to do that afternnon dive that day, so we eat lunch in town and walk around until it's time to get back on the bigger boat. The afternnon dives are usually at Paradise Reef, which is a 15 minute boat ride from town. We were with a group of twelve and some people weren't that experienced, I hadn't dove with a group that big before. Miguel was our dive master a gain, yay! We saw an awesome toad fish under a rock. It was neon blue and white striped, looked like an alien. Miguel handed me a water eye and signaled for me to squish it, whn i pressed on it, it popped and I screamed underwater and Miguel laughed. Once again i let the no deco limits and my computer determine my bottom time instead of my air consumption. Back to the hotel for some food, drink, and pool time. We weren't diving the next day so i had my share of Pina coladas and made a fool of myself at Kareoke night. The next morning, missed our tour and our ferry, blah. So my parents, Steve and I rented a car and cruised around the other side of the island we stoipped off at some beaches with gnarly waves. We checked out some ruins, saw lots of lizards. Went back and got some more pool time in. Steve is a volleyball coach/player and was happy that he was able to find some good beach volleyball games to partake in. Next day, last day in cozumel. We still have chilango as our Captain, but now Juaquin is our dive master and we are diving with 5 new other people. There was an inexperienced couple our age and a middle aged couple with a twelve year old son. Since the younger couple had only 6 dives and the 12 year old is only certified to go 60 feet, we went on two shallower dives, which i didn't mind a t all. We went to Delila, which was really pretty, we saw a ray and another nurse shark, it was 4-5 ft again, but this time I was only 15-20 ft away. The rest of our group went way faster than we would have liked, it's a hard thing to learn to not kick and just let the current take you, the current was the strongest at this sight than at any onther site of our trip. Our second dvive was at Tormentos, the current was not as strong and our group was more relaxed. We saw a cool ray, with orange and black spots, it was almost playing with us. We decided to do the afternoon dive again, but this time my dad, who had done a resort course earlier in the trip was going to join us along with an instructor. We went to Paradise Reef again and one group with us was an open water class. We tried to keep up with my dad, but he was going way too fast and when our dive master, Segio pointed out a King CRab, we lost them, which was eventually part of the dive plan. The King CRab was awesome, though, its claws were bigger than my hands. After 8 dives in cozumel, I feel like my air consumption and buoyoncy control has imporoved so much. We had such an awesome time. my dad is thinking of getting certified now. We loved our trip and had a great time. I loved the express entry we did with miguel on our second dives of the day, giant leap off the boat with bc deflated, meet you at the bottom!I would definite;y reccomend Aqua Safari, they were great, we rented from them and dove off the fast boat for very reasonable price. We added on the afternoon dives for only $9 more. Wow, I've written way too much here, anyone who has attempted to read this is probably bored. Well once iu started I just couldn't stop.
