Cozumel update please

[cowjazz]

I was in Cozumel last weekend. We did two dives (Santa Rosa Wall and Paradise Reef). My wife and I enjoyed the diving so much we plan to go back this Summer.

We had some friends go to Cozumel last March, and they said the diving was terrible. My wife and have concluded they are insane.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I got three days of diving before Wilma hit. (The Casa Del Mar was FANTASTIC in the way that they took care of us!!) I went back last April, and the wall dives were fine. A lot of the barrel sponges and soft corals were missing, which was sad to see, but the abundant sea life MORE than made up for it! Ditto for the shallower gardens, and yes, there is a lot of sand on some of them like Tormentos, but still, the marine life was just incredible, and the reefs ARE recovering. Cozumel is about so much more than JUST the diving! The diving is STILL the best I've ever seen, but the people, the dive masters, the boat crews, the night life... Everything about Cozumel is just fantastic.

Call a WHAAAAmbulance for the little crybaby, give him his money back, and let someone else go in his slot!!

 

[nyprrthd]

Cozumel was completely destroyed, and everyone has been permanently evacuated. The fish have all left for Bonaire. The reefs were reduced to rubble. You've been scammed, and you are all going to lose your money.

But seriously now.... Cozumel is still a fantastic place to dive, and one of my personal favorites. If you expend the energy to look beyond what the "tourists" do, it's one of my favorite places to spend those all too long surface intervals between 2 PM and 8 AM (excluding the incredible night dives). Just remember, there are people who are not happy, unless they're unhappy. It's a sad part of being in a service industry. Check the board for the endless debates and reports on the conditions post-Wilma. As for me, I'm hoping to go back again this June.

 

[DandyDon]

...it's one of my favorite places to spend those all too long surface intervals between 2 PM and 8 AM...

I'm more of eat sleep dive, I suppose. We did 2 - 2 tanks trips on Saturday, 1 trip on Sunday with a nap followed by a shore dive, an all day trip to the Cenotes on Monday, etc...

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Every April, Fish_Whisperer is in Coz. It's like gravity, inertia, or the changing of the tides. It just IS. :mooner:

 

[nyprrthd]

Every April, Fish_Whisperer is in Coz. It's like gravity, inertia, or the changing of the tides. It just IS. :mooner:

Frank - you are my hero!

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

 

[DandyDon]

Every April, Fish_Whisperer is in Coz. It's like gravity, inertia, or the changing of the tides. It just IS. :mooner:

Glad you learned not to go in hurricane season - at least not when NOAA is updating warnings for the area. April is a great month, but I couldn't wait this year. Went early.

You gonna update your dive info...?

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Yeah... I probably should update it. I've been knocking out specialties:

Rescue Diver, Dry Suit, Underwater Lift Bag Operations, Search & Recovery, and Nitrox.

Now, along with quitting smoking and having a better SAC rate, I'm on my way to becoming more proficient at this weird "breathing underwater" thing.

 

[MMM]

Just back from my second trip since Wilma. Did about 6-8 trips before that. ggunn has it right. I did my first shore dive this trip since Wilma (in front of Caribe Blu, at night) and nearly wept as I compared it to what it was like before. But the spots far south (Palancar, Columbia, Maracaibo Shallows aka Chunchakaab) and further north of town are in pretty good shape; make sure the op you are using will take you there w/o extra charges and/or complaints.

I was pleasantly surprised at the improvement to Santa Rosa since my last trip. La Francesca, Delilah, Tormentos, Las Palmas, Cedral and Tunich all produced delights on different days (free-swimming eels out hunting, spotted eagle rays, turtles, sharks, a seahorse, and all the other usual critters). As I was down for a month, I did many of these sites a few times. I did Paradise on a night dive which was great (red eye sponge crabs, freeswimming file clams, slipper and spanish lobsters, sharptail eel) - I don't think it would be a great daytime dive. As others have said, one of the great things about Coz is the people and the lifestyle. But I think that's hard to really get to enjoy/understand if you are in a group and staying at one of the bigger hotels. You really need to be an independent traveller staying in town and Mom and Pop places to really appreciate that.

I think a number of comments about cutting this person loose are well taken. Just how much energy do you want to put into keeping this luser happy during the trip?