Cozumel what to expect now

[cvchief]

I wouldn't say its that bad at all.

We were last there last month for like 4 dives and from this list:

No nurse sharks
We saw a green moray out in the open upside down appearing to be a little distressed. I hope it was just indigestion or constipation or something.....

Saw the usual ton of spotted morays and golden tail morays.

I saw a lot of squirrel fish and big eyes.

Yes, the SCTLD has murdered the large brain corals and such. Some of the smaller ones got by or where saved by the treatment. I think you can enjoy great diving if you don't look carefully at the coral. if you do, you will in fact cry a little....

 

[Talon17]

I was expecting the reefs to be damaged, but I was hoping marine life would be decent with the lack of tourists and cruise ships. Someone mentioned the ferry to playa is a crapshow. I need to hit cancun one day. Are they running fewer ferries or are they being slowed down by covid restrictions? And back to an original point, anyone do the bullsharks in playa recently? Someone told me a while back that some of the sharks had been fished out and I was sad. Last time I did that dive with Phantom divers there were maybe 20 sharks

 

[Catito]

Hello all. I'm thinking about going to coz this Dec. Anything new on covid restrictions or any reef closings due to that white coral deal? Anyone been there lately? Just looking for things to know that are good and bad these days. Also, is the bullshark dive still a thing in playa d? I was there during the pandemic and it was quite sad seeing all of the shops closed and people desperate for the tourist money to come back. Are the shops doing ok and are things open? Thanks bunches

We were in Playa in August and dove PDC, the cenotes, and Cozumel. Everything was great. No stink. Nice coral and fish, great cenotes diving with CenotEXperience.

 

[Catito]

Thanks for all the info guys. So how does the test work to leave coz and go back to the us? Within three days you stop by a hospital and get swabbed? How long does it take, do you need an appt and how much does it cost? And how quick are the results? My gf last time needed a prescription filled and I thought that hospital downtown was pretty decen

 

[cvchief]

One, it ain't changing anytime soon, I bet. What are you putting up DD? Margarita, something?

My last 3 or 4 were at International. You can make an appointment. 8 am to 7 pm walk ins. Bei Facebook anmelden I just called and said I was coming in after diving and they said come on in. Went in the front, paid and let them make copies of my passport. They want the passport to MAKE SURE they match your name correctly on the test.

Took us around the corner to the test lady. She gently swabbed the one nostril. Its a little deep but not bad. And we were on our way. There were 4 of us and it took like 20-30 minutes tops.

That was around 3ish. Had the results in my email by 7 pm. Then you just need to be able let the check person at the airport check it on your phone.

There is also a health check for to leave at https://www.vuelaseguro.com/ Just do that, download the complete QR code and have it on your phone to show the security person before the xray and baggage scan. You can set up and account add everyone on the flight. Easy peasy.

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@Catito This is kinda how international works. it is one of the hospitals downtown.

The ferries due COVID.... ah, BS... They are greedy. Now each of the two companies works one day and they have 2 hour gaps in the schedule and they are packing more people on board each one. That being said we 'ferried' twice last month. Other than the 2 hour gap we spent eating and drinking at Sr. Frogs it wasn't horrible. But it was mid day. I hear morning and evenings are worse.

 

[ggunn]

Thanks for all the info guys. So how does the test work to leave coz and go back to the us? Within three days you stop by a hospital and get swabbed? How long does it take, do you need an appt and how much does it cost? And how quick are the results? My gf last time needed a prescription filled and I thought that hospital downtown was pretty decen

There are many ways to get this done; I'd be willing to bet that your hotel front desk can set it up for you. Ours did when we were there in April-May. The service came to the hotel and swabbed us and they emailed our results to the hotel. The hotel printed them and had them ready for us the next day when we came in from our morning dives. Easy peasy. The total cost was ~US$30 each and 5 minutes of vacation time.

 

[sefuchs]

I’m on my way back from Cozumel. Only spent 4 days of diving there, but I was saddened by loss of sea life. Sea fans are gone. Only saw one nurse shark. No green morays. 2 spotted morays. The only squirrel fish I saw were some juveniles at the dock, none on the reef. No large brain corals left, though I saw what I think may have been little ones trying to get started. No nudibranches. Dramatic decrease in total number of fish compared to a few years ago.

Wut?!?
We’ve been here 2.5 weeks and have been seeing lots of nurse sharks virtually every dive (on the flatter dives) and tons of juvenile fish. Reefs look healthy to me. We have also saw reef sharks on several dives out on Cedral and Carnbones (sp?), a group of 7-8 juveniles and a couple larger guys. I have only seen a couple Moray eels though, lots of smaller (mostly Sharptail?) eels. Overall I’d say wildlife and coral has improved over the last couple years.

 

[ggunn]

Wut?!?
We’ve been here 2.5 weeks and have been seeing lots of nurse sharks virtually every dive (on the flatter dives) and tons of juvenile fish. Reefs look healthy to me. We have also saw reef sharks on several dives out on Cedral and Carnbones (sp?), a group of 7-8 juveniles and a couple larger guys. I have only seen a couple Moray eels though, lots of smaller (mostly Sharptail?) eels. Overall I’d say wildlife and coral has improved over the last couple years.

One person's paradise is another's disaster area.

 

[Catito]

There are many ways to get this done; I'd be willing to bet that your hotel front desk can set it up for you. Ours did when we were there in April-May. The service came to the hotel and swabbed us and they emailed our results to the hotel. The hotel printed them and had them ready for us the next day when we came in from our morning dives. Easy peasy. The total cost was ~US$30 each and 5 minutes of vacation time.

Responding to @Catito when I did not write the question…I was trying to respond to the original question, started to respond in the wrong place…then could not edit. Not yet used to the new format.

We were in PDC and the place we stayed arranged for a Dr to give us a test on site.

 

[sefuchs]

Wut?!?
We’ve been here 2.5 weeks and have been seeing lots of nurse sharks virtually every dive (on the flatter dives) and tons of juvenile fish. Reefs look healthy to me. We have also saw reef sharks on several dives out on Cedral and Carnbones (sp?), a group of 7-8 juveniles and a couple larger guys. I have only seen a couple Moray eels though, lots of smaller (mostly Sharptail?) eels. Overall I’d say wildlife and coral has improved over the last couple years.

One person's paradise is another's disaster area.

I was thinking about my response to jomcclaim and looked back at my wife’s dive logs (I don't really log much) and she made the same comment about lack of bigger stuff on the first couple days but then everything changed. We dove the same sites several times and for whatever reason the bigger stuff came out in abundance. Along with the abundance of juveniles we have seen quite a few grouper which we haven’t seen many of the last couple years. You just never know from day to day what the reefs will be like.